Method and description
Mission impossible is a group building exercise which empowers participants to cooperate without the intervention of the trainer, in a self-management style. Ideally, it should be implemented on the first day of training, in any situation that the group of participants don’t know each other yet.
Instructions and more resources
Find a full Training Session Outline here on how to facilitate this activity (by the team of YoutTrain training) and the tutorial video here.
Practical information
When you might use it: When you want to build group identity, start the getting-to-know-each-other process
Time Required: This activity takes between 30 to 45 minutes, plus 15 to 30 minutes of debriefing.
How many people involved: This activity is ideal for a group of 12 to 50 people
Target: any groups
Where: any place
Materials Required: Handouts printed with the mission to prepare, pens, envelopes (1 per participant), laptop, projector, preferably a big room with one chair per participant, masking tape (to stick the envelopes under the chairs), background music from the Mission Impossible movie
Variants
The method is suitable for participants with special needs, just make sure the tasks required within the game are realistic based on their special needs. Having diverse groups brings added value to the participants’ learnings, you can ask questions related to inclusion of everybody in the teams in the reflection after the activity.
This activity can be partly done online if the teams use the Actionbound app. More about how to use Actionbound for learning is in other chapter in our Toolbox.
Author
The methodological description is based on the text produced by Olga Kuczynska. Developing Youth Work Innovation. E-handbook. Project Future Labs. Erasmus+, KA2, 2019. Publication of Humak University of Applied Sciences, page 64. Resources come from the team of YouTrain training course.
