No / Yes but / Yes / Yes and
Table of Contents
By pairs. Player A tells a story to player B. Player B can only answer No. Then player B can only respond Yes, But…, then Yes and finally Yes, and.
A good exercise to feel how we are affected by others’ reaction to our ideas.
- Group size : By pairs
- Time : 10-15 minutes
Process #
- Put the participants by pairs
- Show an example with a participant. You start a story, and this participant can only answer No.
- Ask the participants to do the same by Pair.
- After some time, ask them to switch.
- Debrief this first session with the No.
- Do the same with the next answers: Yes, but…, Yes, Yes And
- Debrief the whole exercise.
For example :
- A: Let’s go to the beach!
- B: No
- A: So let’s go to the mountain!
- B: No
Another one :
- A: Let’s go to the beach!
- B: Yes, but I can’t swim
- A: So let’s take the sun!
- B: Yes, but it gives cancer
Remarks #
Let the stories continue some time before switching A and B. It’s part of the exercise to feel how hard it is to continue with some answers.
Debrief questions #
Between each answer:
- How does it feel to have only this as an answer?
- How does it feel to start your sentences this way?
- Which was the more difficult, to answer or to build the story?
At the end :
- Which answer did you prefer? In which role? Why?
- What is the link you see with the work?
Comments #
As caricatural this exercise may sound, it’s a very efficient way to see how negative answers can be exhaustive.
It’s also interesting to see that with most groups, a Yes alone feel less good than a Yes, but... An interpretation is that to say Yes, but… you have to not only listen (Yes) but also to understand and build an answer connected (but). So you need to be more involved than a simple Yes.
This exercise is also an excellent way to show how a story can go farther when we build positively on them (Yes, and).
Related
Player A offers an imaginary present to player B. Player B defines what is the gift and show his happiness on what he has just been offered! The pair continues the same action back and forth.
This game is straightforward and perfect to show how hard it can be to define what should be the most natural thing: a present we would like.
In a group, a first player says 1 when he thinks of a word. Then when a second player thinks he knows the word of the first player, he says 2. Finally, together they say 1,2,3 and their world. If they have the same word, it’s a Mind Meld!
An excellent warmup to put a group in the same energy.
Two players do a scene. They must say one sentence at a time: Player A starts with a sentence, Player B answer with another sentence, and so on.
A good setup to do a scene where we concentrate on the listening between players.
In a circle, participants pass a Zip! noise to each other. One player can decide to say Zap! to change the direction of the sound or to say Zop! to skip the next player.
This game is perfect to make every member of the group present.
In front of this computer since hours, I’m looking for how to start this article. How the find the idea that will make it meaningful. I turn the music on and the distraction off and begin to look around me to think “outside the box”. Two hours ago I planned to write this article about the first improvisation training I did with my team. I’ve decided to train us on behavior and creativity topics. This training is about what I’m struggling with right now :
How can I have more ideas?