Trust Building Activities for Various Participants

It has been rightly said that trust is like a vase, which, once broken, cannot be fixed. For any relationship to be successful and long-lasting, trust is an essential attribute that builds up a strong bonding between the two. It is the foundation of a good and strong relationship.

Whether you work in a team or with your partner, the success of the task entirely depends upon the trust and cooperation. There are many exercises designed to assist people to develop a feeling of understanding and trust towards each other.

Other than this, they also put emphasis on mutual respect and empathy towards others. They enhance workplace communication skills as well. These activities require the participants to undergo stress, and take all kinds of risks like physical, mental, and emotional, to achieve the targets.

Building of trust does not happen all of a sudden, it is a slow and a gradual process that improves with time. So here, just not the workplace, but we have some exercises for youth and couples as well.

This activity is a little weird, but trust me, it really works, especially for large groups in workplace. Ask all the participants to stand in two parallel rows with their hand out straight, intersecting with the hands of the person standing opposite to them.

One person starts walking from one end, and as he or she passes by the corridor, the other participants raise and lower their arms. The person joins the line at the end. As the game proceeds, and the group develops confidence, ask people to walk fast or run through the gauntlet.

In the final stage, people can chop their arms up and down continuously, and stop when the person is passing.

The moment the music is switched off, all the participants have to bend their knees, and sit on the other person's knee without any support which means, the circle has to be self-supportive. The circle (in sitting position) will not form if participants are away from each other. This is a very good team building activity for the workplace.

All the participants need to close their eyes, and stand very close to each other in a circle. Now while their eyes are still closed, ask them to hold each others hand. Once everybody is holding two other hands, ask them to open the eyes. The group is now in a complete mess. The task is to untie the knot of hands, without leaving the hands they have held.

In this activity, the participants need to sit in a chair, and they will be taken to a strange planet (imaginary), where they need to struggle for the survival, and cooperate with others to survive.

According to the rules of the game, in this planet, the participants cannot communicate verbally because there is no medium for the sound to travel, and only four people can stand at a time for not more than ten seconds due to strange gravitational force.

For survival, four people must keep standing (not more than 10 seconds). The team needs to cooperate without any verbal communication which means, they must have a good command over nonverbal communication.

The participants are divided into pairs. The partners need to stand facing each other approximately at a distance of two to three feet, with their palms facing the other at the level of the chest.

Both the partners need to lean on each other one by one, and allow their hands to meet in the middle. They have to push each other slowly, so that they are back to their position. This game is very similar to the movement of a spring. The partners can increase the distance once they develop faith.

An area is defined for the game, objects are scattered all around the floor of the room as obstacles. Mark few places as dangerous or life-threatening.

One of the partners is blindfolded, and made to stand on one side of the imaginary minefield. The other partner, standing on the other side, has to guide his partner through verbal communication, to cross the minefield safely in a stipulated time. While guiding, the person should keep calm, and he should not panic, and put his partner's life in danger.

Through these activities, we see how vital trust is, for couples as well as teams. These activities are good for team building, and also develop mutual understanding and cooperation.