Learning objective/Rationale: Building confidence, developing active listening skills.
Description of the method/nr. of persons of the group for which the method is suitable: The exercise is suitable for groups that are a multiple of three (6, 9 or 12 participants). In this exercise, participants are divided into groups of 3. While one group of 3 performs, the others act as an audience. A group of three participants stands in front of the others in the shape of a triangle – one participant is behind the other two, who are in front of the audience. The person who is in the back whispers to one of those in front – one or two sentences per turn. Afterwards the one, who has been whispered to, has to share it with the audience aloud, keeping the intonation, the emotion, the voice strength of the one whispering. It would be a good idea for the whisperer to touch the shoulder of the person, who he is going to whisper to next, so the person knows he/she will have to listen carefully and then tell the story to the audience. The exercise is really liberating. If a shy person has problems telling his/her own stories, he/she will avoid that by telling other people’s stories, which is a quite different experience. Then his/her own story will be whispered out and told to the audience by someone else. Gradually a shy person learns to speak in a more confident way, no matter whether he/she is speaking on someone else’s behalf or not.
Materials needed: Lines on the floor, produced with duct tape – microphones might be useful
Time: 40 minutes or longer, if participants need more time for discussion
Questions for discussions/Debriefing:
- Was the objective achieved and how? How did you feel in the beginning and then at the end?
- How did you feel when you had to tell other people’s stories aloud?
- What about sharing your own stories through a whisper?
- How did you feel hearing your story, told by someone else?
Source: Dinos Aristidou, 2017