Trust Building Activities

It has been rightly said about trust that it is like a vase, which once broken cannot be fixed. For any relationship to be successful and long-lasting, trust is an essential attribute that builds up a strong bonding between the two. Trust is the foundation of a good and strong relationship. Whether you work in a team or with your partner, the success of the task entirely depends upon the trust and cooperation. There are many trust building exercises designed to assist people to develop understanding and trust towards each other. Other than this, it also emphasis on mutual respect and empathy towards others. The activities to build trust enhance workplace communication skills as well. These trust building activities require the participants to undergo stress and take all kinds of risks, like physical, mental and emotional, to achieve the targets. Building of trust does not happen all of a sudden, it is a slow and a gradual process that improves with time. So here, just not the workplace, but we have some exercises for youth as well as couples.

Activities to Build Trust

These activities concentrate on establishing an impregnable bond between the participants and provides them with an environment or situation to work with cooperation to solve various problems. These activities also aim to emphasize on the importance of communication, whether verbal or non-verbal, and of course to develop good relationships. So, here we go for some activities for workplace, youth as well as couples.

For Workplace

Slice and Dice
This activity is a little weird, but trust me! it really works especially for large groups in workplace. Ask all the participants to stand in two parallel rows with their hand out and straight intersecting with the hands of the person standing opposite to them. One person starts walking from one end and as he or she passes by the corridor, the other participants raise and lower their arms. The person joins the line at the end. As the game proceeds and the group develops trust and confidence, ask people to walk fast or run through the gauntlet. In the final stage, people can chop their arms up and down continuously and stop when the person is passing. Try it!

Musical Chair
This activity for a group demands mutual understanding. The participants need to stand in a tight group holding the waist of the person standing in front. As soon as the music begins, all of them need to run fast without breaking the circle. The moment the music is switched off, all the participants have to bend their knees and sit on the other person's knee without any support which means, the circle has to be self-supportive. The circle (in sitting position) will not form if participants are away from each other. This is a very good team building activity for the workplace.

For Youth

Untie Human Knot
All the participants need to close their eyes and stand very close to each other in a circle. Now ask everybody to hold each others hand (the eyes should still remain closed), and once everybody is holding two other hands, they can now open the eyes. The group is now in a complete mess. The task is to untie the knot of hands without leaving the hands that they have held.

Struggle for Survival
In this activity the participants need to sit in a chair and they will be taken to a strange planet (imaginary) where they need to struggle for the survival and cooperate with other as well to survive. According to the rules of the game, in this planet the participants cannot communicate verbally because there is no medium for the sound to travel and only four people can stand at a time for not more than ten seconds due to strange gravitational force. And to survive on this planet four people must keep standing (not more than 10 seconds). The team needs to cooperate without any verbal communication which means, they must have good command over nonverbal communication.

For Couples

Human Spring
The participants are divided into pairs. The partners need to stand facing each other approximately at a distance of two to three feet with their palms facing the other at the level of the chest. Both the partners need to lean on each other one by one and allow their hand to meet in the middle. They have to push each other slowly so that they are back to their position. This game is very similar to the movement of a spring. Such activities to build trust in a relationship enables more confidence and faith in each others. The partners can increase the distance once they develop faith.

Mine Field
An area is defined for the game, objects are scattered all around the floor of the room as obstacles. Mark few places as dangerous or life-threatening. One of the partners is blindfolded and made to stand on one side of the imaginary minefield. The other partner standing on the other side has to guide his partner through verbal communication to cross the minefield safely in a stipulated time. While instructing the voice of the partner should be calm and he should not panic and put his partners life in danger.

Through these activities, we see how vital is trust for couples, a team or for an organization. These activities to build trust are also good for team building activities, also as it involves mutual understanding and cooperation.