Practice group exercises

The exercise: I call it "The day of needs" (or something like that)

The intention of this exercise is 1. to bring some fun and relaxed learning 2. to make people realize that the motivation of our actions is grounded in our needs. With everything we are doing we try to fulfill a need.

Let the group imagine, that you all represent ONE person, going through a day.

Every person says in turn one thing that she/he does in the day. You follow the time of the day.

Example: I begin: "It is 6 am and I get up, going to the toilette and fulfilling my need for evacuation."

Next person: "Oh, then I enter the kitchen and am starting to make a coffee, because... for me it´s a kind of ritual, starting the day with a coffee. So I fulfill my need for celebration and ritual."

Next person: " Now I go to the bathroom. I have an extensive shower, brush my teeth and do this kind of body care, because...well, I have a need for physical wellbeing?

and so on. Each person contributes an activity during the day.

You can do this game with small and large groups, with beginners and advanced.

Isabell Peters from cold and sunny North Germany

1. Jackalaplooza Practice responding to these situations: - blame (especially when in agreement with some of the content) - victim language - jackal humor - praise - responding when triggered (giving self emergency empathy)

2. Don't Diss the Jackal Observe and and translate. Practice screaming and BS in giraffe. (Some young g's think giraffe has to be 'nice', this practice theme encourages expressing full range of feeling.)

3. JackalJam: people collect jackal stuff from the culture (song lyrics, ads, movie dialog) and bring it in. What is the need behind these?

All of these deal with "jackal"- might be because young giraffes so easily slide into 'jackal is bad/wrong'.

Will appreciate any comments and seeing others' contributions. - Kathleen Conway

OFNR Says Taken from the children's game, Simon Says.

Participants stand at the end of a room and OFNR reads a sentence. The participants decide if they think the sentence is a giraffe communication; i.e. clear Observation, Feeling, Need or Request. If they decide it is, they take one step forward. If not they stand stationary. Then the discussion. If the consensus is "no, it isn't", then anyone who has taken a step has to return to the beginning. First person to reach OFNR celebrates.

I imagine starting simply and then increasing the complexity of the sentences as the game progresses.

Feedback?

P.S. I started with the desire to have more physical movement in exercises. Then I wondered what childhood games had activity. Then how to make it relevant to NVC. Hide and Seek Giraffes? Haven't figured that one out yet. I would enjoy your creative contributions. Jim Hussey