Stepping Stones

1. Designate two ‘safe zone’ areas approx eight to twelve metres (25′ – 40′) apart.
2. Ask your group to stand within one of the safe zones, and supply every person with one stepping stone, plus one extra for the group.
3. The group’s task is to cross between the two safe areas, without touching the ground in between.
4. All movements across the area will necessarily involve the use of the stepping stones, with two conditions:
   – Everyone must remain in contact with the stepping stones at all times; and
   – If a stone is left untouched while it is placed within the forbidden area, that stone may be taken away from the group.
5. Also, if someone happens to touch into the forbidden area, the group will be required to start over.
6. Allow your group 20 to 30 minutes to complete the task.
7. When ready, invite your group to reflect on what happened and what they may have learned.

Another in a long line of classic group problem-solving activities.

In advance, designate two areas between which you would like your group to traverse, a distance of approx eight to twelve metres (25′ – 40′.)

As a general rule of thumb, provide a distance of one metre (3′) for every person in your group. Lay boundary ropes, or use two parallel lines on your gym floor, etc to identify the safe zones.

Ask your group to stand within one of the safe zones, and supply every person with one stepping stone, plus one extra for the group (for good luck.)

Take a look at the Leadership Tips tab for stepping stone ideas.

Explain that the group’s task is to cross between the two ‘safe’ areas, but no one is allowed to touch into the ‘forbidden’ area at any time. This means that all movements across the area will necessarily involve the use of stepping stones. However, the stepping stones possess two critical qualities:

• Everyone must remain in contact with the stepping stones at all times; and
• If a stone is left untouched while it is placed within the forbidden area – even for a split second – that stone may be taken away from the group.

Also, explain that if someone happens to touch into the forbidden area – with any part of their body, eg hands, feet, etc – the group will be required to start over.

Furthermore, if that person happens to be the only person touching a particular stepping stone at the time they touch the forbidden area, the group will lose that stone as well. Brutal, yeah, I know.

Announce that the group has 20 to 30 minutes (your choice, depending on group size, athletic prowess, distance, type of stones, etc) in which to complete the task.

It’s often recommended to provide your group with five minutes of planning time to consider their options and discuss possible solutions. This is a great time for your group to practice the fine art of stepping stone placement and movement. Or not.

Your primary role now is to watch with eagle-eyes the movement and use of the stepping stones, hoping to catch unattended stones immediately.

You have many ‘stepping stone’ options. From simple props such as sheets of newspaper, carpet tiles, and rubber poly spots, to much more sophisticated versions of foot-print sized blocks of wood or ethafoam. Ideally, choose an object that elevates a person’s foot off the ground (by 10 to 30mm) because it will be much easier to identify when someone touches the floor or not.

If you have a large group, divide them into smaller teams of approx eight to fifteen people.

As with many group initiatives, you can nominate a time frame within which you want your group to solve the problem. Or not.

Observe the existence, or lack thereof, a contingency plan. That is, what happens if in the process of travelling from A to B, one or more people get stranded without an easy means to move. A useful debrief point perhaps, particularly, if this behaviour reflects the life of your group.

You could integrate Stepping Stones as part of a well-designed SEL program to help your group make caring and constructive choices about personal behaviour and social interactions across different situations.

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

• Identifying & Managing Stress
• 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
• Appreciating Diversity
• Recognising Strengths In Others
• Respecting Others

Relationship Skills

• Communicate & Listen Effectively
• Seeking and/or Offering Support
• Build Positive Relationships
• Work Collaboratively
• Showing Leadership

Responsible Decision-Making

• Demonstrating Curiosity & Open-Mindedness
• 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.

Goals-Setting, Resilience & Adaptability

Depending on your framing, the group initiative is a perfect vehicle to help your group set effective goals because there are so many moving parts, eg humans, who lose concentration, balance and agility, time pressures, limited resources, etc. And if set appropriately, you can expect a healthy dose of resilience and adaptability to be necessary for most groups to achieve. To these ends, consider making one or more of these characteristics the focus of your program design.

For example, this is a crossing activity, meaning that the purpose is to go over something in order to get to the other side. It is a great place to introduce a metaphor such as “Our group needs to get past a lot of complaining. By doing this activity, by crossing safely over to the other side, we will use some productive strategies to better cooperate and free ourselves of these complaints.”

A nice co-creation idea for this activity is to invite group members to label each block with a behaviour that will assist in a successful crossing. Some examples might be to avoid blaming, help others stay connected to their block, share block space, offer ideas, listen to others, don’t be hard on yourself, and enjoy the journey.

When it comes time to reflect on their experience, there are lots of letting go and moving on outcomes your group can focus on. In addition to those described in the Reflection Tips tab, here are some questions you may consider asking:

• When a stepping stone was taken away because you lost attention, what thoughts and feelings went through your head? Did you feel amused, guilty, unconcerned, responsible, angry, or anxious? Why?
• How did you feel other members of the group reacted to the loss of the stepping stones?
• Did the reactions to losing the stones help or hinder the progress of the group? Why?
• Did you feel the need to ‘hold on’ to your stepping stone and how did that affect the success of the group?
• How did letting go of blaming yourself for a mistake (eg losing contact with a stone, stepping off a stone) change how you felt about the activity?
• How did letting go of blaming other people for their mistakes and offering encouragement change how you felt about the activity?
• Did using the behaviour labels you chose help with enjoyment and success?
• How did this activity connect to conflicts that you have had with groupmates that will help you resolve those conflicts?
• Can you recall a negative experience that you have held onto in life that you might have been better off letting go of?
• What does letting go have to do with forgiveness and how is that connected to living a healthier life?

Behavioural Norms

With such a dynamic group activity, you can expect many opportunities to explore the development of healthy cultural norms. For example, follow these steps to help your group reflect on the health of their relationships.

1. Identify which interpersonal skills(s) you want to focus on, eg healthy relationships.
2. Ask each person to write a personal quality or strength that they think contributes to [ healthy relationships ] on one of the stones.
3. Present the activity as described.

Invite your group to reflect on their experience by posing the following questions:

• Thinking of the words you wrote on your stepping stones, which qualities or strengths were exercised during the task?
• Which ones were not?
• Why are these qualities important when working with others?
• In small groups, discuss which one or two qualities or strengths are the most important to developing [ enter your program focus, eg healthy relationships, resilience, etc. ]
• Report back to the large group to share your results.

– thanks to Richard Maizell for contributing some parts of the programming ideas above.

• Stepping Stones Challenge 1: Vary the number of stepping stones each person starts with. Generally speaking, the more athletic and high-performance your group is, the fewer stones they need. On the other hand, if you are working with people who have short attention spans, you may wish to supply up to three stones per person to allow for several ‘lack of concentration’ mistakes.
• Stepping Stones Challenge 2: Consider your many alternatives for penalties, eg only the person who touches into the forbidden area is required to start again, or that person plus one other (the group gets to choose) must return to the start, etc.
• Crossing Paths: Divide your group into two, and ask each half to start from opposing safe zones, ie they may cross in the centre. The goal is the same, to safely transport every person to the other safe zone, but note the propensity of one half or both to assist the other, or not.
• Twin Tasks: Take a look at Madagascar Rescue, which combines Stepping Stones with Turn Over A New Leaf to enjoy a fully-integrated and playful travelling initiative.

Before we start this next exercise, I would like each of you to think of one positive quality or attribute that has helped your group to be successful. [allow a few moments for some suggestions…] Okay, I would like you all to write one of these attributes on a piece of tape and then place it on your stepping stone. [distribute stones…] It’s okay if the same word or phrase is used several times, but if you have more than one you have thought of, write something unique on your tape. [allow time for writing and sticking…] Ready? Your task is to use these qualities to successfully traverse an area that you cannot touch into. Sometimes, your group may even lose one or more of these attributes if it fails to focus on what’s important…

One of the most difficult skills to master is that of discipline and focus. Most of us are good at it for short bursts of time, but generally speaking, it takes a lot of effort and disciple to remain focused on a particular task for long periods. This next task will certainly challenge your group to stay on task. Indeed, the penalties for not keeping focused may mean the difference between success and failure for your group…

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

• What did you notice during this experience?
• How well did your planning process work? Did your plan go to plan?
• What were the most difficult parts of the exercise? Why, and how did your group manage them?
• Did you develop a contingency plan, in case things went awry? Why?
• Did your group strike a healthy balance between planning and execution? Give examples.