Game of the Month: Tail Pull

Purpose: Illustrate the point of working towards a common goal

Materials: 1 "tail" per participant, evenly distribute tails of 5 different colours. (tail can be made of ribbon, socks, etc.)

Description:

• Sit everyone in a circle and evenly distribute 1 of 5 different colour tails to to the group 
• Have the participants tuck the end of the tail into the band of their pants leaving the rest hang down
• Tell players, "you each have a coloured tail" the game ends when there is exactly 1 person of every color left standing. 
• The group must try and pull out other peoples tails. Once your tail is pulled, you must sit out and can no longer pull out tails

Discussion / Reflection: 
As much as you may feel the need, do not help the group come up with a strategy to successfully finish this task. What you will likely see happen is a very chaotic every man for himself approach. However, without proper planning and teamwork, this challenge will be very difficult to accomplish.  This makes the debrief even more powerful when you ask questions like:

• Why did YOU want to be the one left standing?
• What prevented your group of thinking to get together with the people of the same color and everyone pulling your own tail out except for 1 person? 
• Why don't we think of working together? 
• What got in the way of our group achieving our common goal?