Participants: 8 – 15 per item is bestteam building activity on Amazon
Location: Indoor and outdoor
DIY Team Center Access: Videos, photos, tips/tricks and more for this activity
Activity Level: Medium
Time Needed: 15 to 20 Minutes plus debrief – 45 to 60 minutes total
Objectives: Problem Solving, Icebreaker, Trust, Communication, Leadership, Perspective
Materials Included: 15 foot, 4 inch wide strip of fabric
If you want your group to start interacting and enjoying themselves from the word go, then Chain of Command is a good bet.
Chain of Command is a game that fosters problem-solving skills. The emphasis is on facing challenges as a team through trust, communication and co-operation. Leadership must be shared in order for the group to accomplish the task which creates rich discussion during the debrief.
A glimpse into Chain of Command:
The game has a line-up pattern and therefore the name Chain of Command. Participants line up, front to back, and re-order themselves according to the what the facilitator says. The facilitator can give a strict deadline which will simulate a fair amount of “real life” stress among the participants.
This is a game that has a lot of fun in store for the facilitator too. You can create even more challenges and raise the bar of fun quotient, by making the going extremely tough for capable teams. But at the same time you can be benevolent and simplify the task for a troubled team that may be stuck and not having any fun at all!
Who should go for this game?
One of our favorite icebreakers because it is fast, simple, fun and the learning can be as little or deep as you want.
If you are looking for a learning team building activity that involves thinking through a problem and solving it as a team, then choose Chain of Command. The game is based on team dynamics in tacking problems. In order to do that all the other ’soft skills’ must be working – communication, trust, (changing) leadership and teamwork.
What will the group learn from Chain of Command?
- Delivering an optimum solution within a tight deadline.
- To think creatively, on their feet, under pressure.
- That a good working relationship, good communication and trust within a team can go a long way in efficiently handling business situations.
The insight gained from the activity usually gets articulated by the participants in the conversation initiated by the facilitator after the exercise. It is critical to have this dialogue with the group because the thoughts vocalized after a team building exercise will ultimately drive home what the exercise sought to accomplish in the first place.
Problem Solving
The group must solve a series of increasingly challenging problems while not being able to look at one another, remember they are facing front to back. The setup creates a structural challenge (great to talk about during debrief, by the way) and you, as the facilitator, can make it more or less difficult. The problems are adaptable to your group and many suggestions are given.
Icebreaker
Use this activity as both an icebreaker and get additional benefits along with it – trust, communication, etc. Due to the nature of the activity, people will learn factoids about the others they did no previously know. This helps create conversation later by providing them with topics to ‘break the ice’.
Trust
You control the level of physical closeness during the activity. However, letting someone inside your personal space requires a level of trust. People will abandon all personal space in order to ‘win’ during the activity. If they are willing to give someone trust so quickly during a ‘silly’ game, why are we so protective and unwilling to trust when it comes to something like sharing ideas? (A GREAT debrief question, by the way!) This activity will help the participants experience this trust and give them a metaphor to us in discussion later.
Communication
Communication is extremely challenging here as everyone is facing the back of someone else. This means that the person in the very front (only person NOT facing someone’s back) would find it extremely difficult to speak with the person in the very back. This is a very real structural challenge built into the activity that can be used during the debrief and create amazing discussion.
Leadership
The person who MOST wants to lead will go to the front of the line of people. However, when you begin the activity, this person is completely unable to lead at all. The person who LEAST wants to lead goes to the back of the line and is actually the very best leader at that moment because they are the only person who can see the ‘big picture’. Leadership will shift and change during the activity as people move up and down the line. Leadership MUST be shared as there is really very little other choice.
Perspective
As people move up and down the line, their perspective naturally changes. At the very front, they can see none of the challenges the group faces. At the back, they can see ALL of the challenges and what needs to happen. This shifting perspective is 100% ‘real life’. This activity shows how valuable it is to ask for other’s perspectives and get additional input, even DURING a project or initiative. We don’t like to stop progress and GASP, have a meeting, about progress but this activity shows how valuable, maybe even critical, that time in a meeting can be.
With all of the ‘real world’ applications, you can see this very simple, ‘silly’ icebreaker of an activity is actually completely awesome. When you purchase this, you are getting instructions from us after running this activity with tens of thousands of participants. Pretty inexpensive for that much expertise.
What comes with Chain of Command:
- The kit 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.
- Debrief instructions from the exercise and questions that you should ask the participants.
- Professional materials and props necessary to conduct the exercise. In this case, a 15 foot, 4 inch wide strip of fabric.
- It includes everything you need to provide a good quality, well thought out and meaningful team building experience for your company.
- 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
And what’s more, you are also entitled to 100% Lifetime Money Back Satisfaction Guarantee.