Debrief: All In
Hi!
Sorry about the break in posting. This last week has been surprisingly busy. I don't know if you ever experience times where you're so busy that it's like you're standing still and the world is rushing by without being able to stop it. And no matter how hard you work you just can't seem to get an edge on it. That's how this last week has felt for me. Some of the busyness is good. Like I'm going to Jamaica - that's a good thing. But there were so many things to get done BEFORE I could depart for Jamaica and then I was facilitating sessions and working my exhibit booth on the day and day before I left. So I had to be packed on Tuesday to depart for the sunshine on Friday. No second chances on forgetting stuff.
And the whole time I have just been telling myself - stay focused, stay on task. I needed to make sure the first thing on my mind was the workshops and having quality conversations with the teachers at the convention. I wasn't allowed to think about the sun.
So I guess I am sitting here hoping that you will extend grace to me in the madness that was this last week. I'll share soon about my experiences with the workshops. These were definitely some of my favourite yet. That's for another time though. Right now - it's debrief time!
All In is a spectacular activity. I know, I'm super excited (it might have something to do with the fact that I just got off of my red-eye flight to Toronto and didn't sleep a wink). But really - there is so much going on in this activity. Your participants could very well run around like hamsters believing that they can actually win this. But it's impossible - the more participants get balls - the more they lose them. It's just a constant struggle to win without gaining ground...unless someone quits or concedes.
You may also find that you have a participant that will steal balls for the first few seconds before they figure out that it's pointless and then the strategizing begins. Will one person figure it out? Will more than one figure it out?
The idea behind this activity is pool all the resources and create a win-win situation for EVERYONE. If every group places their circle or hoop overtop of the balls - everybody wins. You didn't say that they couldn't touch their circle or hoop. Participants, especially kids - will often struggle to find the solution because they are afraid that it would be cheating...Why do we raise our kids to believe that thinking out of the box is wrong or subversive? Are we not pigeon holing our kids? We need our dreamers and big idea kids exercising their creativity if we are to solve problems like climate change and our depleting oil reserves. Those are big issues but if people are given the freedom to come up with "crazy" ideas that cheat the system...imagine what can be accomplished?!?
The other way to approach this activity is to identify how competition often drives a wedge between us. Even when competition isn't the goal - our culture defaults us to the model of "me win, you lose". What if we started approaching life with win-win in the fore-front of our minds?
Let me know what you think...I'll be back soon!
Sorry about the break in posting. This last week has been surprisingly busy. I don't know if you ever experience times where you're so busy that it's like you're standing still and the world is rushing by without being able to stop it. And no matter how hard you work you just can't seem to get an edge on it. That's how this last week has felt for me. Some of the busyness is good. Like I'm going to Jamaica - that's a good thing. But there were so many things to get done BEFORE I could depart for Jamaica and then I was facilitating sessions and working my exhibit booth on the day and day before I left. So I had to be packed on Tuesday to depart for the sunshine on Friday. No second chances on forgetting stuff.
And the whole time I have just been telling myself - stay focused, stay on task. I needed to make sure the first thing on my mind was the workshops and having quality conversations with the teachers at the convention. I wasn't allowed to think about the sun.
So I guess I am sitting here hoping that you will extend grace to me in the madness that was this last week. I'll share soon about my experiences with the workshops. These were definitely some of my favourite yet. That's for another time though. Right now - it's debrief time!
All In is a spectacular activity. I know, I'm super excited (it might have something to do with the fact that I just got off of my red-eye flight to Toronto and didn't sleep a wink). But really - there is so much going on in this activity. Your participants could very well run around like hamsters believing that they can actually win this. But it's impossible - the more participants get balls - the more they lose them. It's just a constant struggle to win without gaining ground...unless someone quits or concedes.
You may also find that you have a participant that will steal balls for the first few seconds before they figure out that it's pointless and then the strategizing begins. Will one person figure it out? Will more than one figure it out?
The idea behind this activity is pool all the resources and create a win-win situation for EVERYONE. If every group places their circle or hoop overtop of the balls - everybody wins. You didn't say that they couldn't touch their circle or hoop. Participants, especially kids - will often struggle to find the solution because they are afraid that it would be cheating...Why do we raise our kids to believe that thinking out of the box is wrong or subversive? Are we not pigeon holing our kids? We need our dreamers and big idea kids exercising their creativity if we are to solve problems like climate change and our depleting oil reserves. Those are big issues but if people are given the freedom to come up with "crazy" ideas that cheat the system...imagine what can be accomplished?!?
The other way to approach this activity is to identify how competition often drives a wedge between us. Even when competition isn't the goal - our culture defaults us to the model of "me win, you lose". What if we started approaching life with win-win in the fore-front of our minds?
Let me know what you think...I'll be back soon!
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