• to gain in-depth understanding of the dynamics of a conflict;
• to develop team work skills in making collective decisions.

2-4 hours (depends on scenario and amount of debrief)

Handout descriptions of roles and scenario

This is a tool to teach strategizing skill (over time) using a version of role-play. Explain the scenario for this exercise (e.g., neighborhood association working with tenants to persuade a slumlord to fix up properties).

Break the participants into group: each group represents a single group of people: one group might be the neighborhood association, another group might be the slumlord, another group might be the accompaniers, another the city government and so on filling the important main roles.

After getting the scenario, the groups make some decision about "what they will do."

After each round of consideration, they all report to the large group their action. Facilitator's may "speed up" the action and "make up" some events which (although realistic) force the campaigners to work more boldly or more imaginatively.

Then a new round of role-play occurs, with debriefing again within subgroups, reporting to the whole group, and so on.

This tool increases rapidly the number of variables which participants can take into account, allowing them to discover strategic openings and deadends, and put their immediate experience in a larger strategic context through facilitator-led de-briefings.

George Lakey, Training for Change

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