MODULE: Effective leadership methods SUBJECT TITLE: Development of conflict situations and their resolution Ekaterina Paderina
Subject title
Purpose of the activity
Duration
Location and tools Number of participants
Acquaintance/ team building methods
Development of conflict situations and their resolution To acquaint participants with the development of conflict situations and their possible solutions.
2–4 valandos.
Chairs, projector, writing tools.
10–20 participants.
All participants stand in a circle and close their eyes. One participant then chooses a certain sequence of movements. It can be a dance, an exercise or a combination of other forms of movement, most importantly to make the movements as witty as possible and harder to remember. After creating a combination of movements, the participant taps a neighbour next to him/her from the right or left and shows him/her all these movements, and he/she herself/himself also remembers them well. Then all the other participants one by one tap the neighbours next to them in the same direction and each shows the movements as they memorized them. The circle ends at the participant who created this sequence of movements.
“Hot seat” The training leader chooses the topic of the conflict on his/her own or with the help of the participants, for example, a problematic child comes to a social worker at school, a child’s conflict with parents, and so on. In the space, four chairs in a row are placed next to each other. In front of the last chair on the right a fifth chair (“hot seat”), which is turned to the last one, is placed. On this fifth chair sits the main protagonist of the conflict: a disobedient child or other character. Four participants sit in front of the one in “hot seat” in four chairs and they will play the role of an opponent of the conflict, such as a parent, social worker, or so on. Practical tasks
The goal of the participant, who is sitting in the “hot seat”, is to take his position of conflict as fiercely as possible. If he/she doesn’t like something what his/her opponent says and how, he/she can clap hands, and then the opponent sitting in front of him/her moves to the end of the line (the whole line of opponents shifts by one). The aim of the opponents, who are sitting on the four chairs, is to resolve the conflict with the participant, who is sitting in the “hot seat”. In the case, when a participant sitting in a “hot seat” claps his/her hands, it means that he/she wants to end the communication with the current opponent. The opponent then says “THANK YOU” (requirement) and asks “WHY?”. And the participant sitting in the “hot seat” explains why he/she decided to refuse further communication with him/her and clapped his/her hands. At the end of the task, both the participants, who are actively involved in the task, and the observers, reflect on the whole process and the processes that took place.
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