Description
A very simple exercise to set up, Don’t Touch Me! will challenge the team to think outside the box and challenge the actual and implied rules. If you want your group to discover the value of creativity and imposing their own limitations in the form of implied rules, this is a great game to use.
Warning: this team building challenge can lead to a major paradigm shift. Once a team discovers the self-imposed rules they will begin to see the solutions.
Participants: 8 – 40
Location: Anywhere
Activity Level: Medium
Time Needed: 15 to 20 Minutes plus debrief – 45 to 60 minutes total
Objectives: Problem Solving, Critical Thinking, Communication
A glimpse of Don’t Touch Me:
The group gathers in a circle around the Don’t Touch Me! Pad. Each person picks a partner across the circle. Without touching anyone, each person must touch the pad and switch positions with their partner. (The touching rule was discarded for the picture due to the large group in the picture).
This team building challenge has now been accomplished in under one (1) second. This is due to intense out-of-the-box critical thinking and problem-solving. Most groups can get under 10 seconds with some work.
Communication:
Communication is key to solving this event because of the need to assess many potential solutions. Frequently, good ideas are discarded because of the way it was communicated.
Problem Solving and Critical Thinking:
In this team building challenge, these are almost one in the same. Participants will be required to put on their thinking caps to come up with new solutions to a simple task. What makes this very interesting is that the group is solving a way to make the task more efficient, not to accomplish it.
