GAME #53: Pushing Back
̊ ̊ T
̊ ̊ ̊
Game Categories:
Opener Energizer Communication
Team-building Review Topical
❖ Purpose: To help participants get over their fear of being wrong and talk about their own ideas or experiences—in class and back on the job.
❖ Time Required: 10 minutes.
❖ Size of Group: Unlimited.
❖ Materials Required: None.
❖ The Exercise in Action: Gregory Cortopassi uses an exercise that shows that answers can be different without necessarily being incorrect. He begins by asking for a volunteer. He instructs that person to raise his or her hands, palms forward. He then puts his palms against the volun- teer’s and pushes, gently at first, then with increasing force. The volunteer almost always responds by pushing back (if the first one doesn’t, thank the person, and move to another). Cortopassi, a training coordinator with Teamworks Training Corp. in Boulder, CO, thanks the volunteer and asks the class a series of easy ques- tions on which their answers generally agree: What were his instructions to the volunteer? What did the instructor do next? How did the volunteer respond? Then Cortopassi asks his final question: Did the volunteer respond correctly to the situation? Some say yes, that there was no other logical response, that the instruction to resist was implied by the instructor’s action. Others argue that instructions should be followed exactly, and none were given for the volunteer to push back. The learning point: We’re conditioned to believe there is a right and a wrong answer to everything. Sometimes, as in the demonstration, that’s not true. We need to open our minds to the possibility that there might be mul- tiple ways of responding to a situation, and many of them might be correct. Cortopassi suggests the test of whether an idea or action is correct might be whether it achieves the desired results. That, he says, is the approach he’s taking to the session. “My job is not so much to show you what’s right and wrong,” he tells the class, “as to assist you in exploring your responses to see if they help you get what you want. If they don’t, I’ll try to coach you to explore other options.”
101 More Games for Trainers
53
Made with FlippingBook Online newsletter maker