Mission Impossible

“Mission Impossible” is a non-formal education method which can be used at the beginning of a project, in order to foster communication, team building and cooperation between participants who do not necessarily have to know each other beforehand.

The aim of this method is to encourage the participants to cooperate and fulfil a certain
number of tasks in a set time, as a team.

Practitioners:

This method was adapted to the specific of the CREAction4EU project by Alexandra Peca (Head of Democracy & Human Rights). Alexandra has been working as a project manager for the past 4 years, focusing on the topics of youth participation, civic education, youth work, digital education, human rights. As a former Promoter for European Democracy, a project of the European Parliament Liaison Office in Romania, Alexandra is dedicated to creating at GEYC an environment in which young people feel involved and empowered, they know their rights and they develop a responsible attitude toward civic and democratic engagement.

Objectives:

The objectives of this method are to:

> Develop the participants’ skills of working under pressure;
> Foster collaboration between participants;
> Foster the ability of the participants to prioritise;
> Make them think about their skills and how they can be useful to a business idea.

Structure of the process:

Gather all the participants and explain that, for the next 50 minutes (or however long you wish to make the activity, the time frame can be edited), they will have to work together to accomplish a mission impossible. In order to fulfil the mission, all the tasks have to be correctly executed before the time runs out.

In order to avoid the waste of paper, we recommend that you post the template on the Facebook/Whatsapp group of the project, if you are using one.

The participants will have to discuss and agree on who does what in the group, because the key to solving this mission will be the delegation of tasks and assigning a leader who will check on the status of each task.

Template: https://bit.ly/missionimpossibleactivity

Your Approach:

The method can be adapted according to your type of activity, but in this case we have adapted it to be used in an entrepreneurial context. Beside teaching them collaboration and team building, this method can be a very good exercise of business brainstorming. The participants will have to come up with a lot of ideas in a short amount of time, which will teach them that, sometimes, as entrepreneurs, they don’t have a lot of time to make a decision. The participants don’t have to reinvent the wheel, but rather to find an area
where they can fill the gaps.

This method will also make them think about their skills and how they can be useful to a business idea.

Remarks

During the activity, you can play loud music, so you make the environment as challenging as possible for the activity. Make sure you remind the participants often how much time they have left.

Source/Acknowledgments:

Written by: Alexandra Peca, GEYC, Romania

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