Chapter 10. Communication Origami
This workshop corresponds to Chapter 4, “Communication.”
Oral communication is an essential component of teamwork. Team members are likely to choose forms of communication that suit their behavioral profiles. Someone who is a high C on the DISC profile is more likely to want to send an email than make a phone call. That person may feel less at ease when a situation warrants a conversation and will probably have to work harder than someone who is a high I. Because project teams often have several C members, there is value in helping these people increase their confidence when placed in situations that require good oral communication skills. For others, not all situations are configured to optimize productive communication. This exercise was designed to provide practice with oral communication in three different configurations and illustrate which of these configurations yields the best results.
Materials
Materials include the following:
• Origami instruction sheet
• Blank 8½ × 11-inch paper
Setup
Split the participants into three groups. This works best if each of the groups is located together. (for example, back of the room, front left side, and front right side.) Have participants pair up with someone else in their group. It’s necessary to have an even number of participants so that everyone has a partner. If needed, move someone to another group to find a partner. After this, worst-case scenario, there will be one person in the room without a partner. Just have that person join one of the pairs; the exercise still works for a trio.
Designate that one person in each pair is the “guide” and the other person is the “folder.” Hand out a copy of the origami instruction sheet face down to the guide and hand a blank sheet of paper to the folder. Tell the guides not to turn over the instruction sheet until told to do so.
Assign one of the following roles to each of the three groups with the following instructions:
1. Face-to-face group: Partners sit face to face. The guide will read the instruction sheet and communicate instructions to the folder. The guide may provide feedback to the folder but may not touch the paper being folded. The folder may not look at the instruction sheet.
2. Side-by-side group: Partners sit side-by-side. Both partners may look at the instruction sheet, but only the folder may touch the paper being folded.
3. Back-to-back group: Partners sit back to back. The guide will give instructions to the folder but may not see the paper being folded. The folder may not look at the instruction sheet.
Facilitation
Say “1-2-3-Go!” Tell the participants to create the item described on the instructions and to stand up when they finish. The exercise is straightforward and usually doesn’t require any more explanation. Try to avoid any more explanation and guidance. There are unique communication dynamics that can occur within each of the three groups, and it’s important to let those dynamics happen on their own.
The facilitator may want to wander and observe without offering help. You might need to remind the back-to-back partners not to look over their shoulders. Allow the exercise to continue until at least a few of the groups have successfully completed the exercise. Usually the side-by-side groups will finish first, and it’s rare that a back-to-back group ever successfully completes the task.
After stopping the exercise, have one of the successful teams show off their results. It can be fun to pick on one of the back-to-back teams and illustrate how far off it was from the goal. You may even find a frustrated folder clutching onto a crumpled ball of paper!
Post-Exercise Discussion
Discuss the challenges and frustrations in each of the groups. Some key discussion points to draw out include the following:
• Side-by-side group
• Ask how they worked together.
• Discuss the challenges of the guide not being allowed to help with the folding.
• The instructions are intentionally slightly ambiguous. Ask how they interacted to figure out instructions that were not clear.
• Emphasis: Collaboration with full access to available resources allows people to best solve problems together.
• Face-to-face group
• Ask what challenges the guide faced having to describe the instructions without being allowed to show the illustrations.
• By seeing the work in progress, the guide adapted the instructions and injected additional information to support successful completion of the task.
• Emphasis: Oral communication may not be enough. Written instructions and/or visual representations can be helpful to supplement the spoken word.
• By removing collaboration, visual clues, and real-time feedback, these teams were challenged, and the probability of success was low.
• The exercise demonstrates spoken communication as it typically occurs on telephone calls, which are common to geographically dispersed teams.
• Emphasis: The challenges faced by this group are not exclusive to spoken communication. They also occur when sending emails back and forth or when writing a requirements document and sending it to another for interpretation.
Figure 10.1 presents the instructions for the origami. (See the following page.)
Figure 10.1 Origami instructions
