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2.5
Cultivating a Willingness to Play
Submitted by Lori Britt
This activity encourages participants to take themselves less seriously and play with ideas (and one another). When we play, we explore—which offers an opportunity to let down our analytical guard and see with fresh perspectives.
Learning Goal
Learn how to use techniques like “limiting allotted time” or “creating playful competitions” to enhance creativity.
Instructions
Set Up: Prepare for the Activity
Organize participants into pairs or small groups (3-5 ppl).
Begin by introducing the learning goals of this activity.
Step One: Introduce Monroe’s Motivated Sequence (5 min)
In small groups, introduce a common persuasive “pitch” formula called Monroe’s Motivated Sequence. Participants may recognize this sequence from the format of many television ads and infomercials.
5 Steps (in this order):
Grab audience’s attention.
Present the need– Discuss the current situation and why something needs to be done. Appeal to emotions.
Offer a product/solution that addresses the need.
Describe how the world will look if this product or solution is implemented, help the audience visualize.
Call to Action – Ask them to buy or support the product/solution and why they must do it now.
Step Two: Develop a 2-minute Pitch (10 min)
Challenge the groups to quickly come up with a product or idea that will address a public need. Follow Monroe’s sequence to develop a quick 2-minute pitch. Remind the groups to name the product or idea with a catchy name. Explain to them that they will each be playing a part in the commercials they create. Encourage them to have fun with this and think outside the box.
Step Three: Present Pitches to the Full Group (15 min)
Invite each small group to present their pitch with everyone in the group delivering a part. For fun, the full group can vote on the top pitch.
Step Four: Debrief as a Full Group (10 min)
What did it feel like to do this so quickly? Did you feel like you were free to be playful or silly? Did the format of creating a commercial or infomercial allow you to be less serious?
How difficult was it to come up with an idea originally?
Once you had your idea, how easy or difficult was it to develop a pitch to persuade others to buy or support your idea?
TIME
40
min
MODULE
Creative Collaboration
This activity can be completed by any discussion group.
This activity might be considered high energy or more playful than other activities.
This activity can be easily modified to serve as an introductory exercise and completed in less than 10 minutes.
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0 Comments
YD
December 3, 2022 at 2:39:23 AM
Activity 5.4 uses the fun method of role playing and builds on other activities to help participants develop questions and practice gathering information to collaborate effectively with communities as partners. This activity involves working together in small groups and as a large group. It also includes multiple additional resources for participants to continue learning methods and skills to build community partnerships.
YD
December 3, 2022 at 2:39:00 AM
Activity 1.8 provides a very useful survey to gather information on and help support participants' different discussion styles and needs, exploring various areas like preferences for group size, ways of participating in discussions, any fears relating to discussions, etc.
YD
December 3, 2022 at 2:34:46 AM
Activity 5.8 further explores direct democracy by proposing the idea of "legislative juries" to improve the current initiative process through collaboration and deliberation. This activity uses role playing to have participants practice deliberation as part of a mock legislative jury to craft ballot initiatives on a given issue.
YD
December 3, 2022 at 2:27:35 AM
Activity 5.7 uses a fun and tactile activity like building LEGOs to explore the effects of coming together to colloborate and discuss, while also participating together in another physical activity.
YD
December 3, 2022 at 2:22:49 AM
Activity 5.6 uses memes and futuristic zombie scenarios to develop ways to change people's minds, while exploring various aspects of the methods used to change minds, like assumptions behind ideas, sticking to the facts versus stretching the truth, appealing to emotions etc.
YD
December 3, 2022 at 2:16:44 AM
Activity 5.5 uses a fun and visual/craft activity to help participants explore the many different types of knowledge, how they are valued, and the role/importance of each type of knowledge in their own lives.
YD
December 3, 2022 at 2:11:54 AM
Activity 5.3 gives participants to use writing, drawing, and/or speaking to share and discuss the various communities they belong to and/or feel excluded from, the various aspects that define community, as well as the practices of inclusion or exclusion and power distribution in these communities.
YD
December 3, 2022 at 2:07:26 AM
Activity 5.2 introduces four categories of stakeholders and multiple prompts to help participants work together in small and large groups to create comprehensive list of stakeholders, including those who are marginalized or not as obvious, for a given issue.
YD
December 3, 2022 at 2:04:00 AM
Activity 5.1 uses gamification by having participants play the Civics Topics Sweet Sixteen Competition to identify their issues they are passionate about both as individuals and as a group.
YD
December 3, 2022 at 2:01:34 AM
Activity 4.9 uses both lighthearted and serious characters, topics, and dialogue to help participants practice viewing an issue from the perspective of multiple people/characters and explain their thought processes and rationale for the choices they think these people will make in a given situation.