January 23, 2011 · 9:08 am
Audience
Teens, Adults
Time
15-20 minutes
Description
This game helps participants to become familiar with and remember the 34 Clifton StrengthsFinder Themes through a competitive sorting activity. Participants should have taken the Clifton StrengthsFinder or StrengthsQuest assessment at http://www.strengthsfinder.com. You can get an access code by purchased their books, StrengthsFinder 2.0 or Strengths Based Leadership.
Scriptures
o Romans 12:4-5
Materials
o Cards with each of the StrengthsFinder Themes and their definitions (one set per team – you can find the file with these cards at www.teachingthem.com on the Lesson and Material Downloads page in the file “Strengths Finder Theme Sorting – Cards.ppt.”
o Scissors or other cutting tool
o Envelopes (one per team)
o Answer Key (at the bottom of this lesson and also in the file “Strengths Finder Theme Sorting – Answer Key.ppt” on the Lesson and Material Downloads page.)
o Flipchart or whiteboard
o Marker
o Prizes for the winning team (optional)
o Bible
Preparation
o Cut out the cards for sorting, and put one set per envelope (one per team). You might want to number or name the envelopes to correspond to team designations.
o Write the Debrief Question on a flipchart or whiteboard, and have them ready for the groups to review and discuss after the game.
o Practice the script.
Procedure
Use the following script (or modify to suit your needs):
- “Let’s do a competition that will help you to become more familiar with and to remember the 34 StrengthsFinder Themes.”
- “I’m giving each team an envelope with all 34 Themes and their definitions.” (Pass out the envelopes, but instruct them not to open the envelopes until you give the signal.)
- “When I say go, work with your team members to match each Theme to its definition.”
- “The team that finishes earliest with the least number of mistakes wins.”
- “I will only check your answers once, so make sure that they are correct before you ask me to check them.”
- “When you say you are done, I will tell you what order you finished in, i.e., 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc…”
- “Finishing first doesn’t mean you win. You have to have the least amount of mistakes.”
- “If there is a tie for least amount of mistakes, the team that finished earliest will win.”
- “Any questions?” (After addressing questions, let the teams open their envelopes and start sorting. When they finish, they should notify you, and you will tell them what place they finished in. This doesn’t guarantee a win. The most important thing is that they have the fewest mistakes, but if there is a tie for fewest mistakes, the team who finished earlier will win. After you have checked their answers using the Answer Key below, declare a winner and offer them a prize if you wish. Then, have the teams work through the Debrief Questions below.)
Debrief Questions
1. Read Romans 12:4-5. This Scripture continues to talk about spiritual gifts. Do you think its truth also applies to our Strengths? Why or why not?
2. Why do you think God made us so differently?
3. What does it mean, “each part of the body belongs to all the other parts?”
4. How can we live this Scripture more intentionally in the future?
Answer Key
A. Developer
B. Competition
C. Belief
D. Adaptability
E. Arranger
F. Communication
G. Context
H. Discipline
I. Empathy
J. Achiever
K. Command
L. Deliberative
M. Focus
N. Consistency
O. Connectedness
P. Activator
Q. Analytical
R. Woo
S. Relator
T. Includer
U. Input
V. Restorative
W. Learner
X. Strategic
Y. Positivity
Z. Significance
AA. Responsibility
BB. Harmony
CC. Intellection
DD. Maximizer
EE. Ideation
FF. Individualization
GG. Self-Assurance
HH. Futuristic
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Filed under diversity, Game, Games that Teach, Icebreaker, memory, Strengths
Tagged as Achiever, Activator, Adaptability, Analytical, Arranger, Belief, Clifton, Command, communication, competition, Connectedness, Consistency, Context, Deliberative, Developer, Discipline, Donald O'Clifton, Empahy, familiarization, Focus, Futuristic, Gallup, Game, Games that Teach, harmony, Ideation, Includer, Individualization, input, Intellection, Learner, many parts, matching, Maximizer, memorization, memory, one body, Positivity, Relator, responsibility, Restorative, Romans 12:4-5, Self-assurance, Significance, sorting, Strategic, Strengths Finder, Strengths Quest, StrengthsFinder, StrengthsQuest, Themes, Woo
October 15, 2009 · 3:15 am
Time
40-60 minutes (or more, depending upon how many cultural dimensions you choose to use)
Audience
Teens or adults who interact with people of different cultures or are planning to do so
Description
This game illustrates the differences between the many different cultures of the world. It borrows from the research of Geert Hofstede, Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner and the writings of Craig Storti. Facilitators can benefit from having some familiarity with the different cultural dimensions before conducting the game.
The materials contain many more cultural dimensions than you probably want to cover in one game. You can pick out the ones that are most relevant to your group, or you might want to run this game at different times during a multi-day meeting.
The “Cultural Continuums – Answers” file focuses largely on Europe and Asia, because that was the context for the group for which this game was developed. However, additional flags are provided in the “Cultural Continuums – Flags” file, and the full statistics for each continuum are in the Notes section of the PowerPoint slide. You can change the flags with this information.
Scriptures
Materials
- Flag cards – one set per team (These are available in the file “Cultural Continuums – Flags” on the Lessons and Downloads page at www.teachthem.wordpress.com.)
- Answer key (This can be found in the file “Cultural Continuums – Answers” on the Lessons and Downloads page at www.teachthem.wordpress.com.)
- Rolls of masking tape (one per team)
- Projector
- Screen
- Computer
- Flipchart
- Markers
- Bible
Preparation
- Print out copies of the flag cards (one copy per team)
- Review the facilitator notes on the Notes section under each slide in the “Cultural Continuums – Answers.”
- Practice the script.
Procedure
Use the following script and instructions (or modify to suit your needs):
- “You may remember the story of the Tower of Babel.” (Ask a volunteer to read it out loud from Genesis 11:1-9.)
- “This Scripture is the birthplace of cultural diversity.”
- “Never again would mankind all speak the same language or observe the same cultural practices – at least not until Christ returns, and probably not even then will we give up the cultural practices that make us unique.”
- “So, let’s see how different we’ve become.”
- “We are going to play a game to highlight the many differences among the various cultures of the world.”
- “I will briefly describe a continuum of a cultural dimension. (A continuum is something that goes from one extreme on one end to the other extreme on the other end.)”
- “After I’ve described it, you will take a group of flags (that I’m about to hand you) and stick them to the wall in the order that you think best represents where you think that country falls on the continuum.” (Hand out sets of flag pictures and tape to each group.)
- “Then, I will show you the ‘right answers’ on the screen at the front of the room.”
- “Just so that you know, the ‘right answers’ are based on the work of some cultural experts who have been studying different cultures for many years.”
- “You may not always agree with their findings, and that’s okay. We can talk about it during the debrief.”
- “Sometimes, countries had the same ranking or rating in their studies. In this case, the countries will be shown in the same place on the continuum I show you at the front of the room.”
- “Does anyone have any questions about how the game will work?” (Answer questions.)
- “Okay, let’s play.” (Do as many cultural dimensions as you like. After each one, you might want to ask the group members to explain why they ordered the flags in the way that they did. There will always be at least one country that wasn’t part of the study. You might want to focus on these and ask each group how they made their decision in regard to these countries. When you are done with all the dimensions, have the groups discuss the following questions. (You may want to post them on a flipchart.) Allow 15-20 minutes for discussion, and then debrief as a large group.)
Debrief Questions
- What do you think about the different cultural dimensions, and where the countries landed on the continuums?
- What was surprising to you?
- Is there anything that you disagreed with? Why?
- What do these differences mean for how we work with people from different cultures?
- What will you personally do differently as a result of what you have learned?
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Tagged as achieved, achievement, adults, ascribed, attitude toward uncertainty, attitude toward work, Charles Hampden-Turner, clearlycultural.com, collectivism, concept of self, concept of time, continuum, country flags, Craig Storti, cultural, cultural dimensions, culture, degree of directness, differences, dimensions, direct, diversity, external, feminine values, Figuring Foreigners Out, Fons Trompenaars, fortune, Game, Games that Teach, Geert Hofstede, gender dominance, Genesis 11:1-9, harmony, high context, importance of face, indirect, individualism, internal, key to productivity, locus of control, logic of the head, logic of the heart, Long-term orientation, losing face, low context, luck, masculine values, missionaries, missionary trips, monochronic, objective, particularism, personal accountability, polychronic, positive, power distance, powerful me, powerful others, quality of life, research, results, Riding the Waves of Culture, role of context, saving face, short-term, showing emotions, skeptical, societal accountability, source of status, studies, subjective, teenagers, teens, Tower of Bable, universalism
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