They Ask Before You Tell

From Peacebuilding

Content Processing Activity: They Ask Before You Tell

Contents 1 Aims: 2 Time: 3 Participants: 4 Materials: 5 Procedure: 6 Note:

Aims:

• To encourage participants to develop questions on the topic under discussion

• To process the content in a participatory and interactive way

Time:

At least 20 minutes

Participants:

Any number

Materials:

• Flip chart paper

• Markers

• Index cards and pencils

Procedure:

I) Introduce the content in a few short sentences. Do not go into detail. The idea is just to let participants focus on the topic of the session.

Example: Your introduction in a negotiation training session can go like this:

Negotiation is an essential component of your life. Whether you’re dealing with your spouse over issues of common concern, discussing where to go on holiday with your children or bargaining at the fruit and vegetable market for a kilo of beans, you’re negotiating. You’re also negotiating when you ask your boss for a pay rise and when you’re trying to settle a dispute with your neighbour. Guerrilla leaders are negotiating when they sit round a table with government representatives, and so is a community leader who’s discussing what to do in his community with an international NGO (and the NGO representative is negotiating too). It’s how you do it that can make a difference.

II) Hand out index cards and pencils to participants. Ask them to reflect on your short introduction and develop a list of questions that they’d like to be answered during the workshop. Allow sufficient time.

III) Then ask participants to highlight the three questions they consider most important. Allow two minutes.

IV) Collect the index cards and make sure the questions are discussed and answered throughout the workshop.

Note:

There are several ways to deal with step IV of the procedure, including:

• Read the highlighted questions in the index cards and provide answers. In this case you’d be something other than a facilitator, acting as an expert on the topic. Alternatively, you can invite an expert on the subject and have him or her interviewed by the participants.

• Redistribute the cards to participants and ask a volunteer to read out one question. Generate discussion in the plenary. Repeat the procedure with the other questions.

• Write the questions down on a flip chart and consider them as participants’ expectations for the workshop. Design/adapt the rest of the workshop to discuss/answer these questions.

• Divide the plenary into small teams and hand out the index cards with questions to different teams. Have the teams answer the questions.