Step-by-Step Instructions
- Form into teams of three to five people.
- By way of demonstration, ask two people from a team to volunteer and hold one sheet of paper between the palms of one of their hands.
- Each team is challenged to assist two of their group members to hold as many pieces of paper off the ground by using only their bodies.
- To guide fair play, announce that:
– Only one sheet of paper can be affixed between any two body parts;
– No adhesives can be used to hold paper to one’s body;
– Folding the paper is not permitted;
– Each sheet of paper must be in contact with both team members; and
– No two sheets of paper can be touching.
- Distribute sheets of paper to each team, and announce “GO.”
- Allow up to 10 minutes and survey the results.
Video Tutorial
How To Play Narrative
This paper holding game is a wonderfully simple and fun exercise to stimulate the creative juices of your group. I am often amazed at what people come up with to solve this problem.
Kick off by asking your group to break into groups of at least three people. Four works well, but any more than five and you risk some folks having little to do.
This is one of those exercises where a picture tells a thousand words.
Ask for one team to step forward and invite two of their members to hold out one hand to press one sheet of paper between their palms. You could then add a second piece of paper, to be held between the palms of their other hands, but most groups get the idea at this point.
With this vision in mind, announce that you would like to challenge each team to work together to find the best way to support as many sheets of paper off the ground between two of their group members, in say, 10 minutes.
There are limitless perspectives of what success looks like in this exercise, so a few critical parameters are useful to guide fair play. Explain the following guidelines:
- Only one sheet of paper can be affixed / pressed between any two body parts;
- No adhesives can be used to hold a sheet of paper to one’s body;
- All paper must remain un-folded;
- Each sheet of paper must be in contact with both team members; and
- No two sheets of paper can be touching.
Clear any questions and “What if…?” type scenarios, and call “GO.”
Either, distribute a wad of paper to each team, or establish a central pile, and ask that each group take what they need when they need it.
This paper holding game represents a simple task, but not easy, if you know what I mean. Have fun.
Practical Leadership Tips
Given that two people are using their bodies to accomplish this task – quite intimately in some cases – consider your sequence before introducing this exercise to ensure your group is well prepared to get involved.
You will note that one of the guidelines is to not fold any sheets of the paper. This only became a guideline after one very inventive team affixed more than 60 sheets of paper between their team-mates. Multiply this by ten or more teams, and you start to ‘waste’ a lot of paper.
Ideally, try to use paper which has been used, discarded and placed in a recycling container.
In the spirit of the environmentally-friendly Three Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle), please consider what you will do with these somewhat wrinkled sheets of paper at the end of the exercise. For example, present another paper-fuelled activity such as Paper Tower to re-use the paper.
For the record, the best effort I have seen has been 27 sheets of paper (Australia, May 2017.) If your group can do better, send me a photo and I’ll update this entry.
Popular Variations
- Trio Challenge: As above, involving three people collaborating on the same task.
- Partnership Challenge: As above, but in teams of only two people. This means, the pair need to work out how to distribute the sheets of paper and keep a hold of the paper they are already pressed against. Very difficult, but very fun.
- Speed Round: Allow only two minutes to solve the problem.
- Alternative Media: Use smaller pieces of paper, or fabric, indeed, any material.
- Take a look at Paper Tower and Air-Powered Vehicle to explore two more paper-infused team challenges.
Useful Framing Ideas
How creative are you? This next exercise will require you to really think creatively about how to solve what seems like a really simple problem…
At first glance, you would not think that keeping 10, 20 or even 30 sheets of paper off the ground would be very hard at all. Except for one very important detail – each sheet of paper needs to be held between the bodies of two people…
Reflection Tips & Strategies
Coupled with one or more reflection strategies, here are some sample questions you could use to process your group’s experience after playing this unique problem-solving exercise:
- Describe the flow of the exercise – did it start quickly, and then slow down? Or the other way around?
- What was the most challenging part of this exercise? Why?
- Did anything surprise you during the activity?
Source
Did this with a group of 35 x 8-12 year olds. They had a fantastic time! Loved it!