Activity: Pile On (All Aboard)
Hi folks!
Sorry I've been a bit tardy this week in delivering an activity. It's budget time for me and so finding time when I have not been crunching numbers has been difficult. I've got an old faithful activity for you today that I've been doing for years. It is also a staple activity for many of my staff because it can be done just about anywhere and you don't need a set prop or permanent apparatus to do it either.
I find that the majority of Americans (for what reason, I do not know) call this the All Aboard whereas I learned it as the Pile On. The funny story about the name "Pile On" is that when I first learned it...over ten years ago - I thought the facilitator had called it the Pylon. The name was confusing and I could only assume that she called it that because the tarp we were using was orange and the base of a vehicle pylon is square...so I called it the Pylon for years (seriously) until I was facilitating a group one day that tried to stack its members one on top of another to fit onto the tarp...it hit me like a ton of bricks. Pile On. I felt enlightened and stupid all at the same time. But just so we're clear and you don't have to go through the same confusion...PILE ON or All Aboard...or call it whatever you want.
I don't know where this activity came from. Like I said - I first learned it over 10 years ago so it could belong to any one of many facilitators. I recently did it at the AEE Conference where Michelle Cummings did a two person version called the "Small Aboard". I'll do that activity some other time.
Here we go...Pile On!
Group Size: Groups smaller than 15. If you have a group that is larger than 15 people, just bring along multiple props so that you can have more than one Pile On! at one time.
Props: A tarp, square platform (usually about 1ft x 1ft or slightly larger), masking tape, or a towel. I have seen really nice pre-fab'd square platforms - platforms are nice because it's very obvious to see if someone is not on the platform. Platforms only need to be about one to two inches above the ground. If you start using a platform that is over a half of foot (example - the group to the right) - there becomes a risk of falling without spotters. You will note that during this activity the balance of all the participants together is very unsteady. The whole group can fall together. Be very careful how tall you make your platforms! Platforms aren't necessary though - we use tarps at my camp because you can make them into whatever size you want so that you can custom challenge each team. Tarps get used in a number of other activities so that's another reason to keep them around. If you suddenly want to do this activity and you don't have a platform or a tarp - towels work great or even masking tape. You can just create a square...or not even a square!
Setting Up the Field of Play: You can be really creative with the front-load* for this activity. You can tell a story about a ship sinking and you have to fit everybody onto the last floating piece of boat left - not touching the eel infested waters...You could even talk about a volcano eruption and everybody needs to get off the ground before the lava flows by.
The rules are pretty simple - everybody has to fit on the platform or tarp. Nothing can be touching the ground around it. They may strategize as a team and can only use each other to stay on the tarp/platform. I often will give them two or three minutes to talk about it before they're allowed to get on the Pile On. Sometimes - trial and error is the only way to figure this one out.
How do I know how large to make the square if I'm using a tarp, towel, or tape? I get asked this a lot and it's just one of those things that takes practice. I have been doing this activity a long time and I don't get it right all the time either. If you have made it a certain size and it's too big - your team will solve it quickly. Congratulate them on finishing well and then present a new challenge. Make the square smaller - basing the size on how well they performed so that the activity is hard enough that they have to do some planning and strategizing. If you have started the activity off and made the square too small...just tug at the corners to make it a couple inches larger without interrupting the group. They'll understand - if someone says "So it is impossible!" - just reply to them by saying that you just got a little excited when you were making the square. I've never had a problem with that. You'll find that you will get very good at estimating how large the square needs to be.
Things to keep in mind...Like I said before - this is a classic activity! Very easy to do and really portable. You can take it inside if the weather is bad. You can bring it into a corporate office. But whatever you do - you NEED to consider this activity within your overall sequencing* of activities. Because there is a high amount of touching in this activity - you will want to wait for a couple of activities before using it. Trust must be built - and even though teammates are not physically holding each other off the ground, they are holding each other together. I've seen teammates have to hug each other and then others hug onto them. If you have participants who are unsure of physical contact - you will want to be slow to introduce this activity. Using it with corporate groups may also be difficult as handshakes would be the most physical contact they will have experienced with one another.
You will also want to be aware of the risk of falling. Clear your area of objects and hazards. Provide spotting if the group starts leaning too much.
I think that's all for now. I'll post the debrief soon!
*Front-loading - give the people on the team an area for thought based upon earlier defined concepts and objectives. Front-loading can also take the form of a creative story that places them within the context of the activity so it doesn't just come across like..."And now folks - we're all going to mash together as tight as possible and stand on this here tarp...go". It places them in a story with meaning to accomplish a task.
*Sequencing - is a term that deals with the progression of activities during a team building session. Poor sequencing would look like introducing a high level trust activity at the beginning assuming that because the group members know each other they therefore trust each other. Doing this can be more damaging to a team than doing nothing at all. Proper sequencing takes into account sociological group formation (forming, storming, norming, performing, transforming) - activities correspond to the stages of group formation. Michelle Cumming's book "A Teachable Moment" along with numerous other ones is perfect for this.
Sorry I've been a bit tardy this week in delivering an activity. It's budget time for me and so finding time when I have not been crunching numbers has been difficult. I've got an old faithful activity for you today that I've been doing for years. It is also a staple activity for many of my staff because it can be done just about anywhere and you don't need a set prop or permanent apparatus to do it either.
I find that the majority of Americans (for what reason, I do not know) call this the All Aboard whereas I learned it as the Pile On. The funny story about the name "Pile On" is that when I first learned it...over ten years ago - I thought the facilitator had called it the Pylon. The name was confusing and I could only assume that she called it that because the tarp we were using was orange and the base of a vehicle pylon is square...so I called it the Pylon for years (seriously) until I was facilitating a group one day that tried to stack its members one on top of another to fit onto the tarp...it hit me like a ton of bricks. Pile On. I felt enlightened and stupid all at the same time. But just so we're clear and you don't have to go through the same confusion...PILE ON or All Aboard...or call it whatever you want.
I don't know where this activity came from. Like I said - I first learned it over 10 years ago so it could belong to any one of many facilitators. I recently did it at the AEE Conference where Michelle Cummings did a two person version called the "Small Aboard". I'll do that activity some other time.
Here we go...Pile On!
Group Size: Groups smaller than 15. If you have a group that is larger than 15 people, just bring along multiple props so that you can have more than one Pile On! at one time.
 |
| I think this group is using a milk crate |
Setting Up the Field of Play: You can be really creative with the front-load* for this activity. You can tell a story about a ship sinking and you have to fit everybody onto the last floating piece of boat left - not touching the eel infested waters...You could even talk about a volcano eruption and everybody needs to get off the ground before the lava flows by.The rules are pretty simple - everybody has to fit on the platform or tarp. Nothing can be touching the ground around it. They may strategize as a team and can only use each other to stay on the tarp/platform. I often will give them two or three minutes to talk about it before they're allowed to get on the Pile On. Sometimes - trial and error is the only way to figure this one out.
How do I know how large to make the square if I'm using a tarp, towel, or tape? I get asked this a lot and it's just one of those things that takes practice. I have been doing this activity a long time and I don't get it right all the time either. If you have made it a certain size and it's too big - your team will solve it quickly. Congratulate them on finishing well and then present a new challenge. Make the square smaller - basing the size on how well they performed so that the activity is hard enough that they have to do some planning and strategizing. If you have started the activity off and made the square too small...just tug at the corners to make it a couple inches larger without interrupting the group. They'll understand - if someone says "So it is impossible!" - just reply to them by saying that you just got a little excited when you were making the square. I've never had a problem with that. You'll find that you will get very good at estimating how large the square needs to be.
Things to keep in mind...Like I said before - this is a classic activity! Very easy to do and really portable. You can take it inside if the weather is bad. You can bring it into a corporate office. But whatever you do - you NEED to consider this activity within your overall sequencing* of activities. Because there is a high amount of touching in this activity - you will want to wait for a couple of activities before using it. Trust must be built - and even though teammates are not physically holding each other off the ground, they are holding each other together. I've seen teammates have to hug each other and then others hug onto them. If you have participants who are unsure of physical contact - you will want to be slow to introduce this activity. Using it with corporate groups may also be difficult as handshakes would be the most physical contact they will have experienced with one another.
You will also want to be aware of the risk of falling. Clear your area of objects and hazards. Provide spotting if the group starts leaning too much.
I think that's all for now. I'll post the debrief soon!
*Front-loading - give the people on the team an area for thought based upon earlier defined concepts and objectives. Front-loading can also take the form of a creative story that places them within the context of the activity so it doesn't just come across like..."And now folks - we're all going to mash together as tight as possible and stand on this here tarp...go". It places them in a story with meaning to accomplish a task.
*Sequencing - is a term that deals with the progression of activities during a team building session. Poor sequencing would look like introducing a high level trust activity at the beginning assuming that because the group members know each other they therefore trust each other. Doing this can be more damaging to a team than doing nothing at all. Proper sequencing takes into account sociological group formation (forming, storming, norming, performing, transforming) - activities correspond to the stages of group formation. Michelle Cumming's book "A Teachable Moment" along with numerous other ones is perfect for this.
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