Inside Out

Takes 20-30 minutes

Resources

A set of poker chips. 200 in four colours works fine, the less you have in more limited colours, the harder the task will be.

Instructions For Tutor

Give the group a box of poker chips. Tell them

“You have 20 minutes to create a means of transferring a message from one half of the group to the other using only the chips placed on the table.

No paper or pencils are permitted.

After 20 minutes I will split the group in two and half of you will be asked to leave the room. I will give the remaining participants a 20-30 letter message that may involve letters or numbers but no punctuation, which you must pass to the other group using only the poker chips”

Facilitate the creation of the code. This is where the bulk of the team dynamics and personal development takes place as the participants try to refine their aim, then develop the code and finally to ensure that everyoe understands the code.

Use whatever means you like to capture this discussion, we have successfully used video, notes, phrases used jotted on a blackboard and having observers taken from within the group.

When they have a code, split the group into two and send half out of the room. Give the other half a short (20-30 letter) message on a piece of paper and help them encode it.

The messages are best if they have several words, and aren’t too easy to guess once you have 2-3 of the words. We’ve used short Shakespeare quotes and the names of the building we are in.

Invite the other half back in to decode it and ensure that there is no  cheating.

Swap the two halves of the group over and try with a different message.

Using it elsewhere

We have used variants of this task in a number of places.

• On a beach with different coloured stones.
• In a forest using sticks.
• On a draughts (checkers) board using the pieces.
• In a park using “whatever you can find”.
• In a mountain campsite using “the contents of your rucksack”.

Doing it outside makes it a much more physical, tactile task and adds whole new areas of discussion such as role allocation “You go and collect black stones” or even “What shall we use?”.

We’ve just spent the weekend surfing at Saunton in North Devon. Blue skies and clean waves were conspicuously absent but we did have a lot of fun. I’ve never been board surfing before and I’ve got a new found respect for those who make it look so effortless and easy.

Returning home on Sunday night I realised I was covered in bruises. There is the one on my back from falling off the board into 4 inches of water after I misjudged how far ashore I had come.  I’ve got one around my left ankle where my leash pulled tight after I let go of my board while wading out. The one on my chin is the most visible, caused by throwing myself forward onto my board with a little too much vigour.

They might make me a little bit sore but I am proud of my bruises. Really proud. They are like little campaign medals and, to me they represent two things. Read More »

After our last Anything Can Happen course we asked Mark, one of the participants, to write about his experience on the course. Anything Could Happen is such an unusual course with such a different methodology that it can be difficult for people to see what it’s all about. We hoped that by getting one of the participants to tell their story, it might help others to see what they might get out of it.

He did a fantastic job of describing his experiences, which we’ve presented below. There is also a PDF available for download if you want to print it out and give it to someone who would be interested.

Read More »