> Hi ! does anyone have any exercises pertaining to suspending assumptions
> in team learning? I need one fairly quickly for a class presentation...
> Thanks!
Stacy--
Sorry not to have been able to reply sooner; hope it's still timely. On
several occasions, I've given participants a piece of paper, some markers,
tape, and string. Then we choose (or I offer) a topic with some general
relevance to the group. People are then asked to write one of their
assumptions about the statement or topic (which they are willing to
"suspend" for exploration by others) on the paper, hang it around their
neck, and then walk around the room silently for a few minutes, reading
what others have offered. Then, at a signal from me, people can approach
anyone else, and inquire about the assumption around the persons neck,
using some typical "inquiry" questions. If you want to let it loose, then
just allow people to flow around, listen, etc. If you want to structure
it more carefully, you can give another signal at which point the person
who first inquired takes the role of the one inquired upon. Probably you
can think of some other good things to do! For me, the point is to
literally suspend an assumption, and then use inquiry skills to explore it
further.
Hope this is helpful.
Malcolm Burson<mooney@maine.maine.edu
Community Health and Counseling
Bangor, Maine
--"Malcolm Burson" <mooney@MAINE.MAINE.EDU>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>