Plan a picnic
Aim:
To plan and carry out a picnic, and assess how you worked together.
You will need:
Food and equipment for a picnic (to be provided by group members).
Duration:
1 hour for picnic (plus planning and preparation time beforehand)
In this activity the group will learn in practice what it means to co-operate to achieve a task, (a picnic meal) in which everyone shares both the preparation and the final enjoyment.
Suggest to the group that they organise a picnic or buffet meal - it could be to mark a special occasion. There will be several things to co-ordinate:
- Where and when will you have the picnic?
- Will it be inside or outside (and if outside, what will you do if it rains)?
- How will you decide what to cook?
- Who will bring what?
- Who will be invited?
Explain that as well as planning and enjoying a picnic, this activity is also about working together. Later you will be looking at how the task gets done - from developing the idea to preparing the meal and clearing up. Along the way all the group members should try to remember what they see about the process of getting the meal to happen.
You could ask for several volunteers to note the following information:
- What mood are people in and who speaks most?
- How are decisions made and who makes them?
- How do people get on and how do they communicate with each other.
- What is done in a big group and what is done and decided between certain key people?
After the meal think about how you all worked together. Try to be honest, positive and even humorous so the debriefing is focussed on what can be learnt not on being negative. Talk in general about the process without being critical in a personal way, (unless individual people are willing to talk openly about what they think they should have personally done differently).
These questions may help you to evaluate but other issues and questions will arise naturally:
- How did people get on whilst doing the preparation?
- Did anyone quarrel? If so, why?
- What kind of communication was necessary?
- Did some people participate more?
- What were the key points where the process really 'got moving'?
- What were the more difficult tasks that people didn't want to do and how did the group decide on who should do them?
- What level of co-operation did you achieve?
- Did it happen immediately or later on and what helped the group to work well together? Did you informally or formally select a leader?
- How were decisions made? (Eg. were they democratic or executive?)
Extra option:
Talk about what makes for good co-operation and make a list for everyone to see (eg, not arguing, listening to each person and then making a firm decision, having a leader who can listen and motivate people, everyone taking a full part).