Serious Play Forum

[Mohammed Alkhanbashi]

Hi,
I am about to conduct a workshop which is slightly different than what I am usually used to. I would like to hear your thoughts on it.

1. Objective:
To identify some characteristics and traits of a group of high school students such as leadership and commitment. A group of experienced (not LSP trained) will observe the students during the runight of the workshop and note down their observations. I run the workshop.

Challenge
Since the LSP is an excellent tool to answer open questions individually and/or as a group I am not sure if and how it will address the objective stated above.

2. Content
As a stated above there is no specific questions that the client want to answer however they want to observe the interactiona and group dynamic.

I am thinking of do a shared model

Challenge
Obviously, what questions do you suggest that I use.
Due to number of participants I can’t use the starter kit for individual models and I will use the Win Exp. kit so any suggestions for building models from the manual part?

3.Logistics
The number of participants will be around 60 which is 4 times the number I am used to. As a workaround I will divide them into 4 groups who will build simultaneously on 4 separate tables. Each table will be supervised by a none LSP facilitator (while i will brief days before what they need to do) while I will do the rounds. Remember that the objective not to come out with a real outcome rather than observe emerging traits.

Challenge

What do you think of the approach above?

Do you think that identity/Landscape kit + Connection kit shared between all groups are enough? Maybe introducing the concept of scarce resources will bring new dynamics?

I have to do the whole workshop in 3 hours, what do you think?

[Sabin D]

Here are some thoughts, for what they’re worth:

This is a challenging situation. If you’re going to do shared model building, I would give the participants the task of creating models that represent a shared understanding of leadership and commitment. Provide scenarios in which the model building is the means by which they express the attributes the client is looking for: leadership, commitment, group dynamics, communal interactions.

I worry about the effectiveness of using LSP to create an environment in which the participants are being observed. That feels more like LSP being used as the means by which a sociological experiment is administered, rather than a tool through which joint problem solving happens. One of the things about LSP is its ability to generate open dialog and shared confidence. Does it override those effects by observing the meta interactions of the participants? I feel like it might.

Lastly, I think you’ll need a couple more kits. The lack of resources is more likely to inhibit interactions and creativity than it is to contribute to shared resources, I think. That is, unless it’s made clear up front that sharing resources is a likely scenario. Then on the other hand, each participant may not have enough resources to fully explore their own portions of the group model.

So those are my personal thoughts. I’m interested in hearing how it comes out!

Good luck,
Sabin Densmore

[Guy Winterbotham]

http://www.gargoylesoftware.com/lsp/moose is a pretty easy build especially when you don’t have help.

I agree with all of Sabin’s points.Coach the observers that they are to make no sound or talk and as much as possible no movement.Alternatively coach them on being temporary facilitators so they can appear to have a purpose as long as they follow your lead. Likely they will learn more from hearing the stories vs. watching builds from the edge of the room.

I would also agree that scarcity will inhibit expression and provide a distorted view of what LSP is offering. This may confuse builders and then the obervers as they will attribute behavior to the wrong cause.

At 3hrs and the numbers of folks you are trying to move through, you might find it a challenge. Watch this from Marko Rillo for ideas on large scale facilitation. He use Explorer kits for the entire exercise. You end up mashing the kits for the shared build.

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