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Begin the integration of the group, starting from something fundamental: knowing each other, initiating the interpersonal relationship.

Break the ice from the beginning and reduce tensions

Show that no member of the group can go unnoticed.

Give a first idea of ​​the personal values ​​of the participants

Participants: from twenty-five to thirty people.

Time: forty-five minutes, approximately.

Place: A fairly large room with chairs to accommodate everyone.


The animator begins by explaining that the work they are going to do requires everyone to feel at ease. This requires everyone to know who is who. It will not come to a knowledge of the group if individuals are not known. This can be achieved in several ways. In this exercise, we will start with the presentation by binas:

The animator asks that all participants form subgroups of two, preferably among unknown persons.

For about six or seven minutes, two people interviewing each other.

Returned then to the unique group, each person will make the presentation of the companion to whom he has interviewed.

No one can make their own presentation.

Each person must be attentive and verify if the presentation that his partner has made of him is correct and if it corresponds to the data that he has provided.

Next, the animator asks the participants to express their opinion about the presentation made by their partner and about the value that this exercise has had for them.




Objective: To make the group aware, at the beginning of the course, about their motivations, desires and hopes, their anxieties and fears

Participants: from twenty-five to thirty people.

Time: approximately thirty minutes.

Material: a blank sheet and ballpoint pen.


A large room for everyone, with desks.

A blackboard


The animator begins by saying that surely at the beginning of the Course everyone will harbor fears and hopes. In the exercise they are going to do, everyone can express those fears and hopes. For it:

Subgroups of five to seven people are formed.

Each subgroup is given a blank sheet; A secretary is appointed who will take note of the fears and hopes of each subgroup.

Next, the animator asks that in each group subgroup the fears and hopes be expressed in the new course and write it down in the sheet they have received. They will have about seven minutes for this.

After that time, the large group is formed again so that each subgroup can relate what they have written down.

The animator makes a summary on the board or on the large poster board and will observe that the fears and hopes of the subgroups are probably coincident or reducible to three.

The exercise can continue as follows: The animator asks that the subgroups be formed again and each of them will study more deeply one of the fears or hopes of the group, its characteristics, its manifestations, etc. when they do it Once the large group has been recomposed, one of the members of each subgroup must personalize the fear or hope that they have studied in their subgroup; must experience before others, and make them feel, that fear or hope.



a) Improve relations between two different groups

b) Explore the integration of groups

Participants: two groups formed by no more than fifteen people.

Time: approximately two hours

Material: large sheets of cardboard or a blackboard.

Place: a room wide enough to be able to place the two groups separately.


The exercise begins with a general meeting in which the animator explains the objectives and the functioning of the work.

The two groups are formed. Each one of them will have to respond on a cardboard to the following questions:

How does your group see the other group?

How does our group think that the other group sees him? This will take approximately one hour.

They all meet again in assembly and a representative of each group Reads and explains to everyone the contents of the paper of their group. The animator will try to maintain the discipline of the meeting, not allowing explanations or defenses by the other group.

The two groups meet again separately to plan their response to the observations made in the previous exhibition. This work will easily take half an hour.

In general assembly the reactions of the groups are exposed, and appropriate comments are made to what has been experienced in the exercise.



Objectives: To observe carefully the group behavior of a participant, for later observations.

Participants: approximately thirty people.

Time: Thirty minutes

Material: paper and ballpoint pen to take notes

Place: a room with desks.


The animator divides the group so that one half is an action group and the other half an observation group.

The action group sits in an inner circle and the observer group forms another concentric circle external to it.

The action group initiates a debate on a subject of free choice.

The animator will guide the group of observers about what they should observe in the members of the action group. For example, an observer will note who does not participate; another, who monopolizes; another, who wants to participate and has no opportunity to do so, etcetera.

After 10 minutes of debate, the group of observers will present their observations.

We continue, then, changing the roles of the participants: those who were before the action group will go to the observation, and vice versa, and do the same as before.



a) Mutual knowledge.

b) Liberation of the personality.

c) Unlock or disinhibition

Participants: Some twenty-five people.

Time: It depends on the number of people who will be questioned in each exercise, as well as the number of questions that will be asked.

Material: a list of questions to be formulated, or a previously organized draw of questions.

Place: a large room to form a circle with chairs, and with a chair in the center of the circle


At the beginning, the animator will give some guidance on the purpose of the exercise, making it clear, at the same time, that both the questioner and the respondent must put common sense and good will in the game so that the work goes well.

At the request of the animator, a volunteer member of the group occupies the chair at the center of the circle to undergo interrogation.

The person in the center chair promises the group to say “only the truth” to any questions asked.

The questions are formulated by the coordinator or another member of the group, using the previously organized list or a draw of questions that must also have been prepared before if that form is followed.

After a few minutes, he switches interrogated, and so on.

At the end, there is a turn of testimonies and comments about the experience.


Objective: to create an impact on the participants through an exaggerated dramatization, so that they can better perceive the reactions of the individuals.

Participants: Approximately thirty people.

Time: maximum 10 minutes.

Place: a room with chairs.


The animator takes advantage of the discussion or debate that is taking place, stops, and suddenly expresses himself energetically: “you are not putting enough interest. I am hurt, bored and tired of checking both disinterest and group misbehavior. If you do not take it more seriously, we cut right now and I’m gone. ”

The group, so suddenly bewildered, will express reactions that can be of approval and, above all, of disapproval of that violent attitude of the animator.

At that moment, the animator, calm and calm, will say that he was dramatizing to verify the reactions of the individuals in the group.

Next, ask the participants to express the reactions of fear, guilt, innocence, etc., that they have had before the explosion of the animator.

It should be noted that the application of this exercise requires some maturity and preparation in the group.



a) Improve our communication possibilities, whether in a group or between individuals

b) characterize the three elements of the conversation: intervention, interjection and interruption.

Participants: any number of subgroups formed by about six to eight people.

Time: approximately thirty minutes.

Material. A blank sheet and pen.

Place: a large room with desks.


The animator makes the presentation by focusing attention specifically on the three elements of communication: intervention, interjection and interruption. For this you can use the text that appears at the end of the exercise as an annex.

An issue is presented, chosen either by the animator or by the group.

The group is subdivided into two subgroups, one of action and the other of observation.

The animator chooses within the action group, those who will make the intervention, those who will interject the interjection, and those who will interrupt.

To achieve greater success in the exercise, the animator will call those who are going to perform these functions aside and give them the following instructions:

To those who intervene: your role will be to seek dialogue among the members of the action group. That means that they must pay close attention and intervene as soon as they do not understand something. Try to bring quality and conciseness to the message of those who speak. You are here to confirm that the message you say is successful, that it is understood by everyone. Your interventions will only be directed at others see that you understand; and all they can do is ask enlightening questions.

To those who interrupt: your role will be to run over the communication effort of the other members of the action group that you are going to want to communicate; introducing new ideas, refuting others, introducing outlets inappropriate humor have crazy outlets. But you have to perform your role with discretion so as not to sink the debate; it’s just trying to make it difficult. Make a few interruptions, enough to be well characterized and outlined your role, but being careful not to destroy the communication process of the group.

To those who exclaim: Your role will be of support and construction, which you can do simply with head movements, with a smile, with any gesture of the hand, of the body, etc. You can also be confused, interjecting with short exclamations: “what?”, “I do not understand”, “I do not know”, “I do not clarify”, “do you want to repeat?”.

Then the animator should instruct the group of observers. Each member of this group must write down on a sheet the elements that, in his opinion, play the roles of intervention, interruption and exclamation, besides noting other observations on the papers that are being developed and especially what is happening.

Annexes: Intervention, interjection, interruption

The processes and communication techniques are difficult to recognize and even more difficult to define. There is no doubt that we need to improve our communication possibilities both individually and as a group. Intervention and interjection are possibilities that, when used properly, can help eliminate the interruption that is the third element at stake in communication

We intend now: a) Define these three elements. We will try to illustrate, through a concrete example, how such phenomena occur in a group interaction. b) Develop a model for group training, in which the members of the group can identify these three elements and get to change their communicative attitudes in relation to the interruption, so that they know how to use the intervention and interjection

The interruption is defined as an act that distracts, interrupts or even ends the flow of communication of people. Interjections are understood as verbal or non-verbal exclamations, expressions sometimes impossible to describe, such as “ah”, “but”, “fair”, “excellent”, or a simple shake of the head as a sign of approval or disapproval.

The interventions are the most expressive attitudes of the group.

They are timely when they serve as support, clarifications that facilitate the smooth running and quality of communication between individuals.

Let’s illustrate these three processes: Five people plan to spend a weekend together. Juan, who is the host, says to Pablo, that he does not know where Juan lives, how to get to his house. And he explains: you go to the crossroads and turn on the third street. Pablo asks (intervention): At the intersection, right or left? Juan responds: On the left. And Pablo (interjection): Well, it’s very easy Juan, then, continue: So you turn left, go forward five blocks and find a traffic light, you then … Roberto (interruption): Leave it, Juan, do not bother, I’m going to look for Pablo and we go together. (Roberto did not know that Pablo was going to have to go much later and that’s why he had to learn well).

This interruption not only engendered confusion, but also wasted time and annoyed the others who were also taking advantage of the indications that John gave to Paul because they were not very clear about the situation of the house … Juan was forced to repeat all the instructions that the others had already captured …

In this example, the interjection could have appeared in a different way, with a head movement from one that implied that it was being understood, or in any other way.

Interjection usually does not stop the flow of ideas or discourse. The act of intervention generally improves communication

For example, one could have said that at the intersection of which he spoke there were works and that consequently he would give him alternative ways, just in case.

The interruption, on the other hand, is not a simple intervention in the conversation. It is a real interruption and often produces tension. A person, when speaking, falls perfectly into account if the listener is receptive or not. When you notice that listeners interrupt easily or do not contribute positively or accept the dialogue, you must take preventive measures that tend to avoid interruptions, such as speaking a little faster, raising the tone of the voice a little or saying something like “just a minute, please »,« I will finish what we are saying before », etc. In summary, the person who knows how to intervene effectively contributes to the communication; the one that interrupts obstructs and displaces the attention to secondary pianos.

The communication between people should not happen as by accident or accident, but, on the contrary, should be the result of functions clearly understood by the interlocutors, and optimally exercised. Each person must be responsible for the entire dialogue, exchanging the various functions according to times and conveniences. Everyone must effectively listen, observe and share the components of the process by offering their personal contribution in a clear and clear manner. Facilitating communication means giving inputs to interventions. Such interventions can be verbal or not and should be timely, so that they add quality to the dialogue. Everyone must understand that the person who intervenes effectively seeks to help a better understanding of things and people. Let’s not forget that only good intervention has that power.


In oral transmission, preconceptions and prejudices, concerns and feelings are integrated into the received message and add to bad habits to distort what is heard. The history of the sun eclipse that J. R Whitaker narrates in his book «Technique of human communication» illustrates the distortions caused by the deficiencies in the reception of listening.

The Captain and the Sergeant-Assistant:

– Sergeant, as tomorrow there is an eclipse of the sun, I order that the company be formed, with a campaign uniform, in the field of instruction, where I will give an explanation about this rare phenomenon that does not happen every day. If, by chance, it rains, we can not see anything and, in that case, keep the company inside the barracks.

The Sergeant-Assistant to the Sergeant by day:

– Sergeant, by order of my Captain tomorrow there will be an eclipse of the sun in a campaign uniform. The entire company will have to be trained in the field of instruction, where the Captain will give the necessary explanations, something that does not happen every day. If it rains, the phenomenon will be the same but inside the barracks.

The Sergeant of Capeday:

– Corporal, our Captain will tomorrow make an eclipse of the sun in the field of instruction. If it rains, which does not happen every day, you will not be able to see anything. In campaign uniform the captain will give the necessary explanation, inside the barracks.

The Corporal to the Soldiers:

– Soldiers, tomorrow to receive the eclipse that will give the necessary explanation about our captain, the phenomenon will be in training uniform. This, if it rains inside the barracks, what does not happen every day.




a) Accelerate the process of mutual knowledge in the group.

b) Study the experiences of the discovery itself.

c) Develop authenticity in the group.

d) Give everyone the opportunity to talk and listen.

Participants: From twenty-five to thirty people.

Time: Approximately thirty minutes.

Material: A sufficient number of ballots with a question that will be answered in public by each participant.

Place: A room with desks.


The animator makes a brief introduction talking about personal discovery and the importance of this exercise for it.

Distribute a ballot to each participant. One by one, everyone read the question on their ballot and they answer it with all sincerity.

When finished doing so, there is an open debate about the exercise carried out.

Possible questions for this exercise

What is your favorite “hobby”? How do you use your free time?

How important is religion in your life?

What do you dislike the most?

What do you think of the divorce?

What emotion do you have the most difficulty controlling?

Which person in the group is more attractive to you?

Which food do you like the least?

What trait of your personality best defines you?

What is your biggest problem now?

In your childhood, what were the greatest punishments or criticisms you received?

When you were a student, in what activities did you participate?

What are your biggest misgivings about this group?

What complaint do you have regarding your group experience?

You like your name?

Who in the group do you choose as a leader?

Who do you choose to go with him on vacation?

Do you prefer to live in a flat or in a country house?

Which country would you like to visit especially?

What are some causes of lack of relationship between some parents and children?

If you were President of the Government, what would be your priority goal?



To develop in the participants the capacity of improvisation, synthesis, clarity and valorization.

Participants: From twenty-five to thirty people.

Time: About thirty-five minutes.

Material: Prepare as many subjects as participants.

Place: A large room to form a circle with chairs for each participant.


This mini-class is done when a group has difficulties of expression, is inhibited or is diffuse in its formulations and expressions.

The animator gives each one a topic on which they must present their own ideas for two or three minutes.

The previous or subsequent person will give a note to the exhibitor, even if he is not informed until the end of the whole exercise.

The mini-class supports various variations such as:

a) Instead of giving a theme to each participant, some thoughts are given, so that the speaker can comment on them by commenting on them.

b) a blank ballot can be given so that each participant can propose in it at least two current issues or recent news from newspapers. The topics are collected and distributed as they go out so that each participant gives his mini-class choosing one of the topics that appear on his ballot.

In the end they all expose their testimonies about the lived experience.



Objectives: a) Raise awareness among group members so that they know how to observe the good qualities of other people.

b) That people discover qualities hitherto ignored by themselves.

Participants: From twenty-five to thirty people.

Time: Forty-five minutes approximately.

Material: Ballpoint pen and ballots.

Place: A sufficiently large room to place everyone in a circle, each one in a desk.


The animator will begin by saying that, in everyday life, most of the time people observe more defects than the qualities of others. Now everyone will have the opportunity to enhance a quality of the companions.

The animator distributes a ballot to each one. And each one writes in it the quality that, in his opinion, best characterizes his partner on the right.

The ballot must be completely anonymous, without any identification. Therefore, the name of the person on the right should not be included, nor should it be signed.

Then, the animator asks everyone to double the ballot; they are collected and redistributed.

Once the redistribution has been made, starting from the right of the animator, one by one they will all read aloud the quality that appears on the ballot, and the anger assigning, the one who reads it, to the person of the group to whom, in his / her understanding , that quality is better adjusted. You can only assign it to one person. And I will have to state very briefly why he sees that that quality characterizes that person.

It may happen that the same person in the group is indicated more than once as a carrier of qualities; for that reason, in the end, each one will publicly say the quality that he assigns to the person of his right.

In the end, the animator asks the participants to give their testimonies about what they have experienced throughout the exercise.



a) Show the group behavior of the participating members.

b) Perform the feedback of a partner to understand him better.


From twenty-five to thirty people.


Thirty minutes approximately.


A room with chairs or desks.


The animator presents a matter to discuss and the debate begins.

After ten minutes, the animator guides the participants so that, in the next ten or fifteen minutes, each one tries to identify himself with his partner on the right, striving to imitate him in the discussion.

Each participant will try to act exactly as his partner on the right does, imitating his Team behavior

It is of the utmost importance that each person can identify with their partner.

This same exercise can be done, leaving in freedom the one that each one chooses the companion with which he wants to identify himself; then it is left to others to recognize him.



Present a graphic illustration of how the members of a group relate to each other.

Participants: Approximately twenty-five people.

Time: From fifteen to twenty minutes.

Material: Papers and pens.

Place: A room with chairs and a blackboard.


The animator will distribute a ballot to each one so that everyone can write in it the name of “the most important person for the good running of the group”; or also “the person in the group whose ideas are most accepted”.

The animator to the participants who must sign their ballot in very clear letters.

Once the ballots have been collected, a diagram is made on a blackboard, with a circle showing the name of the person chosen and an arrow that begins with the name of the person who chooses and goes to the chosen one. Thus, if Peter was chosen by Paul, and if Joseph also chose Peter and Mary chose Paul, the diagram will show the following presentation:

Pablo ⟶ Pedro⟵ José





It is a group experience through which one demonstrates how the rumors are created and the reality is distorted through successive testimonies.

It is a cabinet experience rather than a group task or process, but it is of direct interest to the group since the rumor occurs in interpersonal relationships. For this reason it is usually one of the activities of the learning groups.

The experience consists of experientially demonstrating some aspects of the creation of the rumor; concretely, how through successive versions of a fact, reality is modified in the testimonies of the transmitters

It is a very useful experience to teach people to prevent distorted or erroneous information, inaccuracies sometimes intentional, and sometimes unconscious, prejudices and prejudices that harm good human relations. In institutional settings it is particularly useful and effective Rumors are a psychosocial problem that is worth considering in a group.

The “Rumor Clinic” was born in the United States during the Second World War, with journalistic support, as one of the ways to confront the multiple rumors arising as a result of the war crisis. (See: Psychology of rumor, by Allport and Postman, Ed. Psyche, Bs. As., 1964). The group experience called “Rumor Clinic” is usually done with two types of stimuli, one graphic and the other verbal.

The “actors” of the test must transmit what they have seen or heard, from one to another, which finally gives a testimony quite disfigured (“serial reproduction method”).


A) With a Graphic Stimulus


The director of a group that wants to perform this test must begin by providing himself with a large sheet or a slide that represents a scene in which there are about twenty significant details (people, animals, things). It will also have an engraving device or a stenographer, to record verbatim the successive testimonies. Laminas are usually used in which objects and situations are drawn with some ambiguity, in order to observe the capacity of perception of the subjects of experience. It is also interesting to use two sheets at the same time.


The director invites six or seven people to lend themselves to act as protagonists of an interesting experience. Ask these people to leave the premises for a moment, telling them that when they are called, one at a time, they should listen carefully to what they are told and repeat it “as exactly as possible”. (They are not informed about the purpose of the test, although it does not matter that they know it, as this does not vary much the result).

The large sheet is placed before the group or the slide is projected, but in such a way that it is not visible to the people who are entering.

The director calls one of the people who have left, and asks a previously designated viewer to describe the sheet aloud while the first subject of the experience pays attention to the story without seeing the sheet.

Before starting the description of the sheet the recorder is operated, which records the entire process until the end of the experience.

Through this first direct description of the sheet, the group will be able to warn “how eliminating details and imperfect can be a perception even when it is described by a witness who is at that moment directly observing the scene” (Allport).

Once the description of the lamina to the first subject has been completed, the room is called a second subject of experience, which is placed next to the first, without either of them seeing the lamina. The first subject then describes to the second what he has just heard, doing it as faithfully as possible. Then he can sit among the spectators because his task is over.

Enter the third subject and proceed in the same way as in the previous step; the second tells the third what he has just heard. So on with all the people who had left the premises, until the last one of them repeats to the public what the penultimate one has told him. Here ends the experience itself. (The recorder is cut).

After the last description you can see to what extent the testimony has been moving away from reality through the successive versions. It is common that this causes hilarity; and it is also frequent that you want to listen to the recording made.

The group finally discusses the experience and extracts the conclusions from it, insofar as it can be useful to demonstrate the mechanism of the rumor.

B) With a verbal stimulus


Instead of the sheet, the director must provide himself with an imaginary and anecdotal account containing some twenty memorizable significant details.


The mechanism of the test is the same as the previous one. Only instead of describing the sheet, the story is read to the first subject, he repeats it as faithfully as possible to the second, this to the third, and so on until the latter repeats it to the public. Then the original text is re-read to compare.

Practical suggestions

-The experience can be repeated as many times as desired, with different groups.

-The director or experimenter himself can make or project the sheets for the test, or select the devices, choosing scenes of certain complexity in which many memorizable details appear. Generally street scenes are used.

– The rumor test is usually used as an introduction or initiation of a debate, conference or group meeting that deals with the topic of rumor, human relations, testimony, etc.

-The duration of the experience is approximately 15 minutes.


In order to clarify the value of the experience and its significance with respect to social reality, the following reflections can be made known to the group, taken from the Allport and Postman book already mentioned:

“We must admit that control, in the cabinet, is possible only at the cost of extreme simplification: by channeling” serial “reproduction into artificial terrain, we sacrifice the spontaneity and naturalness of the situation of rumor. motivations that normally sustain the spread of rumors, we find that the “success” of the rumor depends on the willingness of the subject to cooperate with the experimenter.In the experimental situation, hostility, fear and the gratification of the “I” find limited expression Nor can the influence of personal friendship between rapporteur and listener be measured (that is, the peculiar link that usually exists in spreading rumors.) Outside the cabinet, the narrator tends, in general, to add color. (feeling, humor or enthusiasm) acceptance and the transmission of the rumor, which attends more against their fidelity, and also there is no experimenter and a public that controls the accuracy of what is said. And above all, “the motivation conditions are totally different here.”

“Didactic value The reason why most of our experiments were carried out in the presence of spectators is that they are useful and vivid demonstrations of the psychology of rumor, valid for all audiences of all classes. They never fail to reveal the essential characteristics of the transformation process that the rumor suffers, and these sessions never disappointed either the speaker or the audience. “

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