Move the Wall

For everything you wanted to know on building leadership and management, refer Shyam Bhatawdekar’s website: http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com/

(Refer our High Quality Management Encyclopedia “Management Universe” at: http://management-universe.blogspot.com/)

As a workshop leader or seminar faculty, you can use this management
exercise “Move the Wall” to invoke a thought among the participants of your
program to help them to differentiate between the “area of concern” and the
“area of influence". This topic will relate to your sessions on
personality development, proactiveness, self or internal motivation, how to
become more effective etc.

This exercise is a very effective energizer and icebreaker also.

Divide the participants of the program randomly into two equal groups. To
know the method of random grouping, refer to the previous management exercise
titled “Participative Quiz”.

Ask the members of the first group to stand facing one wall of the
seminar room at an arm’s length from the wall. Similarly ask the members of the
second group to stand facing the other wall of the seminar room at an arm’s
length from the wall.

Now, ask all of them to close their eyes and push the wall with full
strength.

You should generate excitement, motivating the members of both the groups
to keep pushing the wall with all their strength.

You can also add humor to the entire activity by telling the first group
that the second group has already moved the wall by a few inches. Then go to
the second group and tell them because of the efforts of the first group the
wall has actually started moving.

After a few minutes you should ask the participants to open their eyes,
go back to their seats and relax because they had done such a gigantic task.

Now ask each group to make improvements in the housekeeping and layout arrangements of the seminar room or any other improvements they wish to bring in the seminar hall. Divide the area of the room into two equal partitions and assign one half of the room to first group and the other half area of the room to the other group.

Let them not only discuss their improvement plans but also make the
actual physical changes in arrangements, layout and housekeeping etc.

After they finish this part of the exercise, ask them to revert to their
seats.

Once the participants are back to their respective seats, take the
feedback– whether the wall had actually moved or not in the first part of the
exercise. The answer here would be obviously a “no".

Also take their feedback on the second part of the exercise. Everyone
will confirm that they could bring about the improvements in the seminar hall
by applying their own influence and they did not need an external agency to do
so.

You can now explain the participants the concepts of “area of influence”
and “area of concern” and the importance of focusing on the “area of influence”
and not worry, complain or crib about the “area of concern or constraint”
though they do exist all around us. The wall here denoted the “area of concern”
or “area of non-influence” and though it existed, the participants could still
bring about improvements in the seminar hall.

You should re-emphasize that one should try to focus on “area of control”
or “area of influence” rather than wasting time on issues on which we have no
control and wrap up the session.

Get Hold of the Related Books

You can order the following books on "management games and icebreakers" as printed books and eBooks from Amazon online:

1. Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers
2. Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers (Volume 2)
3. Classic Team Building Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers
4. 101 Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers

Related Reading: (Repository of a large number of articles in management and leadership): http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com and http://management-universe.blogspot.com