Access the essential membership for Modern Managers
Aim
This is a lively and informal exercise designed to get participants thinking about the ‘warning signs’ of changes that may affect their future.
Facilitator Guidance
This exercise can be used with any size of group. It involves splitting the group into subgroups. It is best to have subgroups of no more than three people per group and you can have as many subgroups as you feel necessary. Remember to take into account the extra resources you will require for each additional subgroup.
No separate task sheet is required. It will take about 25 minutes to complete.
Preparation
Write the 10 headings listed under the first point of ‘Resources Required’ onto pieces of paper or card. There are 10 headings split between three categories. Subgroups should be given a heading from each category, thus it is helpful if you know in advance how many subgroups you are going to have. Note that category (2) has four headings while the other two categories only have three. If you have more than three subgroups, just duplicate some of the headings in the three categories.
Suggested Resources
- pieces of paper or card with (1) ‘work situation’, ‘personal/social situation’, ‘example from film/TV/literature’, (2) ‘saw change and ignored it’, ‘didn’t see change coming’, ‘saw change but couldn’t act’, ‘saw change and prepared for it’, (3) ‘avoided/lessened the damage’, ‘managed to reap the benefits’, ‘hit badly by it’
- sheets of paper and pens for each subgroup
What to Do (10 minutes)
- Introduce the exercise and explain its purpose.
- Point out that the group will be given a selection of cards with different headings on them and will be required to construct an example from their experience that involves all three.
- Split the group into subgroups and give each subgroup a heading from each of the three categories. Ask the subgroups to take a few minutes to think of a scenario they can recall that involves each of the headings they have been given. For example, the group may have been given the following headings: ‘personal/social situation’ + ‘saw change but couldn’t act’ + ‘hit badly by it’
- If a group happens to have been given a set of headings that simply do not make sense together, it is perfectly acceptable for the group to point this out and explain what did take place. For example, the group may have been given the following headings: ‘work situation’, ‘didn’t see change coming’, ‘managed to reap the benefits’
- The groups should make notes about their scenario(s) on their sheets of paper. When everyone has done this, invite the subgroups to share their scenarios with the rest of the participants.
For example, one of the group members may recall a situation where they were on a night out with a group of friends. He/she was aware of a heated argument going on around him/her but was too engrossed in conversation with friends to realize that things could turn nasty and thus failed to extricate him/herself from the situation. When fists started to fly, he/she ended up with a black eye having, quite literally, been hit badly by it.
Similarly, in a work situation if you fail to see change until it has happened, you can be ‘hit badly by it’. The participants may deal with this by saying “luckily for me, someone else had spotted this and prepared for it so it was really fine” or admit that pure luck helped them come out on top. Alternatively, they may point out that these two headings together do not make the best sense and choose to explain how they were in fact ‘hit badly by it’.
Subgroups are welcome to give more than one example (if they choose and if time allows).
Apply Learning (5–10 minutes)
Once each group has presented a scenario, facilitate a brief discussion on the principal learning points from the exercise. The following questions may be useful for stimulating discussion:
- What lessons, if any, can we take from these examples?
- What are the benefits of being aware and able to perceive change?
- Why is this important for business survival?
- How can scenario planning help with business survival?
- How might scenario planning be useful for personal life as well as business?
