This week’s team dynamics session involved a walk into jegersberg with a series of tasks we had to complete written down for us. These were simply, fairly humorous activities such as climbing a tree or parodying a film, which we had to do in groups of 6 or so. These tasks weren’t the kind of traditional teambuilding activities I was used to, but it certainly helped me get to know the Norwegian students better and probably broke the ice somewhat between people who didn’t know each other. In this sense, I felt it was more effective than previous Monday sessions thus far, as there appeared to be more interaction during the session. What also helped me get to know some of the Norwegian students better was the fact that I was the only international student in my group of six – as I mentioned in a previous blog post, international and Norwegian students normally tended to speak to those they already knew, at the start of the semester at least.

Once all the groups got to our destination, we were presented with one other task. This involved two members of the group being blindfolded, two being unable to speak and two being unable to walk. All group members then had to make their way along a rocky footpath in the quickest time possible. We completed the task in only a few minutes, as did all the other groups. It only took about 30 seconds or so for a simple plan to be made; when actually completing the task, there was also very little interaction of thinking which needed to be done. Because of this, I felt it wasn’t a particularly good teambuilding activity as I couldn’t exactly see what the purpose behind it was, and how it could improve team cohesion. It was essentially just a blindfolded person carrying someone along a footpath, whilst being guided by someone who could see, so there didn’t appear to be much in the way of communication or thinking during the 30 seconds or so it took us to walk along the route. Each group would do this task alone, one after the other. Because of this, after the task we were essentially waiting around for a considerable amount of time, which I think could have been spent more effectively given that people were becoming bored. One problem that can arise from a group becoming bored is that they may eventually not take heed of what you are trying to tell them and you lose your credibility, which I think would have been the case if this was a younger group or people who didn’t know each other.

What I learnt from this day was a new way of running a session, by using the tasks we did in the first activity. For instance, I occasionally run orienteering sessions for predominantly children, where I sometimes work back home. If I were to give each group a shorter list of similar tasks, then it may improve their experience and also serve as an icebreaker, particularly with holiday camps or peers who don’t know each other well. Another reason for doing this is that some children in a group won’t be interested in mapreading, or could struggle to keep up with a fast-paced team. Introducing some of these tasks into the activity and choosing ones which will involve all team members may help to involve the whole group more and possibly serve as breaks, particularly the less able members. It would be worth trying this out to see how well it works, as I wouldn’t want these tasks to detract too much from the main activity of orienteering.