What is a partner?

• Coming up with a collective definition that suits everyone
• Taking into consideration different points of view on a topic
• Allowing everyone to express, including the people who are not feeling comfortable with speaking their mind in a big group
• Encouraging collective intelligence

Duration: 30-40 minutes

Ask the participants to make a circle. Then invite a volunteer to go in the middle of it to propose a definition of the word you try to find a definition for (in our case: “a Partner”).

Ask all the others to take a position regarding what was said. The more they agree with the given definition, the closer they will position themselves next to the person who expressed it. At the opposite, if they disagree, they will have to go far from her. The way the participants are scattered represents the diversity of points of view regarding the given definition. Now, it is time to improve the definition, so it can fit more to the group. Ask for a new volunteer, one standing close to the first one, to add something to the definition to improve it, and repeat the positioning exercise.

In case there is no agreement, start the process again with a volunteer who strongly disagrees. Ask him/her to give a new definition and repeat the process the same way (first, people take position, then a second volunteer close to the speaker improve the proposition and people move again according to this new statement).

To conclude, try to synthesize and make a definition that takes into consideration the different points of view expressed. In case the two definitions are too wide apart, highlight the various angles available to deal with the topic, showing how complex some concepts can be when at first you thought their meaning was obvious.

Building on the definitions that were given, you can picture the “ideal partner” regarding the values, the resources and the working methods you think they should have.

• A big room
• A flipchart with markers of different colors (at least 3)