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Exercises/Relationship Mapping/Building the Tower
Relationship Mapping

Building the Tower

Building the Tower is a relationship mapping exercise that helps participants build useful connections and understand how people, roles, or ideas relate.

5 to 15 minutesTIME
Medium group (9-25), Small group (4-8)GROUP SIZE
BalancedENERGY
In personSETTING
High cognitive loadCOGNITIVE LOAD
Strengthens Network Design This relationship mapping exercise strengthens Network Design, one of the eight Gathering Effectiveness pillars.

How to run it

  1. After 10 minutes of building, have a representative from each group present their tower to the other groups.
  2. Report Back: 10 min Give some candy to everyone who participated, and debrief!
  3. Building the Tower From Teampedia Jump to: navigation, search Contents 1 Objectives 2 Group Size 3 Materials 4 Set Up 5 Directions 6 Debrief Objectives Communication Collaboration Team Strategy Illustrate the importance of collaboration among groups working to achieve similar goals.
  4. Demonstrate how competition can be potentially destructive.
  5. Group Size Medium Materials 1 pre-built tower made from: 15 Paper Cups 25 Popsicle Sticks 5 sheets of Construction Paper enough Masking Tape to hold it together 3 packets containing the following items: Packet 1 1 roll of Masking Tape 10 Paper Cups 25 Popsicle Sticks 4 sheets of construction paper Packet 2 12” strip of Masking Ta
Live facilitator

Run this exercise live

The facilitator console stays in this browser. Its QR handoff is a short-lived participant snapshot containing only public exercise instructions, phase, prompt, and timer state.

Prompts to use +

After 10 minutes of building, have a representative from each group present their tower to the other groups.

Report Back: 10 min Give some candy to everyone who participated, and debrief!

Building the Tower From Teampedia Jump to: navigation, search Contents 1 Objectives 2 Group Size 3 Materials 4 Set Up 5 Directions 6 Debrief Objectives Communication Collaboration Team Strategy Illustrate the importance of collaboration among groups working to achieve similar goals.

Demonstrate how competition can be potentially destructive.

Group Size Medium Materials 1 pre-built tower made from: 15 Paper Cups 25 Popsicle Sticks 5 sheets of Construction Paper enough Masking Tape to hold it together 3 packets containing the following items: Packet 1 1 roll of Masking Tape 10 Paper Cups 25 Popsicle Sticks 4 sheets of construction paper Packet 2 12” strip of Masking Ta

Run this with your AI assistant +

Works with Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or your own local model: paste this prompt and your AI will co-facilitate this exercise with you.

Adapt this exercise for my exact room. Exercise: Building the Tower. Readiness: Publishable Draft. Core moves: After 10 minutes of building, have a representative from each group present their tower to the other groups.; Report Back: 10 min Give some candy to everyone who participated, and debrief!; Building the Tower From Teampedia Jump to: navigation, search Contents 1 Objectives 2 Group Size 3 Materials 4 Set Up 5 Directions 6 Debrief Objectives Communication Collaboration Team Strategy Illustrate the importance of collaboration among groups working to achieve similar goals.; Demonstrate how competition can be potentially destructive.. Return a concise facilitator script with timing, wording, safety notes, and remote/in-person adjustments.

Origin unverified

  • Where we observed it: The current corpus has one observed source organization: Teampedia. (1 source observed, including Teampedia.)
  • What that means: we track where an exercise has been observed in public sources. We do not claim to know who created it, or how popular it is.
  • No efficacy claims: appearing in this library is not a claim that the exercise is proven effective. Facilitator judgment and context decide whether it works for a given room.
  • Corrections: if you have evidence of an earlier or more accurate source, read our methodology and trust boundary and tell us.

Pairs well with