Search and Rescue

Team Building Activity

Participants: 6 – 24
Location: Inside and Outside, Inside with lots of room.
DIY Team Center Access:  Videos, photos, tips and tricks and more for this activity
Activity Level: Medium
Time Needed: 15 to 20 Minutes plus debrief – 45 to 60 minutes total
Objectives: Communication, Teamwork
Materials Included:  custom wood plane with pilot, landing pads, ropes to guide the plane and rope for course area
 
The art of cooperation is something we are taught as children. For some reason, many of us forget that lesson when we enter the front door of work. This exercise is designed to let participants experience how fun cooperation and teamwork can be.
 
A glimpse into Search & Rescue:
The goal of the exercise is to have the entire team involved in achieving the goal to demonstrate the power of teamwork and show the interdependence teams have. 
The group must land the plane several times inside the course using ropes they hold while the participants remain outside the course.  Every tug or movement of the rope from one person directly affects everyone else and can crash the plane.
You may use many variations of this activity to achieve different outcomes, depending upon your desired outcomes.  Dramatic time challenges, difficult goal setting and limiting participant are all great and easy ways to change the activity to suit what you want in the debrief.
This is best outside, but can be run very well indoors with some room.
Who should go for this team building game?
If you want your group to experience true teamwork through interdependence, then Search & Rescue is worthy of serious consideration.
As with many of our exercises, the exercise simply cannot be accomplished without the effort of every person on the team or group. The same is true at work, although we all want to think we can do everything ourselves. We must depend upon other people to take care of certain tasks, sometimes incredibly important tasks. However, we often don’t try to work as a team unless we have to. This exercise lets participants experience what can be done as a team and how much fun it can be when you achieve goals together.

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What will the group learn from Search & Rescue?
Communication
With the group in a circle, simple communication becomes unclear.  Right and left, for example, are simple vocabulary mistakes that get mixed up with negative consequences.  While we can accept simple mistakes like this in a ‘silly’ team building activity, back at work, tempers flare quickly.  This is one small example of how the communication in the activity directly relates to ‘real life’ situations and can be part of a rich conversation and debrief after the activity is over.
Teamwork
Each person’s actions directly influence everyone else.  This is how a true team operates but we often forget this, or ignore the fact, in ‘real life’ because it is inconvenient.  Or, and more likely, a person feels they can do something better than everyone else - the ‘genius’ or ‘superstar’ challenge on teams.  Groups become teams when they learn true teamwork.
This is a fun activity that your group will not forget and relates easily back to work.
What do I get with Search & Rescue?
The team building activity comes in an easy-to-use storage bag and will include the following:
  • Comprehensive information on purpose of the game, how to set it up, the storyline and the safety measures necessary during the course of the exercise.
  • Instructions on how to debrief the exercise and questions that you should ask the participants.
  • Professional materials and props necessary to conduct the exercise.  I this case, a custom wood plane with pilot, landing pads, ropes to guide the plane and rope for course area
It includes everything you need to provide a good quality, well thought out and meaningful team building experience for your organization.
DIY Team Center Access
Videos, photos, current tips and up-to-date activity usage is included on the activity page on our DIYTeamCenter.com website.  After purchase, you will be emailed a login and password with a membership for the activities you have purchased.  We couldn’t give you any more unless we were there in person to help you run it!
With each team building purchase, you also receive:
  • 100% Happiness Guarantee, forever
  • Unlimited Support Monday through Friday from a Professional Facilitator.
  • Two-Year No-Hassle Replacement Warranty
 

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