Fishbowl
This activity is an effective way to activate attention as it helps prime the natural listening and observing skills of individuals, and helps enable a more substantive conversation. Through this activity, participants can practice active listening and engage in meaningful conversations.
Instructions
Think of a topic suitable for discussion and write down questions associated with it.
Find a room with a good amount of open space and clear out anything other than chairs.
Arrange the chairs in two concentric circles in the room – an inner circle seats players engaged in conversation; an outer circle seats the players acting as observers.
Introduce the activity and assign “observer” or “player” status to each person.
Give everyone a pen and a handout (but mention that the handout is used only in the observer role).
Ask the participants to sit in the circle relative to their assigned role.
Announce the topic of the game and ask the players to take 15 minutes to have a discussion around it.
Use the questions you generated before the meeting to start the conversation and keep it moving.
Make sure the players know that their responsibility is simply to converse in the circle.
Make sure the observers know that their role is to pay close attention and to write their observations on all discussion points and evidence that come out of the conversation.
When 15 minutes are up, ask the group to switch seats and switch roles.
Then start another 15 minute discussion on the same topic or a different one.
After both conversations have completed, ask for volunteers to share the information they gathered and ask them to describe their experiences on the inner versus outer circle.
The Fishbowl activity is about engaging skills that in many of us have become rusty; people are well versed in having conversations, but what most of us aren’t used to is listening, observing, and being accountable for our observations.
Despite the fact that it may look as though the action happens in the players’ conversation, the action in this game happens in the outer circle, with the observers. In processing this activity, be clear with the group that this is a listening and observing exercise.
To facilitate this, you can even install a point system, where points are awarded to those who most accurately logged the conversation that took place—not to those who made the most comments in the discussion.
Talk to the group about their experience of being silent and paying attention. What was difficult about it? What was easy? How did it affect their perception of the topic and the other players? Use the Fishbowl exercise as a segue to a heightened give-and-take between stakeholders.