Last week we ran a game for 300 future lawyers on their first day of law school, and the next day we ran a game for 150 future doctors on their first day of medical school. These games were run at 2 big colleges here in LA. Historically, their sports teams have been rivals, but the competition at the orientation games was of a different nature altogether.
A trend toward including team building and orientation games at colleges is waxing and I think that’s great news. It’s satisfying and rewarding to see the committees who plan college orientation recognize the benefit of starting with a team building game. When you think in contrast to instruction simply beginning with instruction, you realize that students who form bonds with their classmates have more invested in the school and will yield proportionate benefits. They have a support network and a familiarity with the campus grounds. Students start off on the right foot forming positive, playful, and optimistic associations around their classmates and the facility. Everyone wins.
Here is the Top 5 ideas for a college orientation team building game.
1. Bigger teams are OK.
Generally, when Greg and I run Clockwise or Funcyclopedia, or our other urban hunt games, we try to keep team sizes down to 4-8 so everyone gets a chance to participate. However, oftentimes the incoming students are already broken up into clusters or study groups of one kind or another and it’s valuable to have them playing with each other. We’ll put players on groups of 10 or even 12 or 13. It turns out that younger people aren’t as bashful about making their voices heard, even on a bigger team. We do coach players to make sure all voices are being heard, but there’s only so much you can put in the debrief.
2. Diversity is key.
This is the case with a lot of our games: we include a melange of challenge types so everyone has the chance to be the hero. Whether you’re the puzzle solver or a champ at catching balls in a bucket on your head, you have attributes the team needs. And don’t forget the less flashy skills that help a team succeed: navigating around campus, budgeting time, keeping the gear from getting lost. Everyone on the team has to contribute, and we often find the most engaged players comprise the highest-performing teams.
3. It’s OK to make the puzzles harder.
If you just got into med school or law school, you’ve cracked a couple of books. You know a thing or two about a thing or two. We don’t bring out our absolutely most mind-melting puzzles for these games, but we’re not shy about bringing the tough stuff. And the students always impress us.
4. Team names matter.
The first group of med school students we ran this particular game for are graduating this year. I have confirmation that some of the groups who played our game on the first day still do movie nights and hang-out sessions and refer to each other by the name they selected on that first day, when they played our game. So pick a good team name! Don’t go with something generic like “Red Section 8″ or “The Winners.” It could be on a recycled trophy some day! Also remember to write your team name on your score card. Otherwise your team’s score will be zero.
5. Get outside and play.
When you tour a campus, the first thing you notice is the grounds. It’s also the first thing you stop appreciating. Enjoy being outside and playing. As you get a bit older and look at college kids, you realize it’s not so very long ago that they were kid-kids, racing outside to play at recess. Something about the spark in that kid going nuts on the playground fueled him or her to get accepted to med school, law school, grad school, any school. Honor that spark. Don’t put it to rest just because you got it here. Keep playing.
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