During class this week we did a few communication based activities. The first was a obstacle course in which we had to go through with a partner. It was quite challenging since one partner was blindfolded and the other couldn’t touch or lead the other through. This made me really have to think about what I was saying. What might seem clear to one person might to another that is lacking something the first person possess. In this case it was sight. Some directions I gave and received were too vague while other times they were too specific to be able to execute. “Move a little forward” or “Turn 30 degrees to the left”. Both are fairly relative and need a point of reference that, without sight, were hard to accomplish. For next year I’ll really have to work on trying to see a problem through other people’s eyes and forget what might be common sense to me since that might not be the case with students fresh to Iowa State.
The second activity was probably the most challenging. We had to flip a blanket over while everyone kept both feet on it. I’ve never done this activity before so I really relied on critical thinking and the prior knowledge of other mentors in the group. I think this was a great activity for critical thinking along with communication. For the most of the challenge the entire puzzle wasn’t clear since you can’t see what people are doing on the other side with everyone packed in tight. We had to rely on what people said to know what was going on along with when and how to act to accomplish this goal.
The third activity was really insightful into how different people perceive and are able to relay a message on. We started with writing a word and passed that to the next person who was to draw what was written. Then when it was passed again it was to be drawn again. This was difficult since not everyone is a great artist but its kind of a metaphor for communication levels. Not everyone can get his or her point across affectively and sometimes it is a guessing game. What might have started out as a simple phrase such as “princess castle” can morph through others perceptions and interpretations into “filming a movie”.
I thought this pasts weeks activities were a lot of fun and were great ways to show the importance of communication within a group. I think I remember the princess castle. When it got to me it was Bowser's Castle.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that not everyone will possess the same knowledge or the same skills as we might and it is very important to be clear in our messages and our actions!
ReplyDeleteWednesday was definitely an active class. I was not very good at describing the obstacle coarse to my partner, and watching the rest of you complete the Magic Carpet was quite entertaining. However, these activities really did show us how important communication is.
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