Cup Stacking - Physically Distant Version
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What is an initiative?
In adventure-speak an initiative problem (aka initiative task, initiative exercise, initiative, etc.) is a clearly defined conundrum (often somewhat fancifully presented) where the solution requires creativity, team work, cooperation, leadership (particularly the initiative aspect) and at least some collective physical effort.
Some initiatives take place on low ropes elements – for example, the classic initiative task presented by a Whale Watch is to get a bunch of people who are positioned on a pivoting platform to get it to balance. Other initiatives – Photo Finish comes to mind (everyone must cross a line at exactly the same time in a mass group photo finish) require almost nothing at all. An additional source of confusion is that while some low ropes elements are initiatives, some are not. For example, a Tension Traverse is usually considered an individual challenge activity – travel as far as you can from point A to point B balanced on this cable whilst holding on to this rope. The spotters are there for safety – not shared problem-solving.
What does this all have to do with COVID-19 you may ask? Just this – while spotted activities are out-of bounds for the next little while (unless you have a lot of mats you want to disinfect on a regular basis), there are lots of initiatives available where physical distancing is designed into the initiative.
Last week we wrote about zoned activities – where people stay within their own area during the entire activity and those areas do not overlap. Zoned initiatives exist too – in Cup Stacking participants can even stay in their seats. The task of cup stacking is, not surprisingly, to create a stack of cups – the taller the better. The conundrum is that the cups may not be touched directly (and no one may leave their zone). Indeed, the only thing that may touch the cups is an elastic band. The other resource available to the group is some string – one 2 m piece of string per person. The “right” grouplet size for this initiative is three (3) to six (6) people. The “right” formation is a triangle/square/circle with folks on the outside and the stack of cups on the inside.
The group members will need to figure out that if they attach their strings to the elastic they will then be able to stretch it over the cup, lift the cup, place the cup in its location, and then re-stretch the elastic so they can go get another cup. Much communication and cooperation is required to decide on the structure (are we building a 2-D or 3-D pyramid?) and then to ultimately operate this crane. For clean up, have the grouplets put the cups back in a stack.
List of items (per group):
- 12 clean, unused cups (plastic, paper, Styrofoam)
- one (1) elastic compatible with the cups (have some back-ups in case a grouplet snaps theirs),
- one (1) 2 m string per person (wool, masonry twine, etc.).