Team Building Games

[scouter659]

I work with 2 other leaders in our Troop & established a Junior Leader Training course that we're very proud of. I'm always looking for new and innovative "Team Building" excersises that we can do in our classes. I have all of the Wood's Wisdom and stuff from USSCOUTS.ORG but if anyone happens to know of a site with more of this stuff, kindly let me know. There are many companies out there who specialize in "Team Building" but the websites are more of a commercial nature. Always looking for a site with descriptions of actual games etc. THANKS 7 GOOD SCOUTING, ALL!

[OldGreyEagle]

One good game is the toxic swamp. Tell them they have to cross a swamp of toxic ooze using three buckets and two planks. They all get on one plank supported by two upside down buckets and have to pass the free bucket and plank while they balance. Interesting to watch and see how they figure out a system. Gie them a course that makes them pass the plank at least 3 times

 

Another is to have at least two teams compete in a strecher race. They have to make the stretcher and transport a team member from poitn a to b. make it interesting by stopping the race at intervals and have them switch the "patient" so everybody rides

 

Be sure to pick the teams yourself. Kids will gravitate to their own friends, make them work with kids other than the ones they usually group to.

 

Keep score on a per scout basis and make the reward like not cooking or cleaning up during the camp out. Change teams frequently, but make the kids want to win for the

the personnel rewards.

[emb021]

There are several good sites/books for good team building games. Many of these are the source for stuff in COPE etc.

 

http://www.pa.org/ (Project Adventure)

http://www.high5adventure.org/

http://www.adventurehardware.com

 

Books:

Silver Bullets

Quicksilver

ANYTHING by Karl Rohnke

books by Sam Sikes

 

(check out the bookstores at the above sites for many of these)

 

 

[highcountry]

http://www.wilderdom.com/games/InitiativeGames.html

This is a favorite bookmarkj when we need patrol team building games. Many of the BSA directed ones have a high percentage of games that are more appropriate for cubs. Scouts get bored and complain fast when you try to get them going on games below theri age level. Lots of good ones on the link I provided.

[boomerscout]

GreyEagle's post made me think some of the team games from the TV show Survivor may be appropriate

[shortridge]

If your local council has a COPE course, ask about the Meatgrinder and low wall (usually about 10 feet high). Those will build teamwork in no time. And there's the trust fall and trust lean activities, of course. Not really games, per se, but they'll definitely get Scouts rarin' to go.

 

[Eagle732]

highcountry,

Just went to the wilderom.com site, what a great resource! Thanks!

[Kudu]

I'm always looking for new and innovative "Team Building" exercises that we can do in our classes.

 

The newest wave of "Team Building" exercises are designed to take advantage of the fresh starts provided to leadership experts by all the recent multi-billion-dollar corporate bailouts.

 

These highly innovative "games" test the leadership skills of business managers immediately upon their return from training. The fresh new idea here is that managers learn the most from Team Building exercises when the games include their own corporate work groups: the workers whom they will actually be managing!

 

The following site has carefully removed all the commercial jargon from these corporate exercises and substituted Boy Scout "Wide Game" terminology in its place.

 

These "Wide Games" provide the latest real-world corporate tests of your Patrol Leaders' scary new leadership skills, but to be most effective a "Wide Game Campout" should be arranged less than a month after they return from training:

 

http://inquiry.net/outdoor/games/wide/index.htm

 

For an additional new twist, try some of these innovative "night management" exercises, designed to integrate what is now known about Circadian brain rhythms with the need for maximum efficiency in corporations that run 24 hours a day in the new global market:

 

http://inquiry.net/outdoor/night/index.htm

 

Kudu