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Title: Inner Tube Exercise
Exercise Type: Motivation Time Required: 50 minutes Materials Needed:
Venue:
Typical meeting room with 15 ft. x 15 ft. clear area in middle
of the room. Purpose/Outcome: This exercise can be used to explore the degree of motivation experienced when presented with a problem accompanied by increasing levels of adversity. Activity Description: Arrange a thirty-foot piece of rope in a circle in the center of the room. Place a two-gallon bucket filled with tennis balls and an empty five-gallon bucket in the center of the circle. Lay the rest of the items on a table near the outside of the circle. The objective is to take the tennis balls out of the smaller bucket and place them into the larger bucket inside of the circle. Anything except the bottom of the buckets which touch the floor inside the circle are automatically contaminated by the imaginary toxic waste in the center of the circle and is therefore rendered useless. Anything that touches that contamination is also contaminated and rendered unusable. The facilitators at any time may disable certain members of the group (if they have been too close to the toxic waste for too long). Examples of disability can be such things as: death, lost use of certain limbs, inability to speak, etc. The exercise should have a time limit of around 10 min. You may want to run this exercise multiple times with increasing degrees of difficulty by adding disabilities and/or by withdrawing certain items. Debrief/Facilitator Notes: The intent here is to observe how a large group deals with a problem that may only require one to three people to physically carry out. Often students not physically involved will detach from the exercise. So observe the level of motivation as their roles, degree of disability, or other limitations increase. Also observe how communication, teamwork, and mutual respect of participants play out as they conduct this exercise under varying conditions. Suggested debrief questions:
Learning Points: Our motivation can be influenced by external circumstances
and the behaviors of others. It's good to know the source
of your own motivation, to what degree you are in control
of it, and to what degree it depends on external factors.
It's empowering to understand that you get to decide how much
of yourself you'll apply to any given task. It's also important
to know how our offering or withholding our support can influence
others performance. Questions to Draw Out Learning Points:
Application: Journal
for 10 min. around the questions: When do you feel motivated
and why? In what areas of your life would you like to increase
your level of motivation? What can you do to increase your
motivation in these areas. What three things would you be
willing to do to increase your self-respect? Your respect
for others? Resources: None. About the Author: Steve Davis, M.A., M.S., is an Facilitator's Coach, Infoprenuer, and free-lance human, helping facilitators, organizational leaders, educators, trainers, coaches and consultants present themselves confidently, access their creativity, empower their under-performing groups, enhance their facilitation skills, and build their business online and offline. Subscribe to his free weekly ezine at www.MasterFacilitatorJournal.com or visit www.livingmastery.com to learn more about him and his offerings. |
