What to do
Ask the group to stand in a circle and close their eyes. Put a coloured sticker on everyone’s forehead, dividing up the colours so that there is one participant who is the only one with one particular colour. For example: 7 reds and 1 blue or 3 greens, 2 oranges, 4 reds and 1 yellow.
Next ask the participants to open their eyes again and group themselves into their colours by simply saying ‘Group yourselves without talking’.
Leave the group to organise themselves, just make sure they don’t talk. Ask the group to tell you when they are done by standing in their groups of the same colour. At this point they can take the stickers off their foreheads to see which colour they had.
Come back together in a circle and ask the group:
- How do you feel about this grouping?
- Are you satisfied?
- Why (not)?
Repeat the exercise but switch the stickers around so that the lone participant is now part of a group and there is a different person on their own. This time you could use a funny sticker for the lone person to make them appear even more different.
Discussion Questions
- How do you feel now? Are you satisfied with this grouping?
- Why are you grouped like this?
- How does it feel to be in the big group?
- How does it feel to be alone or in a small group?
- What makes you different from each other?
- What does it mean to be different?
- What sort of conflicts could arise from being different from each other?
- Do you have examples from your own life? How can you deal with them?