In this fun team challenge, groups are required to work together to do complete a simple task. The problem is, that they are tied together by their wrists. Problem solving, teamwork and communication are essential for this challenge.
Equipment Required: Shoes laces, tracer rope strips or cloth strips or anything to tie participants together.
Space Required: Small. Can be delivered either indoors or outdoors.
Group Size: 4 to 12 ideally.
Total Time: 25 minutes
- 5 minutes to brief and set up
- 15 minutes to achieve outcome
- 5 minutes to review
All Tied Up Team Building Challenge Brief
- Organise your group into an inward facing circle. Ask them to hold out their arms to the side and then tie them to both of their neighbour’s wrists.
- The whole group should now be connected and “all tied up”.
- Next present a simple task for them to complete. Here are some ideas:
- Wrap a present
- Build a bridge
- Make a square with rope
- Tidy up the room
- Create an art project linked to their workshop experience
- Pour a cup of water for everyone in the group
- Or add any other fun and creative team tasks you can think of
Variation – Group Walk
Instead of tying the participants together by their wrists, instead tie them together by their ankles. Once they are connected, give them some simple commands to perform without falling over, such as: walk forwards, backwards, left and right.
If they find this difficult, split into smaller teams or pairs and ask them to try again. Once they are successful, you can increase the size of the group and try again. Keep adding more team members until they can walk together without falling over
If you’re working with a very large group, it is a good idea to split them into smaller teams of no more than twelve to start with before building up to a much larger group.
Suggested Learning Outcomes
- Goal Setting
- Teamwork
- Problem Solving
- Communication skills
Useful Tips
To increase the difficulty of the challenge, give your group a time limit or blindfold/mute a couple of participants.
Before starting the challenge, brief participants not to pull or drag each other as this can result in injuries (take care, especially when working with kids).
Suggested questions to ask during the review
- Why were you successful (or unsuccessful) at completing the challenge?
- How did having a time restriction help or hinder you from the completing the challenge?
- Was everyone involved and help each other?
- What happened when someone disagreed with the plan? Did you discuss it?
- What was the purpose of the challenge? What do you feel you took away from the task?
- Have you ever been in a situation when you’ve felt, ‘tied up’ when working with others? If yes, how did you overcome this?
Can a job legally require employees to participate in this?
The reason I ask is because I am extremely claustrophobic and cannot handle being tied up.
“To increase the difficulty of the challenge, give your group a time limit or blindfold/mute a couple of participants.”
That sentence honestly terrifies me to the bone. When you say “mute” you don’t mean literally making the employee wear a “GAG”, do you?
If so, what kind would it be? Duct tape, ball gag, scarf etc?
The reason I ask is because I am extremely claustrophobic, have Asthma and have a severe suffocation phobia and am a mouth breather, and so I would instantly panic and would refuse to wear the gag, as I CANNOT breathe ONLY through my nose.
Besides, gagging employees doesn’t seem appropriate as that carries a “sexual” element in my mind and so I’d feel very uncomfortable and vulnerable in that way too.
Christopher,
Each individual is different and may have limitations or concerns. A good trainer/facilitator partnering with the sponsor should take these things into account but if for some reason they don’t know about it. You should as a participant share any concerns or limitations in a firm and kind manner.
It is totally understandable if someone is challenged with being claustrophobic or other limitations.
But I do want to highlight that in general many team building activities are designed to challenge the participants to engage in new or unfamiliar activities and sometimes may be uncomfortable, silly, or vulnerable activities. That is a common part of the process of bonding as team.
Again this should be done with reason and should help participants grow closer together and should not challenge or push someone to unhealthy points.
Muting participants does not involve any physical restraint or gag. You could simply state John and Karen can’t talk during this activity. But I prefer giving a made up scenario such as – John you just went to the doctor and have a bad cold and lost your voice so you aren’t able to talk at all during this next activity.
I appreciate your candid remarks and thoughts in response to this activity and hope that helps to increase all our team builders perspective in facilitating & training others!