Preparation

• If you conduct the workshop on site, you will need three different chairs which represent the various points of view.




Check-In (5 minutes)

• Welcome the team and introduce the workshop by explaining the Walt Disney method to the team as described above.
• Explain the structure of the workshop

Overview: Tackling a conflict from three perspectives.

Goal: Learn a new method to find creative solutions.





Step 1 (5 minutes)

• Choose three volunteers who want to take part in a discussion. Then as a group, choose a topic for the discussion.

The topic of the discussion is up to the team since choosing one is also part of the creative process. The topic should allow for at least three different points of view.

Example: It may be a simple, everyday topic (e.g. which means of transportation is the best) or a more complex topic regarding your organization. It can also be a fun or invented topic (e.g. you need new curtains for your office room(s), which do you buy).





Step 2 (15 minutes)

• Set up three different chairs facing each other. (If you do the workshop online, imagine that part.)
• These three chairs are addressed with a dreamer, a realist and a critic. The three volunteers sit down on these chairs, enter into a role play and discuss the problem from the positions described.
• You swap the roles after a while so everybody can try out another position.

This exercise is not about winning an argument. Instead, your arguments can be as imaginative as you like, but should still be reasonable.

If the volunteers don’t know what to say, they can get help from the other team members currently not sitting in one of the chairs.

Example: The dreamer raves about silk fabrics, which are expensive but very noble. The critic points out that new curtains are beyond the budget and therefore out of the question. The realist points out that the curtains could be bought if another project is postponed.





Ending (5 minutes)

• Afterwards, the team members who were not participating in the discussion can give feedback on how they liked the discussion, which arguments they liked and if they had further ideas to solve the “problem”.
If other team members want to, you can repeat the workshop with other volunteers and another topic.