1-Team development - Introduction, Getting to
Know Each Other and TeamBuilding
You could work with more people – and have later doubles (for some roles) in case you perform more than one time or even to have 2 completely different FT groups (working together with them step by step but they develop different performances). Have in mind that if you will have more than 8 people involved in the development of the same play it will be harder in the decision making process and more time consuming in different phases of the process.
Also some other aspects that you need to consider from the beginning:
The main reason behind these mentions is that in Forum Theatre we want to develop a performance as close as possible to reality and as concrete and explicit as we can. In reality one person has only one position in the story we want to reflect (for example: she is the mother and she is a woman).
This unit and phase of the process represents in fact the basis for future steps in FT development. At the same time it is important to acknowledge that this is, in fact, a required phase in any kind of group process or educational program (on any theme). Therefore the area of activities that can be used in working with groups of different sizes and backgrounds is very large and easily accessible (via internet). Please refer to the resource section for many suggestions for various toolkits and manuals focused only on getting to know each other and teambuilding).
One thing that we need to mention and also to emphasize is that although there are many examples of teambuilding activities that you could use they also have various aims and focus on different dynamics of a group – (competition, collaboration, communication, decision making, coordination, leadership, group feeling and awareness, frustration management, etc.). We need to have a perspective of how this method works and to choose activities which help the group to work on their
In Forum Theatre we don’t have directors or script writers - in the process each member is equally important and valuable and everybody’s ideas will be included in the final shape of the play (regardless of each member’s background or experience - each Forum Theatre process belongs to each member of the group). There shouldn’t be any assigned leader who gives directions in terms of task execution and very often in teambuilding activities groups have the impression that the key for a successful result is to have a leader - at this stage the facilitator needs to be careful and set the right tone in the group and to encourage the members to reflect on the dynamics of their team in which everybody will feel included, everybody will have ownership of the process.
Even the role of the facilitator should never be perceived as one of a leader (either for the facilitator himself/herself or for the group) - his/her role is to set up a structure for the process in which the content is proposed and decided on by the group members. He or she might have some extra input in terms of how the method works and its framework but in terms of content – this all comes from the group members.
This in fact will also increase the motivation, feeling of ownership and dedication of the participants in later stages of the process.
Rules discussion
In the next unit there is no special time allocated to setting-up rules for the group process. This is in fact a debatable aspect which we leave to your own judgment whether you want to take further. There are educational practitioners that in any session, workshop (especially when the same group has to go through a longer process) set-up the rules for the working process with the participants (usually aiming at aspects related to: punctually, mobile phones on silent mode, talking in turn, etc.) and sometimes they also agree on a kind of “funny” punishment system for the ones that break the rules: to give candies to everybody, to sing something etc.
The authors and their partners do not take this approach although in the early working years it was used. Conclusions were extracted based on experience and this approach is not implemented anymore. The main reasons are related mostly to the fact that the rules are often not decided by real consensus (so there will be people who might not agree with some of them but who are “forced” to follow), there are people who hate rules by default and might act in a rebellious way just to make a point or statement, that any idea of punishment (in a learning context) could create inhibition, frustration and would go against flexibility and understanding-and can affect the learning process.
At the same time the authors want to focus on creating an open atmosphere based on the motivation and the personal responsibility of each member to advance in good spirit and smooth working conditions. If at any time various problems occur in the process they can be openly discussed in the group and it can be decided together where to go further – but not to put them in frame (as rules) which could actually harm more than be beneficial.
It is important for the facilitator to have good observation and presence and to address in real time any disturbing issues that might affect the group. (For example: people talking on their phones during the sessions, people smoking if you do outdoor activities and some others being disturbed by it, people expressing offensive (or perceived as offensive) things to each other, etc.
The activities explained here are some examples extracted from our experience.
Detailed explanations
1-Intro – 5 minutes
Welcome your group; explain shortly why you are here and what will happen in this specific session. Introduce yourself and who you are in this context. Mention that for the beginning you want to provide a space for each of you to know each other better and then you will go into details related to the project that gathered all of you together a bit later in the session.
2-Shaking hands – 5 minutes
Aim- to stimulate the participants to get in direct contact with one another Description- Each participant has the task to shake hands with everybody in the group. When they do that they have to say their name (and one more thing – you can choose from the following: where they come from, if it is an international or national group/ their profession/ what they are studying/why they are here/ etc.). The trick is that once they have met a person and shake his/her hand they cannot remove their hand until they do not connect with the other hand in another shake with another person-only then they can release the first person from the shake. They continue until they have met every person in the group.
3-Cross the line – 30 minutes
Aims- to support the participants in knowing each other better and to have a better perspective of the group
Description- The group is asked to write on 2 different papers 2 things about themselves – one aspect that they think they have in common with everybody in the group and one aspect they think makes them unique. It has to be more abstract and something that is not easily perceived at first glance (for ex: I speak 5 languages, I have travelled on 3 continents, I want to change the world, I am bisexual etc.). It is important to mention that they should write aspects that they feel comfortable sharing with the others. They don’t have to write their name on the papers and once they are ready they hand them to the facilitator. The group is asked to stay in one line and to imagine that an imaginary line is in front of their legs. The facilitator then says: “Cross the line if you….” – and mentions one of the things participants have written on the papers. The participants that feel that it fits them (regardless of whether they wrote it or not) take a step forward. They look at who crosses the line with them – who didn’t and they go back in line. The facilitator continues with all the papers from the participants and tries to keep the similar aspects out.
- The facilitator can have prepared some additional sentences that could be used in the purpose related to the project (for ex. I have experience in Forum Theatre, I have never been a volunteer before, etc.) or deeper aspects for the group to explore (for ex. I am religious, I don’t believe in monogamy, etc.)
- After the facilitator finishes, participants can be invited to ask the group to cross the line for something they are interested to ask the other members.
Debriefing/ Processing the activity
After this activity – especially if very deep and maybe provoking aspects were mentioned, ask the group: What impressions do you have from this activity? How do you feel now after the activity? Any other comments?
4- 3 truths and 1 lie- 25 minutes
Aim- to facilitate a deeper and more personal getting to know process in the group; to encourage the participants to interact personally with everybody in the group;
Description- The group is instructed that now they will have the chance to get to know each other in a more personal manner. Each person is invited to think about 4 aspects that they want to share about themselves (it could be something related to what they like to do, what they did, what dreams they have, something amazing they did in their life, something special and surprizing, etc.) – they have to choose what they are ready to share with the others. The facilitator can provide an example – which could also set up the tone of the kind of things that people are encouraged to share (something more personal, deeper).
They can be drawn/written on a paper (which is divided in 4 squares/areas). Out of these 4 aspects one thing must be in fact a lie (and it shouldn’t be something obvious – as any of the other aspects as well). After everybody will have prepared their own papers (they should also put their own name on it) they will interact with each other and they will try to guess which ones are right and which one is a lie. The aspects the people mentioned often lead to deeper communication and contributes to a general good atmosphere in the group as everybody has the chance to talk with the others.
Optional – you can provide each participant with a set of candies/small chocolates/dry fruits (whatever you can) and give an extra flavour of competition to the game. Each participant can have the same number of items and once they interact if they manage to guess from the first (which one is the lie) they can take a candy from the other person. Same applies in return if the other person also guesses from the first try.
5-Project Introduction – expectations/contributions – 25 minutes
Depending on the context and framework of the project or initiative in which this FT group is involved, you need to provide information to the group about it.
For them it will be important to know:
(here it is important to add that the process is designed as a pack and it is important for everybody to be present in all the meetings and sessions and if they cannot commit fully to reconsider now-of course at later stages once the foundation is set up depending on circumstances some people could miss a meeting-but the group needs to understand exactly what kind of commitment is expected from them)
Clarify any potential questions or misunderstandings. It would also be good to ask the group about their perspective of the project (to ask what their main expectations from their involvement are and how they can contribute to make this project impactful).
You can use small papers, or post-its where they can write these aspects (anonymously or not) and then to have them all collected so the whole group can read and have a picture of the group expectations and contributions.
6-Blind square – 50 minutes
Aims – to stimulate the group to reflect and acknowledge what their instinctual/natural ways of communication in the group are and what are the aspects needed to improve them.
Description – The group stands in the circle.
The facilitator hands the group a rope which will be held by each member of the group (the rope has the shape of circle inside of the circle of people - so the facilitator will tie the ends of the rope).
The facilitator doesn’t participate in the exercise. It is explained to the group that they have to fulfil a task with their eyes closed but they are able to talk with each other. During the task everybody has to be in contact with the rope. They are requested to close their eyes. Then the task is given: “place the rope in the shape of a perfect square”.
The facilitator needs to be sure they have their eyes closed all the time (if you can use blindfolds for everybody it would be even better). There is no time limit but if they take an extensively long time you can introduce a time limit at some point. Remind the group that they first need to be sure they have a perfect square before they can open their eyes-so you can at one time ask them if they are sure they have it or not. No other involvement or input is needed from the facilitator’s side.
Once they are ready, they can open their eyes and see the result. At this stage it is important to debrief/process this part of the activity. Suggestions for questions: How did you feel in the activity?
NOTE
Very often groups that have been in trainings or workshops previously tend to use the cliché words without actually reflecting on the activity itself and what happened: “it was team work”, “we all cooperated”, “leadership”…etc. This is why, as a facilitator, it is important to push the group tendency (if this is happening) beyond this superficial layer and ask very specific questions (Did everybody know what was happening all the time? Is there anybody that has a different perspective on the exercise?) and you can also provide your observations from the activity (if they don’t come from the group): “You say you all agree with that idea but you never asked the group if they agree or not… You say you cooperated and communicated well but very often there were many people talking at the same time” - and then go back to the questions and make the group assume their behaviour and reflect on the ways to improve it.
If you have time you can ask them: “If you have to do it again what is the most important thing that will help the group for a better process and result?” They will mention different aspects and then you tell them that the second part will take place – they close their eyes and you give them the second task “to make a perfect triangle” or a “star in 5 corners” or any other shape that is challenging enough.
Afterwards – process the activity (using some of the questions mentioned before) and also focus on what were the main differences in their processes, also ask them if they put into practice the things they said they would do differently or that are important for the group-and reflect on it – why some of the things couldn’t be put into practice etc.
At the end ask them to reflect on what the main learning outcomes are (from this exercise and discussion) that could be used in further stages in working in this group. Optional-you can write them down (together with the things mentioned before in terms of what is important for the group etc.) and have them on a flipchart that can be a reminder for the group during other sessions (if it becomes necessary).
7-Blind counting – 30 minutes
Aims- to stimulate the group to connect to the deeper layers of a group dynamic; to develop a strong group feeling; to encourage the group to be more aware of each member of the group.
Description- The group is seated and it is explained to them that they will have a group task – tot count to 20 (or 15 if there are less people in the group) in consecutive order, without repeating one number and without 2 people saying the same number at the same time-if this happens then the counting starts again from 1-the trick is that they have to do that with their eyes closed and no time is allocated for discussion or strategizing – once the instructions are clear they will be asked to close their eyes and whenever they are ready to start.
If the group asks questions related to potential strategies or if they are allowed this or that-just explain that everything they need to know has already been told and they could start at any time. Depending on the group there will be different times in which they manage to get to the number. You can also optionally tell them that the number given is just the minimum and they can continue until they make a mistake.
Debriefing/Processing the activity
Suggestion of questions to be used for the discussion after they finish the task (these are more for the starting of the discussion – later depending on their answers you can focus on specific aspects more)
After the debriefing you can mention that, in Forum Theatre – especially because there is a lot of unknown (mostly due to the fact that the public changes the story) the FT team needs to be synchronized and to feel each other in order to react to the changes coming from outside-and that’s why we have chosen this specific activity.
8-Final comments, announcements – 5 minutes
Time to mention: details about the next meeting, where, when it will take place; what will happen next – if they have any questions/ remarks.