Building and Flying Paper Airplanes

Building and flying paper airplanes is a creative activity to exercise teamwork skills and skills in the process of continuous improvement. Who can build and fly the best paper-plane?

Supply each person in your group with one or more sheets of paper. Instruct them to design and fold their most ‘competitive’ paper-plane.

Separate your group into small teams of four to six people, and instruct them to build their best paper-plane (one only) to enter into one or more contests. They may have a different design for each level of competition.

Allow five to ten minutes for planning, making and testing. Then, once constructed, herald the start of the competition.

Once constructed, ask everyone to stand behind a line and let their plan fly.

Stand everyone along a line, or with their backs to the wall, and let ‘em fly. One at a time works best because then everyone can share in the joy (or despair) of their colleagues’ flights.

There are at least two popular competitions:

• Longest/furthest flight (in terms of distance)
• Longest flight aloft (in terms of time.)

It’s often useful to conduct several rounds for each competition. It’s up to you whether you accept the results of the final round or the best result from all rounds.

Moment of Reflection

• What did you observe during the design, test and competition phases? Was everyone on the team able to participate? Were all opinions taken into account?
• Did your results improve or worsen as the competition progressed? Why?
• Has the design and/or launch strategy changed? Why?
• Do you feel that other groups copied your idea? How did this make you feel?

The topics of this publication: interactions, strategy, collaboration, teamwork, cooperation, creativity, collaboration, integration, foster relationships, planning, motivation, disinhibition, distension