No-Man’s Land

Teams are tasked with transporting as many balls as possible from the start line to the end line and over No-Man’s Land in ten minutes using just the resources provided.

Time: 25 minutes

• 5 minutes to brief and setup
• 5 minutes to plan
• 10 minutes to complete the challenge
• 5 minutes to review and debrief

Space required: Medium. Either Indoors or Outdoors.

Resources:

For setup:

• 1 roll of masking tape
• 1 yardstick
• 1 plastic carrier bag
• 1 bucket or container large enough to hold 10 tennis balls

For construction:

• 2 un-inflated balloons
• 10 paper clips
• 1 sheet of sticky dots
• 10 index cards
• 2 paper plates
• 5 straws
• 1 10ft (3m) length of string
• Scissors

No-Man’s Land Setup

Gather the resources. Tape two parallel lines on the floor, 5 feet (1.5m) apart. Once will be the start line, the other the finish line. The area between the two taped lines becomes no-man’s land. Place the remaining construction materials in the plastic carrier bag ready for the group. Place the tennis balls in a separate container. Gather the team and resources on one side of the taped as shown in the diagram below. Read the list of construction materials and the challenge instructions to the group. Alternatively, print the instructions and hand to the group to begin the challenge.

No-Man’s Land Team Building Challenge

Your task is to move as many tennis balls as possible from the start and finish line. The space between is called no-man’s land. You are permitted to stand either side of no-man’s land but cannot step into no-man’s land at any point during the challenge.

You have two minutes to discuss the challenge before being presented with the bag of resources. You will then be provided with a further three minutes before you begin the challenge.

You have just ten minutes to move as many of the tennis balls from the start line to the finish line and across no-man’s land using your ingenuity and the resources provided.

Balls may not be tossed or thrown across. Any balls that fall into no-man’s land cannot be retrieved.

You will be notified when you have three minutes remaining and again when you have one minute remaining.

Suggested Learning Objectives:

• Problem Solving
• Leadership
• Cooperation
• Time Management
• Creative thinking

Questions for review:

• How did you come up with your strategy for the task?
• What everyone involved during the planning?
• Did you have more than one idea? How did you come up with the best solution?
• What was the problem and how did you overcome it?
• Did anyone lead the challenge and what role did you play in the challenge?
• Was everyone made aware of their responsibilities?
• How did you manage your time? Was someone allocated the responsibility of checking the time?
• Are you happy with the end result? Did you meet your expectations? If no, why not?
• If you did the challenge again is there anything you would do different?
• What can you take aware from the experience?

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