Train Crossing | Leadership Heights

LEADERSHIP TRAILS

Train Crossing

Business

Welcome to the Business Leadership Trail. These 6 trail activities will place you in business-like scenarios and ask you to use your skills of communication, conflict resolution, group leadership, evaluation, and negotiation to accomplish your goals. Work with your team to practice the skills of leadership while also practicing the most important scouting skill, having fun!

Another busy day in the big city has begun and you have to get to work! You’re crossing the crosswalk in a hurry to get to your train and you find yourself in a sticky situation. Signs have gone up overnight telling pedestrians that they must cross this intersection in a very particular way. Work with your group to cross the crosswalk, before you run late for your train!

Goal

Switch the direction of two lines of scouts so that they move past each other and are facing opposite directions.

Goal

Switch the direction of two lines of scouts so that they move past each other and are facing opposite directions.

Purpose

Practice communication, problem solving, and group leadership.

Materials

An indicator for the empty space.

Setup

Form two lines of scouts, facing each other, with a blank space in the middle.

Purpose

Practice communication, problem solving, and group leadership.

Materials

An indicator for the empty space.

Setup

Form two lines of scouts, facing each other, with a blank space in the middle.

Running the game

Everyone can play this game, without choosing a facilitator from the group. If there is an adult with you, they can observe and help you follow the rules. The game is simple.

Start with two lines of scouts, facing each other, with space for a single scout between them. The diagram below shows the set up with 8 scouts. In the diagram, the goal would be to move the 4 scouts depicted by the orange arrows into the four spaces with blue arrows and vice versa.

There are two rules for movement. First, scouts may only move forward, no participant may move backward. Second, scouts may only move forward into an empty space or around a scout that is facing the opposite direction of them, into an empty space. For example, in the diagram below there are only two legal moves.Either the orange scout labeled 1 moves forward, around the blue scout labeled one or, the blue scout with the label 2 moves up.

You may try as many times as you wish until you find a solution, but we recommend setting a time limit of 8 minutes for yourself.

Debrief

The following debrief questions are meant to give you an opportunity to discuss with your patrol mates and reflect on the game. You can have one leader ask the discussion questions or you could take turns asking the questions, making sure everyone’s voice is heard.

What helped the group be successful in completing this challenge? What prevented the group from being successful?
Did it take multiple attempts to be successful? What strategies were successful? What strategies were not successful? Why do you think this was?
What did you learn from the groups’ unsuccessful attempts to solve the problem and achieve the goal?
Did the group eventually find a solution? If not, do you think there even is a solution? If you think there is no solution, why not?
Did anyone in the group give up or become frustrated? How did your group manage to overcome those challenges?
Did all group members participate equally? In what ways did group members participate differently? In what way did each role contribute differently to thegroup’s success?
What have you learned from this activity that can be applied in the future when working on a team?