Ground Team Initiatives

Maximize your students’ problem-solving and decision-making skills with this series of physical and mental
challenges, and gain both personal and team insights through intensive teamwork.
Teams of 8-16 are led through a series of activity stations: each takes 10 - 30 minutes including a
discussion about how to maximize individual involvement, plan effectively, and which leadership and
participation roles work best.

Discussion: Students reconvene to highlight any learnings and take-aways from their experiences during
these Team Challenges. The mentor should lead them through a final discussion about how these new
experiences will shape the way the team interacts in the future.

👀 Things to Look out for:

• Keep an eye on both teams and don’t let them off easy. If they complete the initiative in 2 minutes,
  they probably weren’t following the rules.
• Make sure everyone is participating – the emphasis here is on teamwork.
• Horseplay –close contact is required to accomplish these challenges, if necessary, you may have to
  talk about appropriate contact.
• Negativity – encourage positive feedback and encouragement

Some popular ground team initiatives include:

Toxic Waste

Equipped with a lid and rope handles, a group must work out how to transport the “Toxic Waste” (balls) and tip it into the “neutralization” bucket.

Toxic Waste can be used to highlight almost any aspect of teamwork or leadership.

• Each team member must hold one end of the rope.
• The rope cannot be shortened or wrapped around hands.
• The rope cannot be laid over balls to secure them.
• If the ball drops onto the ground, the group must start over. 
• If the group spills the waste entirely, discuss the consequences of  catastrophic failure, invite them to discuss what went wrong and how they can do better, then refill the container and let them have another go.

Island Crossing

The objective is to transport the entire team across the quicksand swamp using only the boards and “safe” grass clumps (crates) in a specific order to cross the swamp.

Some boards are shorter/longer than others and require a specific pattern that the team must discover for themselves. Each team member must cross the swamp without falling in or stepping into the swamp (there are alligators in the swamp, so be very careful).

If anyone steps onto the swamp (grass/ground) they must return to the back end of the team. If a board falls in or touches the swamp, it becomes unusable. Team members must rotate turns attempting to discover the safe route across the swamp. Team members must all stay on the final safe island until all team members cross the swamp.

Safety: Inspect the boards for splinters. Use caution handling the boards to avoid inadvertently hitting others. Have a spotter to watch for falls. Variation: If the team completes the initiative quickly, have them do it again without voice communication, no talking!

Spider Web

The goal is to work together to ensure each person gets through the spider web through a series of holes or ropes without touching the cords.

This activity provides opportunities for safe risk-taking and is designed to improve trust, responsibility & reliance on team members. It can also reinforce effective decision making, problem-solving & planning skills.

The goal is to highlight the value of different strengths, abilities, & gifts of individual group members. This activity helps to improve & or reinforce communication, problemsolving & cooperation skills while in close proximity. It also helps highlight the value of patience & tolerance.

Guidelines:  The group stands to one side of the spider web or inside the electric fence. They are told that their goal is for the entire group to get to the other side without touching the web/fence. If anyone touches the web/fence at any time, there will be a consequence (usually this will mean that the entire group must start over or a designated number of participants must go back).

No one may go over or under the web or fence. For the spider web, each hole may only be used once.

Mine Field

This is a popular, engaging game involving communication and trust. Works for groups of various types and sizes. Moderately complex.

The task is very flexible and can be adapted to youth and adults.

The goal is to traverse, with eyes closed or blindfolded, a designated area full of obstacles without touching any obstacle or any person. 

The "mines" are distributed (e.g., balls or other objects such as foam shapes, paper plates, foam noodles, etc.) in the designated area.

It is important to establish a concentrating and caring tone for this activity. This is a TRUST exercises and the atmosphere should help develop a genuine sense of trust and safety.

Participants can begin by trying to cross the field by themselves. In a second round, participants can then ask someone else to help them traverse the field by "talking" them through the field.

Participants operate in pairs. Consider how the pairs are formed - it's a chance to work on relationships. One person is blind-folded (or keeps eyes closed) and (optional) cannot talk. The other person can see and talk, but cannot enter the field or touch the person. The challenge is for each blind-folded person to walk from one side of the field to the other, avoiding the mines, by listing to the verbal instructions of their partners.