How can we use all our resources and how can we turn them into an activity? Many times, designing an outdoor game is all about looking around and identifying various elements from nature that can support us in training certain behaviors or qualities.
Duration:
it depends on the number of people you have in the group; you can definitely count 15 minutes for 3 people.
Preferred location:
the forest or a natural area rich in elements that you can pick up (branches, fruits, leaves, stones, etc.).
Working method:
teamwork, land art.
Materials:
natural materials (branches, stones, leaves, pine cones…).
Purpose:
the aim is to improve team cohesion by working on individual leadership qualities. Understanding what leadership means for each person and how is that related to a group of people, in a certain context.
Instructions
after creating groups of minimum 3 people, the facilitator gives a word for each group that they need to represent in form of land art (in form of a creation using natural materials found in their surroundings). Each group will have a stopwatch and approximately 3 minutes in order to prepare the artwork (of course, in case you have more than 3 people in the groups, you can give a little bit of extra time). As soon as the time is up, the group can decide who is the person who took the most initiative in the group during this phase, whom they could consider as their leader – the appointed person will not be allowed to speak in the upcoming rounds. Then you repeat this round until you give a chance for everyone in the group to experience the role of a leader. In each round, you give new words that they can represent.
By the end, everyone had the chance to become the leader and except the last person, everyone has been mute for a while.
Debriefing
in order to reflect on the activity, you can have a discussion with them, or in any other form, you can make them think and talk about the following questions:
- was the group able to communicate?
- were the artworks suitable for everyone?
- did everyone get a saying during the preparation of these artworks; if not, what stopped them?
- was each leader comfortable with the role; how did it make them feel?
- which qualities were important as a leader on a personal level and on a group level?
- which qualities do the participants already possess and which ones they would still like to work on?
- how, in which form would they like to work on these qualities in the upcoming days, or weeks (this question can be important in order to create a transfer, to make sure that the activity has an impact later on as well and that the participants can use whatever they have learned in their everyday lives)?
- how could you practice leadership in your everyday life, in your surroundings?
- come up with an action plan in order to further develop the qualities that you would like to!
Possible alternatives
depending on the group, the facilitator can introduce more challenges, such as saying two words at the same time and asking the group to decide which one to represent in form of artwork – this will create more opportunities for teamwork and will reinforce the role of the leader.