Activity: Clenched First - An Exercise in Alignment

Take a couple of minutes to play this game at your next team meeting to underline the importance of alignment.

You will Need

To ensure physical contact activity is acceptable

Preparation

Minimal – be clear with your instructions

How to play “Clenched Fist”  

Ask people to stand and then pair up with another participant

Encourage them to get some space so not all huddled together

Get then to play “Paper-Scissors-Rock” and whoever loses is the person to make a clenched fist first

Challenge the other team member to get the fist unclenched within 30 seconds (without hurting the other person)

Get them to change roles and see if the other person can now get the fist unclenched

Debrief:

Invite them to sit down and ask for a show of hands to see who was able to get their partners fist unclenched

Ask them how they did it

Ask the participants what they got from the activity.

Lesson Reflection/Notes/Variations

Ideally people would have just asked a partner to open their first and they would have done it taking less than 10 seconds

However a couple of scenarios generally emerge:

1) People immediately try to force a fist open which meets with resistance

2) People ask the other person to open their fist and they refuse

3) People start to use all sorts of convoluted reasons why somebody should open their fist

There are multiple lessons that can be drawn from this very quick exercise. These include”

• Our default response to a challenge and our assumption on how the other person will act and react causing us to proceed in a way that aligns with our image of the other person and the task we have been given

• Our assumptions around intent - Do we think the other person wants to help us or wants to be difficult

• Do we approach the task with a willingness to help and listen?

• Our immediate reactions to an instruction,especially when we are under time pressure and reliant on somebody else