Objective:
This simple activity helps participants understand that even the simplest task is open to interpretation, illustrating the importance of good communication.
The Paper Tear exercise teaches people to think for themselves and to ask clarifying questions.
Overview:
An Icebreaker exercise that can be used to illustrate a simple point of the importance of clear communication. This Icebreaker uses a piece of paper and the participants interpretation to show how people see things very differently.
Activity:
Give each seated participant a half piece of A4 ask them to close their eyes.
Ask them to fold the piece of paper in half. Ask them to tear off the upper right corner.
Have them fold the piece of paper in half again. Ask them to tear off the upper right corner again.
And one more time, ask them to fold the paper in half And tear off the upper right corner one last time.
Ask the group to open their eyes and show everyone their original work of art.
[Note: Each paper will be different because the individuals chose to:
– fold the paper in different ways – tear off different corners (his or her interpretation of “upper right corner”) – different size tears]
Skill Development:
When exploring and debriefing this activity, communication can be explored and the role of questioning discussed. The potential to have an open dialogue can be explored and consideration of how decisions can be impacted from an incorrect “original” decision. It is therefore important to explore the root of activity going awry, and how blame/lack of information needs to be handled in order to deliver on a task.
This activity is great to illustrate how different everyone is, how everyone responds differently to instructions, and how it is important to have an open dialogue and illustrate the point that it is always better to ask questions and have an open dialogue.
As facilitator, you can pretend to be surprised and say something like; ‘I gave everyone the same directions, yet look at how different the papers are! Did you listen?’
Resources:
A4 Pieces of Paper for each person