Group Juggling
Group Juggling is a medium-energy team building activity for groups of 8–30 people.
What it is
If inter-departmental communication and processes are your office bugbear, then opt for Group Juggling and you will soon witness all round improvements back at the work place. Group Juggling is an icebreaker that is 100% fun and heightens communication within teams. Group synergy is at the core of this game and it provides the foundation for participants to learn to work together and to act as a team.
What happens
The Group Juggling kit has several objects that participants pass around. The game is meant to cue office situations where juggling too many projects or tasks can lead to goof ups.
A rubber chicken included in each kit will fascinate the participants since it is a difficult object to throw around. It should remain hidden till the last and usually elicits a surprise reaction among participants. When the chicken (new object/ alias new project) finally gets thrown around, the group will react in unexpected ways and really start having a good time with lots of amusement and shared laughter all around.
Who it's for
If you want to lay stress on the value of efficient communication to groups that depend on each other in any kind of office process, then Group Juggling is the perfect answer. It will have a positive effect on inter-departmental workflow irrespective of whether your company is in manufacturing or services.
What the group learns
from Group Juggling?
Evolving good processes and systems in the work place for better productivity.
Importance of a team discussions and planning.
Everyone in the team buying into that plan and executing it in tandem.
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.
What do I get with the Group Juggling activity?
What to watch for
- to Watch For: Does the group only try to get faster, or do they stop to plan a little before beginning again?
- Does a leader emerge and is there space within the group plan for a leader?
- Which objects were easiest to catch?
- Which items were dropped most often?
Variations
- Have the participants say their name as they receive the object.
- Have the participants say the name of the person they are passing the object to.
- After establishing a pattern, reverse the order and see how it affects the process.
- Continue to reverse the order of passing by yelling 'Switch!' during the middle of throwing and see how often the group can switch and still control the objects.
- If you want to slow down the speed of the activity, use one or two beach balls.
- Instead of throwing the objects, try bouncing them to the next person instead (Of course the objects you use must bounce!) Substitute small water balloons on a hot summer day, outdoors.