Neil Mercer (Tuval Organizational Effectiveness) is a long-time virtual friend of mine from Israel (and a FUN Follower). Years ago he shared an activity with me called, Pressure Cooker - one of the activities that lasted all the cuts over the years to make it into my latest book, Portable Teambuilding Activities. Neil and I have kept in touch ever since. Recently he shared this activity with me (he named Low-Cost Flight) that came to him early one morning - he told me he had to get out of bed to write it down before he could get back to sleep.
After a couple of emails back-and-forth, and receiving his permission to share, what you find below is how I'm presenting, what I will be calling, On Board - mostly Neil's words with some tweaks from me. I like the potential metaphorical opportunities with the name. Neil tells me he likes the name but, "It doesn't work so well in Hebrew." So he'll be staying with Lo-Cost Flight.
Neil and I can now use your help. Give this one a try and leave us some feedback in the Comments section below. I like the potential - tell us what you think!
Preparations: I will be using a 50 foot activity rope to outline the plane and the boarding door - maybe even some foam noodles to outline the wings and cockpit. I will also use two sets of numbered spots/discs - one set for the seats on the plane and one set for the passenger's seat assignments - I plan on handing out the seat assignments as the passengers (participants board the plane). With this gear I'll create the scene as shown in the diagram Neil created (see below).
Presentation: In these days of cheap air travel, airline companies are cutting back on overheads in all sorts of ways. Seat-allocation has become self-service. Take-off windows for low-cost flights have also become very tight. As such, once the plane door opens, the passengers must board and get to their seats as quickly, and safely, as possible for the on-time departure.
You are about to embark on a flight to Madagascar. Your seats are allocated according to the numbered disks that will be handed out to you at the entrance of the plane. The number on the disk is your seat number. You may only obtain a seat assignment disks once the plane door opens. The seats are numbered (with similar numbered discs) in ascending order from the front of the plane to the back and across the rows from left to right. So, seat number 1 is the furthest seat on the left hand side in the first row.
The Objective: Your traveling team is challenged to find the quickest way for all of you to board the plane and take your allocated seats (stand on matching numbered disks).
Process: You have 15 minutes to plan before you make your first official timed attempt. During your planning time, you may try as many boarding attempts as you would like. Between each attempt the seat number discs will be randomly re-set.
After your first official timed attempt you will then declare your challenging, competitive and yet doable best target time. You then have up to two more official attempts to meet or beat this target time. You will be given up to five minutes to plan before each of your next attempts, but during that time you will not be able to board the plane.
Process: You have 15 minutes to plan before you make your first official timed attempt. During your planning time, you may try as many boarding attempts as you would like. Between each attempt the seat number discs will be randomly re-set.
After your first official timed attempt you will then declare your challenging, competitive and yet doable best target time. You then have up to two more official attempts to meet or beat this target time. You will be given up to five minutes to plan before each of your next attempts, but during that time you will not be able to board the plane.
Boarding Rules:
- You must wait at the check-in desk until, “The doors are open!" call, at which point the timer will begin. The timer will stop when the last passenger is seated in their place (standing on his/her matching numbered disc).
- After picking up a numbered disc you must board the plane. Once on board you may not deplane or swap seat assignments (numbered discs) with anyone.
- You may only board the plane through the entrance and once aboard you may only move the length of the plane along the aisle or over into a row of seats.
- In the seat rows, you may walk past an empty seat (numbered disc) but you may not pass in front of an occupied one. Anyone in a seat (on a numbered disc) between you and your seat must step into the aisle so you can move to your seat.
- When everyone is seated and time has stopped, the seating order will be checked. Five seconds will be added to your overall time for each person who is out of place.
Here's a PDF of the Boarding Rules you can print out and give to the group if needed:
| onboard_boardingrules.pdf |
Here's a suggested set-up diagram provided by Neil:
Neil, thanks so much for sharing with us! I'm excited to try it out.
Have FUN out there my friends.
Chris Cavert, Ed.D.
Have FUN out there my friends.
Chris Cavert, Ed.D.
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