Ready for Publication

• Me-You
• Rhythm shiritori
• Don't get left behind (ひとりにならない）
• Word Association
• Let's do it!
• Yes, and yay
• Yes, and... interview
• Master and Slaves
• One Voice
• One Word
• A,B,C,D
• Entry/Exit
• Freeze Tag
• Song
• Emotional Replay
• Genre Replay
• Words from the heart
• Superhero
• Papers
• Musical
• Typewriter
• Space Jump
• Feeling Shift (mime of day's event)
• Experience Rendering (sound, motion, statue)
• Mime -- what's my job?
• Mime -- who am I? (variation, try to join in, rebuff if wrong)
  

Hegel criticized "picture thinking" (vorstellung) as opposed to conceptual thinking, for some good reasons, but learning finds a good foothold in the creation, description, and analysis of pictures. I think this is because we find in drawings elements produced unconsciously, accidentally. And the drawings we create become objects in common -- something we can look at and to which we can refer in our conversation.

This simple activity can be the opening of a long investigation.

Dedocracia is a pun I learned from activists from the Dominican Republic with whom I used to work. When someone designates the person who has to carry out a particular assignment -- by pointing at him/her rather than voting or reaching consensus -- it's a case of "dedocracia" (the rule of the finger).

But I have since learned about another form of dedocracia: five finger consensus, or "fist-to-five consensus-building." You can read about it here: http://freechild.org/Firestarter/Fist2Five.htm

This is not so much an activity or technique as a policy. But, it has implications for facilitation and for participants' actions.

At the outset of a course or workshop, as part of my self-introduction, I explain that there is one general rule that is very important to me, that is that everyone should feel free. (This is constantly evolving as I learn more about what feeling free can mean.)

The spiel:

People should feel free to be comfortable:

• to stand up if they need to stand up,
• to leave the room if they need to leave the room,
  

This activity combines "What do we want? When do we want it?" with "Ten levels of 'Why?'"

Good for: animation, personal reflection, starting discussion of goals and strategic vision.

Set-up: circle-game, sitting or standing, walking (like on picket line), followed by individual work and then, at the end, circle again

Number of people: enough for a "we"

Materials: none (could be interesting to have people create placards or picket signs at the end)