This is a great simple but very effective exercise that can be adapted for any amount of numbers. The aim of this basic activity is for all the team members to support a long stick using a single finger each. The stick is then to be lowered to the ground without the stick losing contact with any of the fingers, but it isn't as easy as it sounds!

The stick will want to rise as you try and lower, this is because the collective force used to keep fingers in contact with the stick is greater than the gravitational force (weight) of the stick. The participants will need their thinking caps on if they are to complete this icebreaker!

Once the Raising the Stakes icebreaker is complete, we will carry out a short debrief and analysis to see how the teams and participants managed the effect of the rising stick and what was done to overcome this. You will find that some teams worked a lot better than others! The participants will learn vital team working skills such as communication and problem solving, this will portray back to your working environment when delegates are under pressure.