Working with Others Session Plan

WORKING WITH OTHERS SESSION PLAN

SESSION: WORKING WITH OTHERS
Expected Progress:
Young people will engage in a range of activities allowing to engage, improve and review their own skills and qualities when working with others / Description:
This session supports young people to complete and experience working with others in a range of situations.
Resources required if completing all activities:
è  Oranges (at least one each)
è  Drinking Straws (one per person)
è  Paper
è  Pens
è  Thin place mat
è  2 poles or sticks / LLN Opportunities:
è  Expressing opinions
è  Take part in informal discussions
è  Negotiations skills / STEM Opportunities:
è  Exploring how things move and what is required. / Qualification Opportunities:
è  Skills for Schools Module
DESCRIPTION OF ACTIVITY / RESOURCES
Introduction and Icebreaker
Where’s my orange?
Each person is given an orange (or similar). They need to get to know it, its shape, any blemishes and unique factors. When people are happy they give the orange back to the facilitator.
The facilitator then displays all of the oranges in a row and one by one asks people to come and look for and identify their orange, then take it.
Did everybody get their orange back? If not, why not?
How did it feel getting to know your orange?
For those going later how did it feel that your orange may be taken by somebody else?
For each one of us – especially if we are usually categorised as a group ‘those young people’ - it can be difficult that some people can’t see that everybody is unique and an individual. It is the same for these oranges – each has its own identification and is unique if you take time to find it. Each has a part to play and each has something unique to offer.
Discussion may go into people’s experiences of being stereotyped. / Oranges – at least one for each person.
Main Activity 1 – Working together
Paper & Straws variation game (Adapted from businessballs.com http://businessballs.com/freeteambuildingactivities.htm
This game can be played using drinking straws, a ball of rolled-up paper and a (very thin) dinner-table place mat:
è  Team members sit around the table.
è  Put the place-mat in the centre of the table. Alternatively stick a suitably sized/shaped piece of paper flat to the table to act as the target area. Alternatively mark a circular target on the table surface - optionally with concentric scoring rings - using chalk or coloured sticky tape (e.g., electrician's insulating tape).
è  The task is for team members to use the drinking straws (one each) to blow the ball of paper onto the place-mat, and optionally (facilitator decision) additional paper balls afterwards (very difficult without dislodging any balls already in place).
è  Facilitator decides how many paper balls are involved in the game, and where the balls are placed to begin (not crucial, provided some way from target). More balls = more complexity/difficulty/time.
è  No team member may be within one yard (one meter) of the paper ball. (You might need to reduce this distance for weak blowers and larger balls)
è  Split large groups into competing teams with their own equipment and table.
è  Optionally require all team members to remain in their seated positions once the blowing commences (this makes the task more difficult than enabling team members to move around the table).
è  A very flat target is required so that 'overblow' happens, which tends then to involve all team members in the blowing, especially if static around the table. (If the target mat is too thick it will stop the ball rolling over it).
è  Warning: Blowing can cause dizziness. Ensure all players are advised not to blow to the point of hyper-ventilation and collapse; it's just a game.
Review points
è  Did we work as a team?
è  Leadership - did it happen, what was the style and the reactions?
è  Planning - did it happen? Was it required?
è  Did the activity energise us? How and why?
è  (If competing teams were involved) What were the competitive effects?
è  Lots more review points will arise, and you will think of your own depending on your own situation and purposes. / Drinking straws (one for each person)
A4 paper
Thin place mat
Break/Next session
Main Activity 1 – New World Exercise (Can be used as an ice-breaker – see last paragraph)
This is a flexible and fascinating scenario-based activity for groups up to 12 people and all ages. Schools could potentially develop various extensions to this activity.
Ask the young people to discuss in a group and answer the following question:
Scenario: Imagine the world suffered a catastrophic event like a meteor strike, plague or nuclear war, which destroyed most human life and all of the developments of the past century. A mixed group (age, gender, ethnicity, religion) of a few hundred lucky people has survived (it's helpful to tell the young people where they are, because location will influence some aspects of the approach to the question).
Question: If this group is to thrive and develop, what initial leadership structure would you suggest, stating 6-12 key roles? (Optionally and ideally ask delegates to justify their suggestions.)
Agree timings and presentation/review in whatever ways are useful to the young people. The number of roles can be the same as the number of delegates, especially if you choose to extend the activity.
The exercise can be extended by adding any of the following supplementary questions, which can (optionally) be approached as if the young people are the survivors’ leadership team, allocated the key roles identified.
Roles can be allocated via volunteering or some other group process, at the facilitator's discretion.
Optional supplementary questions:
è  What basic laws would you introduce for the group of survivors?
è  As the leadership team, what would be your ten immediate main aims?
è  What 3-5 main difficulties would you expect in leading the group and how would you try to handle these challenges?
è  What lessons from the modern world would you find most valuable in rebuilding the new world?
è  What would be your five main medium-long term aims?
The activity is very flexible. It can be shortened to a two-minute icebreaker, simply to agree the 6-10 roles, or expanded to incorporate all sorts of issues and reference models and tools, depending on the development aims and needs of the delegates.
To shorten the exercise into a quick icebreaker simply state the scenario and ask delegates to take 1-2 minutes to think of 3-6 leadership roles. Then quickly gather and count the suggestions on a flip chart or wipe board, and close with a quick review of the most popularly suggested team roles. / Pens
Paper
Main Activity Three – Helium Stick (or Magic Floating Pole)
This is a classic teambuilding game, and an amusing exercise around which to design icebreakers.
For teams of three upwards, subject to the type and length of 'stick' used in the activity.
This explanation includes games variations, and very easily improvised ideas for the stick equipment - as the Adviser you do not need to buy anything.
The basic exercise requires all young people to:
è  support a long stick or tube - each person using one finger
è  lower the stick to the ground
è  without any fingers losing contact with the tube at any point
The tendency is for the stick to rise, hence the name of the exercise, because the collective force used to keep fingers in contact with the stick is greater than the gravitational force (weight) of the stick. For this reason use a stick for the exercise that is light enough for this effect to occur, given the number of people in the team. For example a broomstick is too heavy for a team of three people, but would be fine for a team of ten. See the suggestions for stick types per team size in the next column.
Other tips, rules and guidelines:
è  The stick (or any alternative item being lifted) should be rigid – if it’s too flexible it makes it easy for team members to maintain finger-contact.
è  Start with the stick at about chest height.
è  Team members can be positioned either on one or both sides of the stick
è  The team must return the stick to the starting position if any finger loses contact with the stick.
è  The stick must rest on fingers - the stick cannot be grasped or pinched or held in any way.
è  There are many ways of improvising sticks. Some people use inter-connecting tent-poles, but these are too heavy for very small teams (the gravitational force is greater than the collective lift, which makes the task too easy). Use your imagination - any rigid lightweight stick or tube will do, and if you can't improvise a stick then other materials and shapes can be used instead
è  The activity works best with six or more, subject to having a stick long enough. The bigger the team, the longer the activity will take to complete successfully, so consider group sizes when planning how long this will take.
Games variations:
è  Split large groups into teams, each team with their own stick, and have a race between the teams for the first to lower the stick to the ground. Watch for cheating. If appropriate appoint and rotate observers for say three rounds or a knockout contest.
è  Start with the stick (or whatever else is used) at ground height, raise it to shoulder height and lower it back to the ground. The challenge is stopping it rising beyond shoulder height when it gets there.
è  Issue two sticks per team - one finger for each stick - very challenging.
Review points examples:
è  Why did the stick rise when we wanted it to go down?
è  Did we anticipate the problem?
è  How did we fix the problem?
è  Having achieved the task with this team was it/would it be easier/as difficult with a different team?
è  How did we feel when fingers lost contact?
è  What are the effects of time pressures and competition?
è  How might we coach or prepare others to do this task?
è  And countless other possibilities, many of which you'll see while running the exercises.
As a facilitator use your imagination. The 'helium stick' exercise is amusing and effective in its basic format, and can be adapted in many ways to support many different themes related to team-working and problem-solving / 2 poles/sticks:
Suggestion:
Ideas for sticks and team sizes (rough guides):
joined-together drinking straws (3-6 people)
houseplant sticks (3-6)
straightened-out wire coat-hangers (6-10)
wooden dowel rods (6-12 - cheap from most hardware stores)
bamboo poles (5-20 people)
telescopic or interconnecting fishing rods (6-20 people or more)
Review Activity – Spokes
The aim of the activity is to ask the participants to reflect on another person’s learning and progress,
Young people stand in a circle and invite people to step forward with a positive statement. An example may be;’ ‘I would like to invite N to step forward for the effort they put into the Helium Stick Activity’ and the activity continues as young people move closer to each other offering and receiving positive feedback.
If there are some young people being left on the fringes the facilitator(s) can also join in and invite people forwards.
If the activity is slow to start the facilitator(s) can also offer general questions open to everybody such as: I invite people that have tried their hardest today to take a step forward.
As people take a step forward towards a central hub their path becomes one of the spokes of the group. / None

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