Hello,
I have been asked to give a half hour facilitation session on either Change Management or Johari window. I am looking for ideas for exercises particularly to open the session with. They can't be too long due to the time restriction but also I am only allowed to use paper and pens in the session and there will only be 5 - 6 delegates.
Thanks for any help offered.
Caroline Eason
6 Responses
Brief Change Exercise
Hi Caroline. A brief Change Management exercise I’ve used in the past is to give each delegate paper and pens. Say something like you have just won the lottery and you would like them to design a house for you. Give them a few minutes and at some point before the pictures are done say you have changed your mind and you want them to design a boat. Again, at some point before they finish say you’ve changed your mind again and ask them to draw you a castle. Keep changing your mind until people get a bit fed up. As you keep changing your mind you should see some of the negative behaviours associated with change, and its also a good starting point to start to discuss feelings around change.
Simple but effective – hope it helps.
David
Revolution Learning and Development
Change Activity
How about writing out the seven stages from the change curve on separate sheets of paper. These are: Shock, denial, anger, frustration, acceptance, practice, realisation, integration (or variations on this).
Draw a picture of the curve on flipchart paper and leave off the words. Ask the participants to work on putting the sheets of paper in the correct order i.e. how they think someone moves through stages of change (this works well if you have two teams competing).
Once they have finished, ask them to line up, holding the paper in the order they have chosen (or stick to wall). Then talk them through the emotions of each stage as you reveal the answers to them.
It is not often that people get them all correct and it makes a fun way of explaining the emotions and feelings of change.
Andrew Wood
Trainer Bubble
Thanks
That’s great thanks for your ideas.
An interesting experience on Johari
Hi Caroline
We use a Johari Exercise in our Communication Skills
course which proves to be a success every time. This is useful for delegates who know each other well and can perform a Johari Window on each other. We use a number of carefully selected keywords that delegates must use to assign to themselves or others.
What’s interesting about the exercise is that initially delegates can be resistive since Johari window itself sounds slightly simplistic and academic. However, when they go through the exercise, they immediately discover new qualities about themselves, others and the ways others see them which they find extremely educational.
For example, we had one delegate who went through the exercise and scored himself as witty, while others did not. He always thought others considered him witty, but he obviously wasn’t as much witty as he hoped. There was no other way that he could discover this and he appreciated the power of the exercise. (he was clearly affected by this discovery)
Of course we were happy that they learned something new, which was the whole point of the exercise. This could be an ideal exercise for you.
On line Johari Window
Hi Caroline
Some learners I was working with on change and personal development found this an on line resource for Johari window, which enables you to construct your own window. They used it with the others in the learning group and their managers to get feedback on their style and approach. It might be a follow up resource that you could signpost people to.
http://kevan.org/johari
Christine
Stepping out of the comfort zone
A really quick-fire exercise that I’ve used before is this one. Only resources required are pen and paper.
Ask all delegates to sign their name 10 times. This will take a minute or so. Ask them to do it again. THEN, ask them to put the pen in their other hand and do 10 signatures again. This will cause much hilarity / huffing-and-puffing etc. Then distract by talking about how hard it was, how people struggled, anything really to take their mind off the ‘exercise’. Then ask them to sign their signature again 10 times. Now, at this point, MOST people switch back to their normal hands and do 10 signatures. Let them do this.
Summarise… why did they switch back? You certainly didn’t tell them to. As far as you were concerned, the pen should have been in the ‘other’ hand and you didn’t say otherwise. Lesson: people will nearly always revert to what they know unless there’s a conscious effort not to.
It’s a lighthearted exercise and only takes a few minutes, but is a good intro to change and just why so many people stuggle with it.