11/5/2014
TRAS Student Developer Team
Building Retreat
UNCW
TRAS
TRAS Student Developer Team Building Retreat
Materials Needed .......................................................................................................................................... 3
Itinerary ......................................................................................................................................................... 4
Beginning Trust Fall ................................................................................................................................. 4
Blind Animal Hunt.................................................................................................................................... 4
Human Knot .............................................................................................................................................. 4
Back-to-Back Drawing ............................................................................................................................. 4
Drop the Ball ............................................................................................................................................. 5
Horrible problem solving .......................................................................................................................... 5
Beach Ball Toss ........................................................................................................................................ 6
Talking in Circles...................................................................................................................................... 6
Helium Stick ............................................................................................................................................. 6
Ending Trust Fall ...................................................................................................................................... 6
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Materials Needed
Paper
Markers
Deck of cards 
Blow up beach ball
Stuffed animals 
Golf ball
Straws
Masking tape
Long sticks 
Yarn 
Fold up chair 
 Cole can bring these materials
Itinerary
Beginning Trust Fall
Pretty self explanatory…
Blind Animal Hunt
30 minutes (end of day)
Two teams of three. One person will be the searcher, one will be the navigator, and one will be
the caller. Together they must pick up as many stuffed animals as possible.
(Further instruction on day of event)
Human Knot
5 minutes
This brain teaser is funny and really works on teambuilding, problem solving and
communication. No materials are needed.
Instruct the participants to stand in a circle, shoulder to shoulder.
1. Tell everyone to put their right hand in the air and grab the hand of someone standing
across the circle from them.
2. Now tell everyone to put their left hand in the air and grab the hand of a different person.
3. Someone needs to check that everyone is holding the hands of two different people and
that no one is holding the hand of someone who’s standing directly next to them.
4. The objective of the game is to untangle everyone without breaking the circle.
5. If the chain is broken, participants will have to start over.
This exercise will prove to be extremely challenging and will heavily rely on teamwork and
communication, without which, participants will find it extremely difficult to successfully
complete the task.
Back-to-Back Drawing
12 minutes
Divide your group into pairs, and have each pair sit on the floor back to back. Give one
person in each pair a picture of a shape, and give the other person a pencil and pad of paper.
Ask the people holding the pictures to give verbal instructions to their partners on how to
draw the shape – without actually telling the partners what the shape is. After they've
finished, ask each pair to compare their original shape with the actual drawing, and
consider the following questions:
 How well did the first person describe the shape?
 How well did the second person interpret the instructions?
 Were there problems with both the sending and receiving parts of the
communication process?
Drop the Ball
Time: 15 minutes
Purpose: Cooperation and healthy competition
Participants: 1 group
Materials needed: Golf balls, straws, tape
Instructions:
•The group receives 12 straws and 18 inches of masking tape. They get ten minutes to build a
container that will catch a golf ball dropped from about ten feet.
•The group selects a ‘ball dropper’ — that person stands on a chair, holds a golf ball at eye level.
That group places its container on the floor under where it thinks the ball will land. The group
gets three attempts.
•The group that gets a ball to go in and stay in its container wins.
•Catch: the group must complete this activity COMPLETELY MUTE, even to the point of
signaling who/when to drop the ball. The only time the group may speak again is when they have
completed the task successfully OR their three tries are up.
Desired outcome: Teams can use their experiences in the game to overcome work problems and
relational issues.
Horrible problem solving
Time: 10 minutes
Purpose: finding good solutions imbedded in bad ideas
Participants: all (split into two teams)
Materials needed: none
Instructions: you present the group with a problem (e.x. how would you solve 5’oclock traffic on
College rd?) and ask them to come up with three solutions that are absolutely impossible/horrible
(e.x. genetically create Godzilla and have him eat the cars). Next, ask them to focus on one of the
bad ideas and turn it into a feasible solution for the original problem.
Desired outcome: That even bad ideas might have a good solution nested inside, develop critical
thinking skills.
Beach Ball Toss
10 minutes
All you need for this activity is a beach ball that’s been divided with random questions written
on it. Questions can be simple or more complex, i.e. what’s your favorite dessert? What are your
weekly goals? If conflict were to arise within your department, how would you go about
handling that?
Have the participants stand in a circle and begin tossing the ball around. Whoever catches the
ball answers the question closest to his/her pinky finger. (Another option would be to allow
him/her to choose which question they’d like to answer).
This exercise will help the participants learn more about their colleagues.
Talking in Circles
12 minutes
(Long piece of string tied in circle)
This group exercise focuses on good communication. Place everyone in a circle around the
string. Have everyone grasp the string with both hands and hold the string waist high. Without
letting go, the team will have to form shapes with the string; a square, a triangle, a figure eight, a
rectangle, etc. But they will have to do this with their eyes shut! This will require everyone to
communicate clearly and listen well. Make the shapes progressively harder and periodically have
them stop and open their eyes to see their progress...or lack thereof.
Helium Stick
12 minutes
(Tool: Long, thin pole)
The theme for this exercise is to relax. A tent pole can be used for this challenge, but really any
long thin pole will do. Be sure to call the pole a "Helium Stick" when you introduce the exercise.
Place your group in two lines facing each other. Have each person hold the index finger of their
right hand chest high. Place the helium stick on top of the outstretched fingers. The challenge is
to lower the stick to the ground while keeping everyone's fingers touching the stick. If anyone's
finger looses contact with the helium stick you must start again. At first the stick will seem to
rise (hence the name Helium Stick). In fact, it is simply the upwards pressure of everyone's
fingers causing the stick to go up instead of down. Once everyone relaxes they can easily lower
the stick to the ground. This usually takes ten minutes of laughter to complete.
Ending Trust Fall
Pretty self explanatory…