Team Building Activity - The Caterpillar

In this team building activity you'll focus on people working together on a common, unexpected and unfamiliar goal. Ask participants to get in a line behind each other with their hands on the shoulders of the person in front to form a caterpillar. Now divide the group into two and ask half of the people to face one direction and the other to face in the other. You'll end up with a caterpillar with two heads and with the two halves of its body facing in opposite directions.

Set up, beforehand, an obstacle course that the group, as a caterpillar, has to navigate. Without telling the group what to do or how to move, instruct them to navigate the obstacle course in any way they see fit. Set a time limit ( it helps to walk through the course beforehand to see how long it takes and then add a minute to that time). Make sure you don't give them any instructions on how they should move, just let them do it any way they want.

During the activity, participants will interact to navigate the obstacle course. When you've called time, have everyone gather together and discuss the following questions:

• What did people do to make things easier?
• What were the challenges that needed to be overcome?
• How did they plan how to get through the obstacle course?
• What worked well in the activity?
• What would they do differently to make things go better?
• What does this all have to do with team building?

The idea is to get people thinking about how they behave when they're in an unexpected situation that disrupts their routine. Team building is often about how people behave when things get tough rather than when everything is going well. Make sure you allow ample time for people to debrief and share their insights on how this activity applies to team building.

Take care,

Guy
Team Building