The Group Juggle Ice Breaker for Small Groups
Fun Team Building Exercise for Up To 25 People
Sep 12, 2008
In a 2008 interview with Suite, professional trainer and courseware developer, Mark Swift, explains how to use the tried-and-true Group Juggle to generate trust and enthusiasm in participants, whether it’s used as an ice breaker, teaching tool, or just as an energetic transition between work sessions.
Small and Medium-Sized Group Exercise
The Group Juggle works well for between 4 and 25 participants. You’ll need a soft ball, light beanbag, or other item that is easy to catch and throw but has no chance of injuring someone. You’ll need one of these items for each participant.
Ice Breaker Suitable for Special Needs
As the facilitator, hold one of the balls in your hand and ask everyone to sit in a circle on the floor. Swift adds, “If someone has special needs, they can use a chair or wheelchair – it only makes the activity more interesting.” Have the rest of the balls concealed nearby in a box or bag.
“Explain the activity as being a way to introduce everyone,” says Swift. “Say that you want to see if everyone can develop a pattern and remember that pattern.” Demonstrate by naming a person and throwing the ball to him or her: “John!” Throw the ball to John. Tell John to then say another person’s name and throw the ball to him or her: “Kirsten!” John throws the ball to Kirsten. Each person must throw the ball to someone who has not already received it.
The game continues as such until the ball reaches the last person or it hits the floor. If it hits the floor, the facilitator reclaims it and the game starts over again with the same pattern until the ball has made its way into everyone’s hands.
Making the Training Session Fun
“At this point it gets interesting,” says Swift. “Take the ball back and say to them, ‘Good job. Do you think you could do it again, in the same pattern, but faster?’ They’ll say of course they can. You say, ‘Okay, then, double time!’ Encourage them to go faster, clap, egg them on. This gets them really pumped up.”
Now is when the real juggle starts. Tell them you are going to try a variation. Say, “John, when I throw the ball to you and after you throw it to Kirsten, be ready for another pass, because I’m going to introduce more balls.” Then start the game again, but after John passes the ball, reach into your bag, call his name again and throw another. And another. And another. Keep reaching into the bag and throwing balls to John.
As the participants struggle with the co-ordination of catching and passing, people will miss and balls will collide in the air. If a ball hits the ground, everything stops. Gather all the balls in and count them. Say, “Great job! Let’s see if we can do better.” The challenge becomes seeing how many balls the group can handle at one time. Success means improvement. Says Swift, “Do this as many times as you like. Groups never get tired of it. You can fill 5 minutes or 25 minutes doing the Group Juggle.”
Creating a Team Building Activity
You can also turn this activity into a team building exercise with a learning objective instead of just an ice breaker. To do this, simply debrief after the exercise. Ask the participants what they learned from the exercise. What did they learn about teamwork? What did they learn about accuracy, improvement, success? They might answer that they had to work together, they had to understand what their job was (catching from whom and throwing to whom) but also what others in the organization were doing (throwing a ball across their trajectory at approximately the same time). They might say it was difficult to concentrate, to block out the noise and activity, that co-ordination and timing were key.
Says Swift, “The biggest problem groups have is if one person is out of sync, either too fast or too slow. The successful groups get a really solid rhythm going.”
Although it may seem that name tags are necessary for this activity, Swift recommends otherwise. “People start out throwing to people they know. When it gets down to people they don’t know, they’ll say something like, ‘I’m sorry, I don’t know your name.’ During those initial practice sessions, everyone is just watching and learning the names. When people have name tags on, they tend to spend too much time reading them and it makes them drop balls. Name tags become a liability.”
This activity is very versatile, functioning well as an introductory ice breaker, a way to get the blood flowing between sessions or as a team-building exercise with learning outcomes. Ice breakers are a fantastic way to make business events interesting, and Swift shares several additional ideas with Suite for activities for small to medium-sized groups and large groups as well.
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