Sample page
The number of relationships
Purpose: To become more aware of how the number of people in
a group affects its working
Time: Exercise: 15 minutes
Debriefing: 15 minutes
Materials: Flip chart or large piece of paper, and a marker pen
Preparation: Arrange the chairs in a circle. There needs to be one
chair per person including the leader.
Exercise:
1. Ask each person to stand at the back of a chair, and stand at the back of one yourself.
2. Tell them that when they are asked to sit down, they sit on the chair in front of them.
3. Choose 2 people and ask them to sit down.
4. Ask everyone how many relationships there are in this group of 2. The answer is 1.
On the flip chart or large piece of paper write the following:
Number of people Number of relationships
2 1
Some people might argue that there are 2 relationships because A has a relationship with B. Which is different from B's relationship with A. This is a valid point, but for the sake of simplicity in dealing with numbers in this exercise, we will not adopt this method of calculating the number of relationships.
5. Ask another person to sit down, and ask everyone how many relationships there are in a group of 3 people. The answer is 3. (If the three people are A, B and C, then the relationships are between A & B, A & C, and B & C.)
6. Repeat the process until everyone including yourself has sat down.
Now: debrief the exercise using the accompanying notes as a guide.
Reproduced with permission from Once upon a group exercises
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Links
For details about a book, please click on the title
Books
- A Workbook for developing the local church
- Developing teamwork
- Once upon a team exercises
- So, you're on a committee now
- Once upon a group exercises
- Communicating with the public
- Once upon a group
- In a strange land
