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Build, Fly and Land 40 Paper Aero planes

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Activity - Leadership skills - build, Fly & Land paper planes

Leadership Activity: Build, Fly & Land Paper Planes

Duration: 60 minutes
Category: Leadership Skills
Tools Needed: Colored A4 paper, Rulers, Designated runway/landing area

Overview

This high-energy activity helps reinforce a wide range of leadership competencies: planning, time management, delegation, coaching, quality control, communication, and adapting under pressure. Participants move from designing paper planes to mass-producing and testing them—mirroring real project life cycles.

Learning Objectives

  • Apply leadership in planning and executing a multi-phase task
  • Practice coaching, task delegation, and performance feedback
  • Demonstrate time management and quality assurance
  • Adapt team strategy through hands-on execution

Timeline & Setup

PhaseActivityTime
ILeader briefing & demo5 min
IITeam coaching + production of 40 planes30 min
IIIFlight competition (landing challenge)5 min
DebriefScoring, reflection & group discussion20 min

Instructions

Part I: Leader Briefing

  1. Divide the whole class into smaller teams of equal size.
  2. Each team selects a leader who attends a private demo with the trainer.
  3. The trainer demonstrates a complex plane design using 2 A4 sheets.
  4. Leaders return to their teams with colored paper and a ruler. (White paper optional for early practice.)

Part II: Team Construction

  1. Each team must build exactly 40 paper planes within 20 minutes.
  2. No other materials allowed—only colored paper and ruler as a guide.
  3. Trainer scores each team: 1 plane = 10 points.

Part III: Flight & Landing Challenge

  1. Two teams per runway. Each team uses a unique paper color.
  2. Each team has 5 minutes to fly as many planes as possible into the designated zone.
  3. Planes that land fully inside the landing zone = 30 points each.
  4. Landing outside or touching boundary lines = no points.

Scoring Summary

  • Production phase: 1 plane = 10 points
  • Flight phase: 1 successful landing = 30 points
  • Total team score = combined points from both phases

Debrief & Reflection Questions

  • How did the team leader manage time and resources?
  • Was a clear plan communicated before starting production?
  • How were responsibilities delegated among team members?
  • Did the leader offer timely support or wait until problems appeared?
  • What changed between your forecast and actual performance?
  • If you repeated the activity, what would you change in your strategy?

Optional Variations

  • Time Crunch: Cut production time mid-way through
  • Quality Penalty: Deduct points for torn or malformed planes
  • Coaching Round: Add a second round where leaders revise their training approach

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