Teambuilding Activity: The Pipeline

This is a very well-known game, but no less fun or effective, especially because you can easily transfer it to the workplace.

This activity promotes:
- Collaboration
- Communication
- Focus
- And who knows what else

Below are the instructions:

Duration: 45 minutes
Participants: 6 or more
Indoor and Outdoor
Active

Materials Needed:
- Balls/marbles of different sizes
- Half PVC pipes as gutters for all participants

Initial Setup:
Create a long playing field with a starting line and a finishing line. Place enough gutters and a variety of marbles of different sizes at the starting line. Position a bucket at the finishing line to collect the balls. Have the participants stand behind the starting line and ask them to wait before picking up a gutter.

Framework:
Explain to the participants that the gutters and balls symbolize a transport system (e.g., a student tracking system, a gold transport system, passenger flows, or anything else relevant to the group). Take a gutter and a ball, and demonstrate how the system works. Explain that there are large and small balls (representing challenging and easy students/passengers) and that they earn different points. Now, state the objective of the game: try to get as many POINTS as possible into the bucket at the finishing line as a team.

Gameplay:
Give the participants 5 minutes initially to experiment and discuss before starting the game.
The game has several rules that can be experimented with. The most important rules are:
- A ball must be introduced into the system BEFORE the starting line and can only be touched by one person.
- If a ball falls, it must be RETURNED to the starting line.
- Participants are not allowed to walk with a ball in their gutter.

Further Differentiation:
Additional rules to consider:
- Whether or not to pivot.
- Whether or not the gutters can touch each other.
- Whether or not the balls can roll back.
- All participants must start before the starting line and can only cross the starting line once the first ball is in the system.

Evaluation:
There are various ways to evaluate this game. One interesting aspect is that people always think in terms of competition. But what was the task?

How is the discussion conducted? Is knowledge from the other team (department within a company) utilized?

Safety Check:
Beware of objects that have fallen on the ground and remained there.