GAME #87: “You Catch More Flies with Honey…”

Game	Opener	Team-building
Categories:	Energizer	Review
	Communication	Topical

 Purpose: To show that force is not the most effective tool for communicating or for changing behavior.

 Time Required: 10 minutes.

 Size of Group: Unlimited, but participants should work in pairs.

 Materials Required: None.

 The Exercise in Action: The old adage, “You catch more flies with honey than vinegar,” rings true in Debi Seddall’s classes.

Seddall, an independent contractor/facilitator with KASET International in Bloomfield, MI, has participants pair up and face each other. She asks one person in each pair to close his or her hand and hold it clenched in front of the other. She then tells the second person to get the hand of the first person open as quickly as possible.

After 10 seconds, she asks them to stop. Most participants spent the time trying, unsuccessfully, to pry open their partners’ fists with force; the more force they used, the more resistant their partners became.

Seddall asks whether others found less forceful ways to open their partners’ hands. Generally someone comes up with the quickest and most agreeable solution to the problem: asking the partner, “Would you please open your hand?”

She leads the group in a discussion about effective management techniques to facilitate change—creatively, not forcefully—and to have open minds to others’ ideas.