Detective – how to recognise small changes

[Katalin Hankovszky]

This is a game i learned from Hans Fluri (some of you maybe remember him from the Interlaken conference) and which i started to use to “train” the people during a teamcoaching/change process, that they can recognise the positive changes afterwards which might be small and inconspicuous.
The game is fun, short and partly silent; a usual effect is also refreshed concentration...
So i tell something about small changes and that they need our focus of attention to be recognised and not overlooked. I ask the team members to sit (or stand) in pairs facing each other in a distance of ca 1 meter. I ask them to freeze the own position and memorize it, also the position and details of the person opposite to them. After 30 seconds i ask them to turn around and make 5 changes: 2 at the cloths and accessories, 3 at the position of their bodies. When all the players are ready, they turn back and try to find the small changes on each other.
Mostly i make a second round to train the awareness for even smaller changes.
At the end of the coaching session i only need to make a remark on their capability to observe small desired changes others make in the organisation.

[Loraine Kennedy]

Hi Kati

Brilliant, I use a similar activity in change times, and often by third round of turning backs and re appearing looking different, people are getting 'worried ' as they take off shoes or ties or...a bit of laughter until someone realises chaange isn't just about loss but also putting new things on, or borrowing someoene else's discarded item.!! So you can extend the learning metaphor to unearth other aspects of change.

Loraine

[netti kutsche-roch]

Dear Kati, dear all detectives ; )

inspired from your postings I recently applied this tool to a teambuilding workshop with adolescents, who definitely needed an improved communication in their group. I was not sure wether they would be open to this kind of method or find it too playful ... well, I gave it a try: and it was a great thing! It even turned out - as it was quite at the beginning of the process - to be a kind of icebreaker, as the serious atmosphere got filled with laughter and smile after the second round. They really changed shoes and put in a lot of effort - quite amazing. And it is rather selfexplaining about the nature of change, so there was no need to give any lectures about this! Very solution focused indeed!
So thanks for sharing - warmest,
netti