Statement Game– Young People with Fewer Opportunities

Description of the tool

Step by step description:
1.Divide the room into two parts, marking one part 'yes', or 'agree', and one 'no' or 'disagree', divided by the rope.
2.hand out a piece of paper to all participants and ask them to write down a statement about ‘young people with fewer opportunities’ or any related subject you're dealing with. Give some examples yourself and make clear you'll discuss these statements afterwards, so that they should be as clear as possible. Avoid ‘softening’ words like 'rather' or 'a bit' and put the statements in an affirmative way (for example drug addicts are criminals, instead of drug addicts are not criminals)
3.Collect all statements in a hat or bowl, take the first one out and read it out aloud. If possible, write it down on a flipchart so people can refer to it when they've forgotten the full statement. Give the participants a minute to think, and ask them to take sides. Remaining in the middle is not allowed; it's either 'yes' or 'no'. Then, the discussion can start. People should try to convince the people on the other side that theirs is the right side. If the discussion doesn't start spontaneously, ask one of the persons why they're standing on that side. If there is no discussion at all since everyone is on one side already, adapt the statement a bit or go on to the next statement. Try to keep discussions limited to approx. 5 minutes, unless (all) people are really engaged.
4.After all statements have been discussed (or when the energy level is going down), stop the game and collect the group again, and discuss (some of) the questions from the reflection and evaluation section.

reflection and evaluation:
·should emotional arguments be allowed in discussions?
·did everyone participate?
·did you ever cross to the other side?
·did you ever cross to the other side because of what someone from your own side said?
·did you manage to clearly formulate your opinion?
·have you ever crossed to the other side just because you were (almost) alone on your side?
·have you tried to function as 'devils advocate'?
·have you managed to persuade people to come to your side?

Comments:
This method has been used very often in workshops and (board)meetings for discussing themes. Sometimes by statements delivered by the participants themselves, sometimes by already prepared statements. In order to avoid only one or two persons speaking all the time, the talking stick was introduced sometimes, or a new rule was added stating that, after having said something, you were only allowed to reply directly to something someone said and then step back again and leave the floor to someone else of your side.

With a group of rather experienced 'statement gamers' it is fun to see that some people start to function as advocates of the devil; mostly standing on their own on one side, and trying to persuade people to come to their side, using arguments that sound perfectly reasonable, even though not theirs. You as a facilitator could play this role to get the discussion going.