Noutati
TeamBuildingHilswerk
TRAINING REPORT
Scope of the Team-Building Session
- To engage all participants as well as program lecturers in a meaningful and active team-building opportunity by getting to know each other better; - To give the team an opportunity to have some fun together; - To build bridges amongst participants from Transnistria region and Moldova; - To create a nice and warm atmosphere that would dominate throughout the entire summer school program as well as during the online phase of the program.
II. Conclusions by the training facilitators
The team building session managed to
- To provide the program participants with the opportunity to get to know each other better; - To contribute to the development of the team-spirit among the program participants and program lecturers, regardless of which side of river Nistru they are from; - To inspire a certain level of trust and cooperation amongst the program participants.
III. Training facilitators
The team building session has been facilitated by Veronica Cretu and Nicu Cretu of the ‶CMB” Training Center
IV. Training Details
The group of participants was involved in a number of activities. Each exercise/activity was designed to learn about and stimulate discussion amongst the participants so that they get to know each other. There were a number of experiential exercises applied in order to give participants a chance to manifest themselves, including their imagination, talent, creativity – elements which are important for a long-term collaboration and communication in a team. At the end of each exercise, facilitators lead a discussion on how they felt during that particular exercise, and participants could understand the value of the activities for their communication and interaction. Activities were not conducted/organized just for the sake of being organized: they contain elements and aspects which raise awareness, make participants feel free and opened.
Training Activities:
1. Getting to know each other – the team building session started with having all participants introduce themselves. Participants had to share their name/last name, university/organization they represent and to answer to the following question: What makes you special?
2. Face-to-Face – the purpose of the second activity was to allow participants ‶come close to each other” by sharing more details about each other and even by being able to ask any questions they wanted. Participants were asked to form 2 circles: thus, they would be standing face-to-face. All they had to do at the moderator’s sign was to: shake hands with each other, present their names, last names; ask a question and give each other a hug. This was a very interesting and funny activity and made participants more active and opened to communicate with each other as well as with the program lecturers.
3. ‶Musical chairs” (variation) – the purpose of this activity was to allow participants share their likes and dislikes. And they did it in the following way: Everyone sat on the chair in a circle in the middle of the room. There was only one single person in the middle who did not have a chair. In order to get sited, the person had to say a statement about herself/himself: ‶I like … ‶ or ‶I don’t like … ‶ and the statement should have been something that would be true about as many participants as possible (e.g. I like music/dancing, etc.), then everyone whom it applies should have stood up and sit on a different chair. Thus, the person without the chair could have easily find a free chair. In the end, one participant/another person remains without a chair. And the game continues until about 20 statements are made. The purpose of the game is to have the participants share more details about each other.
4. ‶The Dragon, Geisha and samurai” – This game has been used to create some spirit of competition amongst the participants. Participants had to go 3 different rounds and during each round to act one of the 3 main characters of the game, by imitating a certain sound and move. In the game, the Dragon wins Samurai, Samurai wins the Dragon and Geisha wins Samurai. It was a fun activity which generated much enthusiasm and team spirit amongst the participants.
5. ‶The Horses” game – was another fun activity which followed: participants were asked to make a circle in the middle of the room. Everyone sat on the chair and had to sit very close to the colleagues next to him/her. The moderator explained that for 5 minutes everyone imagines that he/she is a horse and by this everyone should imitate some moves and noise made by the horse. At the moderator’s sign participants had to imitate all together starting from slow moves and increasing to very fast ones. This activity contributed to very good atmosphere and everyone seemed to have enjoyed it a lot.
6. ‶Mined field” activity adapted into ‶Conflict field” activity. This is a popular and engaging game involving communication and trust. The task is very flexible, works for groups of various types and sizes, and can be adapted to youth, adults, corporate, etc. Procedure for this game (as it has been adjusted for the purpose of this team-building):
The middle of the room has been selected and marked with borders.
• "Mines/conflicts" – balls from paper have been distributed within the marked territory; • Participants were divided into 2 groups/teams. • The task of each group was to pass/cross through this mine/conflict field with closed eyes. In case somebody steps on a mine/conflict, needs to sit down (the task failed). • The groups had to decide how they are going to do this. • The most important was that the group which manages to bring more members of the group across the field, wins. The most important part in this activity was the Debriefing part in which the moderators discussed with the participants the results of this activity, how they felt, how they would have done differently, etc.
7. ‶What makes a team successful” – based on the activity 5 participants were divided into several small groups and were asked to identify and make a list of aspects that make a team successful. All their findings and ideas were shared in plenary in a bigger group and have been noted by the facilitators on the flipchart. Here are the main ideas shared by the participants: - Trust; - Clear leadership structure; - Listening to each other; - Good visual memory; - Having a strategy/plan; - Learning from the already existent experience/s; - Having good capacity to react to different situations; - Getting clear tasks or clarifying the tasks; - Be multilingual; - Risk taking; - Supporting each other; - Having clear rules; - Be innovative; - Have common goals and objectives/vision
8. ‶Stepping stones” – was another activity which followed after participants managed to discuss and share the most important elements they believed make a team successful. In order to prove that these elements are important and that they count, participants were invited to play another exciting game. Participants had to imagine that they have to cross a river, in order to get to the other side of the river. There is no bridge, only the stepping stones, leading to the other side of the river, and besides, the river is full of crocodiles. Only one person at a time was allowed to stand on the stone.
Note: participants had to be careful as in case there was nobody to step on any of the stepping stones, the stone would sink. The task for the entire group was to have all the participants «arrive safely» on the other side of the river. For this the group needed to communicate efficiently and cooperate in order to find the right solution for the proposed problem/task.
Participants started the game by discussing the strategy for how to cross the river so that everyone is on board. After the first try, the participants started to discuss together and plan how to cross the «river» so that everyone reaches the other side of the river safely. The second try was also quite successful (with some minor challenges). And the 3rd time the participants managed to fulfill the task.
The game was then discussed with the participants, so that they understand through what kind of processes the team should go in to order to accomplish a certain task.
9. ‶No Talk” - has been another interesting task that the group of participants had to complete. They had to arrange themselves as a group in a line according to their birthdays but without speaking, using only the body language. This activity helped participants learn more about each other, and as a result some participants became closer to each other given that they were born the same day or the same month.
10. ‶Representation of the Summer School” - given the fact that participants had to work together during the coming week (face-to-face) and online during several months, they had to start building their vision of how or what is this Summer School like. Participants were divided into 6 smaller groups/teams and each team had to prepare a presentation ‶ Summer School represented via…”:
Group 1 – Sculpture (wooden bricks) Group 2 – Sculptures (bodies) Group 3 – A song/anthem Group 4 – Dance Group 5 – Logo and Motto Group 6 – Declaration
Each group managed to come up with great/excellent and innovative presentations and all the presentations were very much fun.
11. ‶Little elves” – the training session on team-building ended with a nice and funny Polish game called ‶little elves” – everyone has to imitate certain moves and words, and all participants need to do these moves at the same time. The key words of the game are: ‶Lokchi dobita, atim-tuta, Kolenki iakichi, atim-tuta, Bjuh napshodu, atim-tuta, Broda na bjuh, atim-tuta, Yezi na broad, atim-tuta”
