Team Building Exercise: Creating the Longest Looped Paper Chain with a Twist (Full Transcript)

Speaker 1: Okay, so now, if you remember back in the first module, we did the paper chain. Okay? Well, we're going to give you all another chance to make the longest looped paper chain, but with a twist. So I'd like each group to please, um, assign a leader. Okay, and Kelly, okay, the two of you will come out in the hall with me for a moment, please.

Speaker 2: I feel like I'm in the principal's office.

Speaker 1: Oh, not at all. Okay, so your esteemed leadership has the rules. The goal is the same, the longest looped paper chain. So I'm going to give you 30 seconds to meet with your leader. Okay, and you can discuss, but after that, there is no talking. All right, so go ahead and begin your 30 seconds.

Speaker 2: It's pretty simple. Once we get through this, there will be no talking. You can only use your dominant hand, so I think we'll have to work in teams. Like, maybe the two of you could cut the paper using two hands. I guess you have two hands. We'll put the, like we were doing before, the loops together, and we'll use our two hands. So, I think if you cut all the papers at one time, just cut them. Yeah, so are you both right-handed or left-handed? Okay, does that work?

Speaker 1: Yes. Okay, and stop. Now begin. No talking.

Speaker 2: I can use my hand at any time.

Speaker 1: No talking. You can laugh. There's no talking. No whispering, either.

Speaker 3: And you have one minute. Oh.

Speaker 1: 30 seconds. No talking. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, and stop. All right, let's hold them up here. Gentle.

Speaker 4: Oh, yay. Oh, it's the longest it's ever been. Nice, big loops. Big loops.

Speaker 1: All right, so, what helped you make the longest chain?

Speaker 5: I think teamwork.

Speaker 1: Teamwork? What specifically about the teamwork? What did you do differently this time?

Speaker 5: Well, we cut the paper more efficiently. Okay. I think that's the biggest thing.

Speaker 2: We all had our assigned roles. Yeah. And then toward the end, we shared more of the responsibility, but we knew going into it exactly what everybody would be doing.

Speaker 1: Okay. Did that make you more comfortable, knowing what was expected and who was going to do what and who you could rely on, right? That way, and that helping one another, that's a good point, mutual support, having that situational awareness to see, hey, I'm done with this, so you can help.

Speaker 2: That made the difference at the end is the fact that we all jumped in and got the last few loops there.

Speaker 1: Right, because you knew you didn't have to cut any more paper. Right. That was done. Awesome. So, what were some of the limitations? What made it difficult to work as a team?

Speaker 2: No talking.

Speaker 1: No talking? I got communication. One hand is tough.

Speaker 2: Right. It's hard not to use your other hand, too.

Speaker 1: Again, your resources. But sometimes you made a much longer chain without talking than you did when you could talk. So sometimes too much talking or confusion gets in the way, and that has an outcome barrier, right? Okay. Any other barriers, difficulties?

Speaker 4: Well, we weren't able to troubleshoot. The communication, we weren't able to troubleshoot when we realized that we had cut all the pieces and then just needed to do one task, and we hadn't quite thought that all the way through.

Speaker 1: Okay. So what about that 30 seconds? What did you discuss during the 30 seconds?

Speaker 2: What are the rules with that?

Speaker 1: The rules? Okay. The rules and the roles. The roles and the rules, right. Okay. But I like the fact that you then got up and saw, hey, let me go over here and do that. Again, that situational awareness, the monitoring of what's going on, and that's what we want you, again, to take back as you go back to the workplace. Okay. Questions? All right. Awesome. Good job. Give yourselves a hand. Way to go. All right. Thank you.