A little tired from the intercultural night yesterday, we started our last day in Laguna (Lagu-na, Lagu-na, Lagu-na…) with an introduction about assertive communication. We differentiated between a passive and aggressive way of speaking and tested how a conversation including these types of communication would end. It was obvious that it’s not helpful to use either one, but instead to try and talk assertively. This technique was applied as well and shown in a improvised conflict-discussion.
“I really liked the assertive/aggressive lection because I really found myself as part in that.”
Achilleas, Greece
After a small break everybody had to draw a paper with a role, reflecting on one type of communication. In pairs, a made-up situation had to be debated while talking out of your role perspective. It showed how our style of communication affects the outcome of conversations and some participants expressed how it was educative to take on a persona that is opposite to their main way of communicating.
“It was really interesting to take the position of a different role that you might normally not take. For example I have never been “Mary Poppins” (a role that talks from a motherly, caring perspective)”
Georgi, Bulgaria
After a nice Lasagna-Lunch it was time for a round of improv. Some participants had expressed their wish to do more theatre in the midterm-evaluation so the facilitators decided to connect our topic to that. We had different rounds with more and more elements of acting, such as statues, speech and movement. It was prohibited to ask your improv partner questions and you had to adapt to the situation. This reflected on the possibility to adapt to others needs and the difficulty of solving an unforeseen conflict.
“I loved the improv, very fun! I liked the way it built up from basic to more complex.”
Dough, Ireland
The last part of the workday was spent roleplaying a personal conflict of one of the participants to mirror the actions of all people involved in the situation and to get into contact with our emotions.
To end the day and our time here we had the “Beads-Ceremony”. Everybody got three beads and one special one to give to a person they built a connection with or they felt grateful for.
“I’m going to tell my organization about the beads and to do the same in every single future project. It’s a nice little gift.”
Achilleas, Greece