Uncomfortable Chairs*

Uncomfortable Chairs*

Exercise description All the participants receive a card with one of the following instructions:

  • “Put all the chairs in a circle. You have 10 minutes to complete the task.”
  • “Put all the chairs by the door. You have 10 minutes to complete the task.”
  • “Put all the chairs as far from the door as possible. You have 10 minutes to complete the task.”

 

You should have roughly the same number of each of the instructions. Ask the participants not to show or tell others what their instruction card says. The exercise starts at your signal and you should let it proceed for 5–10 minutes.

 

Evaluation Suggested questions to evaluate the exercise: What happened? Did you follow the instructions you were given? (Inform the group about the types of instructions that were available.) How did you behave? Did you get into confrontations, try to persuade others, try to snatch chairs, retreat, try to cooperate? What was your perception of the others?

 

Type of exercise:

Experiential learning, Interactive exercise

Duration:

15-60 min

Notice:

* Inspired by the exercise in Schilling. Peacebuilding & Conflict Transformation: Methods & games to facilitate training sessions, p. 130. 130.

Possible difficulties:

Related Workshops:

Conflict analysis and understanding

Workshop example:

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