At their core families have the same needs as these other types of organizations,

• Leadership,
• Communication,
• Common Vision,
• Sense of Belonging,
• Contribution to the group

to name a few.

In this section you will find activities that you can do with your family that are not only fun but will help you reinforce these characteristics in your family team.

Most of these activities can be done with little or no preparation time and with readily available items in your home. I also want to admit up front most of these activities have been adapted from the work of other corporate trainers, educators, coaches and the occasional tavern owner. Where ever I can I will identify the original source.

So lets get started building your team and have some fun along the way.

Looking at Things Differently

Sometimes we need to take the time to examine how we think about even the most common everyday choices we make. This exercise uses some of the most common things we use every day: Letters of the alphabet and numbers. We all know the letters and numbers we use. Many of us even know some of the rules for their usage. You know, I before E, the vowels are AEIOU etc. In this exercise you are asked to look at them differently.

What you need to play

All that is required for this activity is a piece of paper and something to write with. To make it fun use colored markers and big sheets of paper. You can make it a bit more fun if you use wooden block letters or mailbox letters. If you go this route you will need two sets.

How to play

Write or arrange the block letters as follows:

AEFHIKLMNTVWXYZ / COS / BDGJPQRU

If you prefer to use numbers arrange them like this

147 / 03689 / 25

Cover them up and allow each member of the family to view them for 10 seconds and then cover them up again. Have the family reproduce the letter groups as a team. This will probably take some doing and involve discussion and negotiating. Add repeated viewings until the family is successful.

Encourage team work to solve the problem and discuss various approaches to gathering the needed information. HINT: There is a reason the letters are grouped so try to avoid just memorizing the list.

This is an interesting exercise in perception. It also helps foster communication and consensus building among the family members. As you see there are two parts to this activity first to complete the task and second to understand why it is completed in the way it is. It is fun to find out which family members can find the small details that make each order meaningful. It can also be fun to have the family find other patterns.

A second variation to get you started is found in the following arrangement of letters or numbers:

ABDOPQR / CEFGHIJKLMNSTUVWXYZ

Or

04689 / 12357

If that is not enough my personal favorite is the following pattern:

8549176320

Oh by the way if you want the answers scroll to the bottom of this page. Have fun and keep playing.

If you have a favorite activity or game you would like to share please
Send it to me
And I will post it here for all of us to enjoy.

Answers:

In the first example all the numbers or letters are organized according by all those with straight lines only (A M), those with curved lines only (C O), and those with both (B P).

In the second example they are organized by the ones that are open (E F) and those that are closed (D Q).

In the last example each of the numbers are arranged in alphabetical order.