Human Knot

Description of a Team Building Exercise

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Arrange group members in a circle.
Tell everyone to put their right hand up in the air, and then grab the hand of someone across the circle from them.
Everyone then puts their left hand up in the air and grabs the hand of a different person.
Check to make sure that everyone is holding the hands of two different people and that they are not holding hands with someone directly next to them.
Explain to the group that they must now untangle themselves to make a circle without breaking the chain of hands.
Get participants to take their time in order to limit injuries. Ask the group not to tug or pull on each other and spot participants as they pass over other participants.
If group members break the chain, they must then start over again

Useful Tips .

If you have a large group, split them up into smaller groups. If there are too many people in a human knot it becomes extremely difficult.
You can give teams a time limit on this activity to make it more challenging. You can also mute/ blindfold participants throughout the activity.
Instead of making groups start over when the chain is broken you can create penalties like blinding or muting a group member.

Equipment

Standing in a circle, group members reach across and grab other participant’s hands. The group then tries to unravel the "human knot" by untangling themselves without letting go of each other’s hands.

Total time - 20 mins