Trolleys

1. In advance, assess your group’s physical abilities and spotting skills as required for this exercise.
2. Clearly identify a uniformly flat area with a starting line and finishing line (approx 10 to 15 metres apart.)
3. Lay the trolleys behind the starting line.
4. Objective: Challenge your group to use the wooden trolleys to travel from the starting line and past the finishing line without anyone touching the ground.
5. If one or more participants touch the ground, apply a suitable penalty (go to Leadership Tips tab for ideas.)
6. When ready, allow up to 20 minutes to complete the task (or other time as will challenge your group.)
7. Process your group’s experience at the conclusion of the task.

• Inspect the traversing area for uneven or unsafe ground cover and other obstructions.
• Inspect and confirm the integrity of the boards and the hand ropes.
• Plan an appropriate sequence of lead-up activities to prepare your group (physically, emotionally & mentally) for success.
• Present the problem clearly, review recommended spotting guidelines and answer questions before your group starts their journey.
• Assume necessary spotting role when required.

• Be an active spotter at all times, ie this is generally regarded as a self-spotting exercise.
• Offer support to all group members both physically (spotting) and emotionally (supporting and contributing.)
• Agree to communicate before moving as a group.
• Agree to let go of the hand ropes and step off the boards if a fall is imminent.

Like no other activity, trolleys do not tolerate sloppy teamwork. It demands a coordinated effort and anything less will result in a stumble or other penalty. To this end, this initiative is ideal for teaching anything related to teamwork.

Caution your group that, like dominoes, when one person falls forward (or backward) it is highly likely that this will cause a knock-on effect that will impact others.

Depending on the design of your trolleys, there is typically very little room between each participant. This can be too close for some people so keep this in mind when contemplating the suitability of this exercise for your group.

You need a wide flat space for the trolleys to travel lest you cause the weight of your group to snap the long boards as they traverse over a small hill.

If you’re feeling generous, invite your group to use the area behind the starting line to practice the highly refined skill of moving with the trolleys. This way, they can practise their coordination skills and any falls are not penalised.

When a person falls off the trolleys, you have a range of ‘penalties’ at your disposal:

• Simply count the number of touches on the ground in an effort to keep them to a minimum;
• Those who touch the ground are required to resume their position on the board but without holding the hand ropes, ie they are given to one of their neighbours;
• Those who touched the ground will get back on the boards facing the opposite direction;
• The person who touches the ground moves to the front of the trolleys to lead the march; or
• The whole group starts over from the beginning.

Note, some groups adopt the strategy of standing only on one board (both feet) and then using the hand ropes to shift the other board forward, before swapping boards and repeating the process. This is a particularly creative idea (requiring a lot less coordination) and may suit your programmatic purposes. If not, you may need to frame the task as requiring one foot on one board at all times.

If you have a large group, split them into two groups and challenge them to use the trolleys to travel safely to the other side (one team at a time.)

You could integrate Trolleys as part of a well-designed SEL program to promote and maintain healthy and supportive relationships and to effectively navigate settings with diverse people.

Specifically, this activity offers ample opportunities to explore and practice the following social & interpersonal skills:

Self-Awareness

• Demonstrating Self-Confidence, Honesty & Integrity
• Experiencing Self-Efficacy
• Having A Growth Mindset

Self-Management

• Demonstrating Self-Discipline & Self-Motivation
• Setting Personal & Group Goals
• Taking Initiative
• Use Planning & Organisational Skills

Social Awareness

• Taking Other’s Perspectives
• Demonstrating Empathy & Compassion
• Understanding & Expressing Gratitude
• Recognising Strengths In Others
• Respecting Others

Relationship Skills

• Communicate & Listen Effectively
• Seeking and/or Offering Support
• Build Positive Relationships
• Demonstrate Cultural Competency
• Work Collaboratively
• Showing Leadership
• Resolving Conflict Constructively

Responsible Decision-Making

• Identifying Problems
• Making Reasoned Judgements
• Identifying Solutions
• Anticipating & Evaluating the Consequences of One’s Actions
• Promoting Personal & Collective Well-Being

You can learn more about SEL and how it can support character education here.

Behavioural Norms

The machinations of this fun group initiative will invite your group to interact and engage with each other in a manner that would necessarily speak to the benefits of having developed a set of supportive and healthy behavioural norms in advance. Or, if not, you could focus on any less-than-desired interactions or outcomes to explore what sorts of behaviours your group would prefer to see and commit to in the future.

For example, in addition to those described in the Reflection Tips tab, you could invite your group to reflect on the following questions to explore a variety of full value behaviours such as:

• How did the group demonstrate its ability to care for self and others?
• Generally speaking, how did the group make decisions? How were all members involved?
• Describe your group’s goal-setting process?
• Was everyone fully aware of the group’s goal? If not, why not?
• What types of leadership were demonstrated during the exercise? Were they effective?
• Was adaptability a key component of the group’s success? How?
• Were there moments of safety (physical, emotional or mental) that concerned you? Why?

Resilience

Coordinating a small team to perform the same movements at the same time, over and over again is tough. To this end, you can expect this task to demand a high degree of resiliency from your team. Invite your group to view their success or otherwise through the lens of resilience insofar as building their ability to fall down and get back up again, frequently.

• Round The Bend: Plot a course that requires the trolleys to turn around corners or curves.
• Reverse Walk: Challenge your group to complete the task facing backwards.
• Non-Verbal: Complete the entire task without verbal forms of communication.
• Trio Trolleys: Introduce a third board with hand ropes and align it with the other two. Instruct one half of your group to stand on the 1st and 2nd boards, and the other half of your group to stand on the 2nd and 3rd boards, ie everyone has one foot on the 2nd board. Challenge your group to co-ordinate their efforts to traverse the nominated space using the three boards.

This next activity will absolutely challenge your group to coordinate your efforts because anything less will cause you to fail in your attempts to travel from here to there…

Have you ever stacked a line of dominoes in a pattern so that when you push one of them, the whole lot of them fall over over one at a time? Now while this may be a lot of fun when you play with dominoes, this same knock-on effect will probably frustrate you in your next group initiative…

Coupled with one or more reflection strategies, here are some sample questions you could use to process your group’s experience after leading this fun group initiative:

• What did you notice during the execution stage of the activity?
• What frustrated you? Why?
• Which skills are absolutely critical to be successful in this exercise?
• Did you ever think you could not complete this task? When and why?
• At what point did your group realise you could complete this task?
• How might this exercise reflect on how we work as a group/team?
• What lessons can we learn from the trolleys?