Soft Shoe Shuffle

Soft Shoe Shuffle

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Term2.png SOFT SHOE SHUFFLE
Facilitation Technique used in cases of extreme polarization of ideas. Using this technique the participants create a physical space between their different opinions and different roles by moving around a room. People are therefore allowed to "act" their opinions, in a sort of physical discussion. This technique is considered particularly useful in cases of strong polarization of opinions, since it allows to find points in common between people that have very different ideas, avoiding a complete isolation of one or more people from the rest of the group. [1]


Toolkit.png Conducting Soft Shoe Shuffle
  1. Gather all the participants of the group in a big space where they are free to move.
  2. Ask to one of the participants to express his / her point of view on one question relative to the meeting purpose.
  3. Ask to the rest of the group to move around the room according to the level of agreement with the opinion expressed. They should move towards the person in case they agree and moving away if they do not agree with him / her.
  4. Take a few second to observe how people positioned themselves around the room.
  5. Look for eventual isolated subjects, whose opinion always differs from the rest of the group.
  6. Ask the isolated person to verbalize his / her opinion
  7. Ask to the rest of the group if there is at least one element of this person ideas that they share.


Often there will be someone that will share at least partially the opinion of the isolated person, who will feel more accepted in the group. Even in case where there is no way of finding an agreement with the isolated opinion the person will feel he / she has been heard and will consider him / herself again as part of the group.[2]



References

  1. ↑ Accelerating Performance: powerful new techniques to develop people, Par Sunny Stout Rostron, 2002)
  2. ↑ Accelerating Performance: powerful new techniques to develop people, Par Sunny Stout Rostron, 2002)
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