Communication for Change Agents Curriculum
Introduction
Today we will be exploring communication through two sharing/listening exercises and a game. We hope you will be able to carry the exercises with you as tools you can apply to your work as a change agent - one will model group sharing, while the other is interpersonal. We will end this session with a fun game that demonstrates our interpretive nature. To begin, we will establish some guidelines to ensure everyone feels comfortable communicating openly...
Engagement
The only way our presentation can be any kind of useful is if everyone is willing to make a concerted effort to engage fully. We are going to ask you to be vulnerable, and as presenters we will be demonstrating the type of vulnerability we hope to see. We recognize that it takes a certain amount of bravery to be vulnerable and thank you in advance for taking that risk.
Kindness
Please base all thoughts about your classmates in this context on an assumption of kindness. What this means is that if someone says something that offends you or otherwise rankles your mood, assume they speak from an inherent place of kindness, rather than an intentional place of malice or ill will. This assumption allows for growth and learning, whereas an assumption of malice creates barriers to learning which we commonly feel as defensiveness and anger.
Confidentiality
We ask that you consider confidentiality a twofold contract: Not only are you expected to ensure privacy by not telling outsiders what someone in this class has said, but we also ask that you please refrain from bringing up anything someone discusses in this class with that person themselves unless you have asked for and received explicit consent.
Safe Space
What other guidelines, mindsets, and practices would you like this class to agree to in order for you to feel comfortable being vulnerable?
Just because we wrote these things on the board does not mean you have consented to them yet. Please, if there is anything here you cannot agree to, speak up so we can discuss and resolve your concerns.
If everyone can consent to these agreements, let's move on to our first activity.
Just because we wrote these things on the board does not mean you have consented to them yet. Please, if there is anything here you cannot agree to, speak up so we can discuss and resolve your concerns.
If everyone can consent to these agreements, let's move on to our first activity.
Community Circle
This exercise combines the tradition of the “Talking Stick” with the Empowerment teachings of David Gershon. Awareness (Where am I now?) Vision (Where do I want to go?), Transformation (What do I need to change to get there?), Growth (What is my next growth step?) This type of format was described in the Zimbabwe chapter of Walk Out Walk On, when individuals seated in a circle passed a glass sphere around - the talking object signifies that you have the floor, that you are the one person we are all listening lovingly and patiently to. [INSERT QUOTE ABOUT TRUSTING THAT THE WORDS TO COME]
We will be doing two rounds in this format, so please keep your responses brief (we found it helpful to have guiding questions displayed somewhere everyone could read them).
We will be doing two rounds in this format, so please keep your responses brief (we found it helpful to have guiding questions displayed somewhere everyone could read them).
- Round 1: Where are you currently at with social change? How is this class balancing with the rest of your life right now?
- Round 2: Where would you like to be as an effective change agent? What do you hope to accomplish someday?
Peer-to-Peer
This exercise was mostly inspired by a method of DIY mental health called co-counseling, wherein individuals take turns being the counselor and the counseled. This is a great model to use for sustaining emotional wellness when working on a stressful project. Begin by splitting the class into groups of two; one person in each group is designated the listener, and the other person is the speaker. During this exercise, we encourage you to focus on the following questions:
If none of these questions resonate with you, feel free to diverge from them.
Instructions for listening:
Give your absolute FULL attention to your speaker; assume they speak from a place of kindness; recognize that they are humans just like you, born inherently wise, lovable, and creative. Also recognize that we have all been hurt and (for survival) have developed coping mechanisms called “armor” in this framework, and that armor is often very unattractive. Your only job is to listen with patient and loving attention for the entire duration of the session.
Instructions for speaking:
Trust this construct - you are in a safe space and can be totally vulnerable. In order for this work you must be brave enough to engage fully in the process. If something feels scary or silly or dumb to talk about, do. This is your chance. Explore. There are no rules or restraints. This is your time.
Everyone should start at the same time; after 15 minutes the exercise coordinator calls out time and asks a very silly question that the speaker should respond to to their listener. The speaker should shake it off, stretch, or ask for another silly question if they need it. Once they feel present again, the roles are switched and the speaker becomes the listener.
Example up & out questions:
- What is keeping you from your goal(s) as a change agent?
- What in your life can you change right now to get you closer to your goal(s)?
- What teachings from this class will you take away?
If none of these questions resonate with you, feel free to diverge from them.
Instructions for listening:
Give your absolute FULL attention to your speaker; assume they speak from a place of kindness; recognize that they are humans just like you, born inherently wise, lovable, and creative. Also recognize that we have all been hurt and (for survival) have developed coping mechanisms called “armor” in this framework, and that armor is often very unattractive. Your only job is to listen with patient and loving attention for the entire duration of the session.
Instructions for speaking:
Trust this construct - you are in a safe space and can be totally vulnerable. In order for this work you must be brave enough to engage fully in the process. If something feels scary or silly or dumb to talk about, do. This is your chance. Explore. There are no rules or restraints. This is your time.
Everyone should start at the same time; after 15 minutes the exercise coordinator calls out time and asks a very silly question that the speaker should respond to to their listener. The speaker should shake it off, stretch, or ask for another silly question if they need it. Once they feel present again, the roles are switched and the speaker becomes the listener.
Example up & out questions:
- You have to make the most disgusting smoothie ever, what do you put in the blender?
- You are about to skip down the yellow brick road with three inspirational characters, who are they?
- There’s a strange rain falling outside, what is it made of?
charade-a-phone
Everyone at the table takes turns counting off into two groups.
Group 1 is then instructed to write a word or phrase on a card.
When finished, they rotate their cards over to someone in Group 2, who then takes their verbal cue and translates it into a pictogram on a new card.
When Group 2 is finished, they will continue the rotation by passing their cards to someone in Group 1, who will in turn translate their pictogram back into a word.
The group continues doing this until a full rotation has been achieved.
The challenge of this exercise is to see how well the original cues hold up after multiple iterations.
Because each group is limited to performing either verbal or pictographic translation, we can try doing this activity twice with alternating group roles.
Group 1 is then instructed to write a word or phrase on a card.
When finished, they rotate their cards over to someone in Group 2, who then takes their verbal cue and translates it into a pictogram on a new card.
When Group 2 is finished, they will continue the rotation by passing their cards to someone in Group 1, who will in turn translate their pictogram back into a word.
The group continues doing this until a full rotation has been achieved.
The challenge of this exercise is to see how well the original cues hold up after multiple iterations.
Because each group is limited to performing either verbal or pictographic translation, we can try doing this activity twice with alternating group roles.
Resources
- Empowerment Framework - http://empowermentinstitute.net/index.php/professional/certification-program/practice-of-empowerment-in-organizations/94-empowerment-framework
- Allies People-to-People - http://www.alliesp2p.org
Charade-A-Phone creations