Purpose: To get the team to touch base with each other at the start of the ICT.
Overview: To share new information about each member of the team since the previous ICT, by sharing 2 true items & 1 untrue item, without making the lie too obvious.
Conduct:
Form a circle.
Each person is to think about TWO new things/events that have happened to him since the previous ICT and write these down.
Each person is also to come up with ONE thing or event that did not happen, but is probable (this is the lie).
Each person is to, in turn, share the 2 truths and 1 lie (not necessarily in that order) with the group.
Members of the group will be required to guess which statement is the lie.
Once the group has reached a consensus, the person who is sharing will reveal which statement is the lie (elaborations on any/all the statements is encouraged to help all the men get to know each other better)
Debrief Questions:No debrief necessary, although it might be useful for the commander to take note of pairs or groups who seem to know each other quite well.
Purpose: To get each Section to accomplish a tiring task together, to highlight the importance of using individuals’ strengths at different points.
Overview: To be the first Section to complete x push-ups and y sit-ups.
x = 40 X no. of people in each Section
y = 40 X no. of people in eachSection
Conduct:
Divide the platoon into Sections
Instruct the Sections to complete a combination of push-ups and sit-ups.
Specify the targets for push-ups and sit-ups for each Section.
The (suggested) minimum standard is 25 for push-ups and 25 for sit-ups for each individual.
The time limit is set at 5 minutes.
Every member of the Section begins doing 25 push-ups. Only after the last person has finished his 25th push-up, can everybody switch to begin their 25 sit-ups.
Once the last person has completed the 25 sit-ups, the Section breaks up into 2 groups to complete the remaining push-ups and sit-ups. In each group, there can only be 1 person doing the push-ups or sit-ups at any one time. Other members who are not doing the push-ups or sit-ups can help to count.
The activity stops either when the Section has completed the task or when the time runs out.
Compile the results (timing) of each Section and ascertain which is the winning Section.
Optional: A simple prize for the winning Section may be a motivator to reinforce the achievement of working together as a team.
Debrief Questions:
How hard did each Section push itself?
What actions from members were supportive and helpful?
For individuals who are very good in push-ups and/or sit-ups, how did you feel when you did much more than some others?
For individuals who did the fewest, how did you feel?
Notes:
It is important to maintain high standards of performance (i.e. standard push-ups and sit-ups must be done).
Variations of this activity include adjusting the number of push-ups and sit-ups in view of the age of the men. For example, the minimum standard can be adjusted from 25 to 30 push-ups and sit-ups and/or the total number of push-ups and sit-ups can be adjusted from a factor of 40 to 50 per person (e.g. 40 X number of people in the Section to 50 X number of people in the Section).
The facilitator should try to encourage positive action from the individuals who did the fewest push-ups or sit-ups. For example, those who are physically weaker may resolve to train themselves before ICT so that they do not let the rest of their Section down. It is important for men to push themselves to the best of their abilities. At least minimum competencies must be met.
Relate this activity to the unit’s defence exercises, where different tiring tasks requiring different competencies need to be accomplished within certain time constraints.
Every individual must meet his own personal standard and go beyond that to enable the entire Section to achieve its goal. For example, each individual must dig his own shellscrape before being able to assist in digging alternate shellscrapes required by the platoon.
All individuals need to fulfill certain minimum requirements to achieve predetermined standards set for each Section and the overall Platoon for a given mission or exercise.
Hence, everyone needs to work together in order to achieve the desired outcomes.
The team often pushes itself hard if there is collective agreement and engagement in the task. The motivation of the individual is often not to let the team down. What is helpful is visible team support / encouragement is given to the individual.
Resources: Mahjong paper/newspaper or toggle ropes
Purpose: To strengthen teamwork, with emphasis on coordination & communication.
Overview: To fit the whole team into an ever-diminishing space by supporting each other.
Conduct:
Create a square on the ground using mahjong paper or groundsheets (laid out in a large square) or toggle-ropes (laid out to outline the square). This square should be large enough to accommodate the whole team.
Ask the team to get inside the square, making sure that no one touches the ground outside the square.
Once they’ve done so, tell them to step out and reduce the size of the square (by folding in part of the paper/sheet or shortening some of the toggle-rope boundaries.
Instruct them to try again to fit entirely inside the smaller space.
Continue to set smaller and smaller spaces as challenges to them. Give a time-limit if necessary. You can also make the spaces more odd-shaped as you go along.
Continue playing until an impossible size is reached.
Facilitator’s Note: Beware of using dangerous ways to fit into the space – such as climbing on each other’s shoulders etc. Injuries can easily result.
Debrief Questions:
How has the group adapted and learnt as a result of each new constraint given?
What key learning points can we carry over to this ICT?
Notes:
Metaphor for the challenges a team faces as more stress and constraints are placed on it. The team can either pull together and face it more cohesively or it can become unbalanced, unstable and fall apart. What helps the team is everyone’s willingness to put up with one another, focus on the task at hand and coordinate with one another. Situational awareness is important, knowing when and how to adjust their actions in line with team members’ actions
Resources: Newspaper, toggle rope & masking tape, in an open area
Purpose: To strengthen teamwork, with emphasis on coordination & cooperation.
Overview: To get all members of each team ashore before their ship sinks.
Conduct:
Set–up. Mark out an area that can accommodate the whole group. Use masking tape to demarcate this area in the shape of a ship (Titanic). From where the ship is, demarcate the shoreline (with a stretched out toggle rope). This should be about 10 meters away from the ship. Place the newspapers (folded into half its size and secured with masking tape to give it an appearance of a life boat) in the ship area. Prepare 3 sets of life boats for each group.
Divide the whole group into 3 smaller groups, section level is best even if the numbers are not exactly even. Have the entire group formed in their teams in the ship area.
Create the setting by giving the following instructions:
“You are on board the Titanic, a reputedly unsinkable ship. While travelling across the Atlantic Ocean, you strike an iceberg. The ship is sinking and taking in water. Your job is to launch your lifeboats to get to the shore (demarcated by the toggle rope) as quickly as you can before the ship sinks. It is estimated that you have about 10 minutes before the entire ship sinks. Unfortunately, the builders had assumed that the ship was unsinkable and therefore made provisions for only a few (3) lifeboats. Each lifeboat can take a maximum of 2 persons at any one time (or it will sink and you will lose it) and you have to use them as stepping stones to get from the Titanic to the shore. The sea is very cold and anyone falling into it will suffer from hypothermia. This means, the individual (and the boat included) will be unable to move for 10 seconds. Note the markings within the ship. It indicates the separate compartments of the ship. You can move only within the marked area of your part of the ship and can’t physically cross (i.e. walk from one compartment) to the next.”
4. Try to create some competitive feelings before setting the teams off. Monitor the movements of the team and penalise participants where infringements are made.
5. You may want to declare a winning team when the first team has all its members reach the shore. Alternatively, you may want to end the activity before any team completes the activity. Announce that the Titanic has sunk and ask each team to count their survivors and casualties. Ask the group to decide who they think the winners/losers are. Get some responses and say you will ask this question again at the end of the activity and will give your response. Have everyone back in the ship area, in their respective ship compartment areas.
Debrief Questions:
Which team did the best and why?
What do you think is the best strategy to employ?
Allow groups to brainstorm and discuss possible strategies before offering the “model answer”, which is for all the 3 groups to pool their ‘lifeboats’ together to form a long chain to the shore.
Notes: Activity challenges the team to look beyond the group to work cooperatively with other groups. Sometimes, being put into groups (compartments) creates artificial barriers that affect our instinct for cooperation. The opposite usually happens – i.e. competitive feelings arise. The rules however did not prevent members from communicating and cooperating by pooling resources (lifeboats) together. If all the lifeboats had been placed in a straight line from ship to shore, everyone would have completed the task faster. Our competitive instincts however tend to get the better of us and we tend to think in a competitive mode.
Resources: Tennis-sized balls (or crushed paper), equal to the number of participants
Purpose: To strengthen teamwork, with emphasis on coordination & communication.
Overview: To successfully complete various juggling challenges as a team.
Conduct:
Have the team stand in a circle facing each other. Each member in the team to hold out one hand (their master hand) with the ball in it and the other hand placed at their back.
Tell the team they have three tasks to complete. The challenge for them is to complete them in as short a time as possible. The number of challenges can be adjusted depending on time constraints. Generally, the larger the group, the longer it will take. Give at least 5-10 min for each task.
Task 1: Each member of the team is to simultaneously throw the ball in his hand to the person on his right and catch the ball thrown to him (by the person on his left) with the same hand. Appoint a leader to call out and coordinate the throws. A successful catch is when all members in the team succeed in catching the balls thrown to them in 3 consecutive throws.
Task 2: Similar to Task 1 except in the reversed direction i.e. ball to be thrown to the person on their left. Same standard applies – success is when all members in the team succeed in catching the balls 3 consecutive throws in a row.
Task 3: The throws have to be done in the sequence, “left”, “right” and “left” again.
After each challenge, allow the team time to discuss and coordinate their throws if they have not already done so. Encourage each member to sound out feedback to one another on the throws made to them (too low, too far forward etc) so that they have a better chance of catching them.
Debrief Questions:
What does this activity tell us about teamwork and coordination? What is involved in coordination?
Notes:
The team does well when members are focused on the task at hand and each member does well in their assigned roles i.e. throwing and catching. Communication and feedback is important in ensuring members actions (their throws) are adjusted appropriately to increase their chance of success. Concentration and timing is key in coordination. As members try their best, patience and mutual encouragement is key to spur the team to meet the more difficult challenges and not give up.
Purpose: To learn the Battalion’s values in a fun and active way.
Overview: To create 3-person tableaus illustrating the Battalion’s values, and learn them by playing a pointing game.
Conduct:
Form groups – one for each Battalion value.
Assign one value to each group and instruct them to come up with a 3-man tableau (pronounced as “tae-bloo”) to illustrate what that value means to them. The tableau should be a ‘picture’, with a clear centre person, left person and right person. (e.g. the value ‘Alert’ can feature a centre person standing upright, rifle at the ready, with the left and right persons in high-kneel.) Encourage them to be specific in their choices, so that the value is distinct and immediately recognizable from seeing the tableau.
After 5 to 10 minutes, come together into a large circle and get each group to show and explain their tableau and how it illustrates the chosen value.
Once the tableau is shown, get everyone in the circle to learn it, in threes (i.e. groups of 3 men try to recreate the tableau). Then move on to the demonstration of the next tableau.
Once all tableaus have been learnt, everyone stands in a large circle (random order, no longer in groups) and the pointing game begins.
A designated Pointer points at anyone in the circle and calls out a value – the person pointed at becomes the centre of the matching tableau while his left and right neighbors form the sides of the tableau. Once the tableau is complete and correct, the centre person becomes the Pointer and chooses another person and another value.
The game can proceed with increasing pace to challenge the players to get faster at forming the tableaus. Simple forfeits could be included for men who get the tableaus wrong.
In subsequent sessions, the tableaus should be recapped (especially for newcomers) and then the game can begin.
Debrief Questions:
Did the tableaus depict their respective values well? If so, how? If not, how could they have been better depicted?
Do you see how/why the values are important to the section/platoon/company/battalion, especially in relation to the current ICT? Can you give examples of when the values will be especially important during the ICT?
Notes:
The facilitator should:
Close the session by reiterating the battalion’s values, possibly with the inclusion of a re-cap of the tableaus used for them in the activity.
Emphasize the importance of each of the values and perhaps pre-empt the men as to when they might see it in action in the ICT (e.g. all the men need to be ‘alert’ during the upcoming defence exercise as the success of the exercise depends on every person doing his part even though he may be tired).
Purpose: To learn how important trust is within a team situation.
Overview: To take turns experiencing a situation in which one is required to have complete trust in fellow team-members.
Conduct:
Facilitator divides the participants into pairs or threes, and instructs each group to assign 1 Faller and 1 or 2 Spotters.
The Fallers are blindfolded (blindfolds are recommended, but simply keeping their eyes closed during the exercise is acceptable)
Fallers stand facing away from their Spotter (the second Spotter can stand in front of the Faller.) Fallers should keep their bodies stiff, with feet slightly apart and knees locked; their arms either folded lightly across their chests or held flat against their sides.
Spotters should stand with one leg forward, foot pointing at Faller. The other foot should be perpendicular to the forward foot. Their body weight should rest more on the front leg. Their shoulders should be forward, and their hands up in front of their chests, palms facing the Faller, ready to catch him.
Use the following statements to initiate the fall:
Spotter: “I am ready.”
Faller: “I am falling.”
Spotter: “Fall.”
Upon the cue “Fall”, the Fallers are to relax and let their bodies fall backwards (and forward, if a trio). The Spotter should catch them, using their hands and bodies as cushioning.
After a few “falls”, ask them to exchange places so that everyone has a turn at being a Faller.
Once everyone has experienced being a Faller, gather the whole section for a group Trust Fall.
One appointed Faller stands in the middle of a ring of Spotters. He is blindfolded as before, body manner as before. The Spotters stand in a tight circle, all facing inwards, standing shoulder to shoulder.
An appointed head Spotter checks that the rest are ready and initiates the fall with:
Spotter: “We are ready.”
Faller: “I am falling.”
Spotter: “Fall.”
The Faller falls in any direction, trusting the Spotters to catch him and push him upright. He should continue to fall in different directions as the momentum carries him.
Once he is safely upright, the Faller can remove his blindfold and a new Faller can be chosen.
Try to repeat the group exercise enough times to allow everyone to be the Faller.
NOTE: Facilitators should remind the participants to take this exercise very seriously – otherwise people could get hurt and mutual trust can be damaged.
Debrief Questions:
What does this activity tell us about trust?
What does it takes to build trust?
Notes:
Trust is a two-way thing. Sometimes we play the role of Spotter – responsible for supporting others who trust us; and sometimes we are the Faller – who must learn to trust the people around us. Trust fails when the Spotter is unreliable or the Faller is afraid to give trust.
It is easier to trust people in big situations when the person has shown dependability in smaller situations.
Each successful experience reinforces trust.
Demonstrating competency and care is important in building trust.
Overview: To successfully cross under the rope from one side to another under varying conditions, without touching the rope.
Conduct:
The rope-handlers join 2 toggle-ropes to make a skipping rope. Team members gather on one side of the rope.
Rope handlers swing the skipping-rope in a constant rhythm, away from the participants as it hits the ground. (Note: the other direction is extremely difficult to cross).
The challenge is to get all the members across by going ‘under’ the rope. If at any point, the rope touches any member, the whole team must return to the starting point and attempt to cross again.
The challenges are:
Task 1: Each member to pass through the rope
Task 2: Each member to pass through the rope consecutively without a break in the swing (at each turn of the rope)
Task 3: Group is to pass through the rope as a team in one swing.
Option: For platoon level, two equal sized teams can compete to see which can execute each challenge more quickly. In this case, the rope should be handled by 1 member from each team, for fairness. Best out of three wins.
Debrief Questions:
Which task was the most difficult?
What did the team need to do differently each time? What ingredients are required to enable team effectiveness for each task?
What type of team do we want to be? How should we work as a team?
Notes:
Use a sports metaphor to distinguish between working styles:
Task 1: individual skill (e.g. singles tennis) VS
Task 2: a ‘production line’ where each member’s skill or each small unit value-adds to the process (e.g. Relay races) VS
Task 3: a team activity that requires complete co-ordination (e.g. Soccer)
