eo witchesfree
TRANSCRIPT
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Course Module
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Assumptions– The Witches of Glum
Time:
The exercise in this module can be
completed within:
15 minutes
In total, allowing for discussion,
we recommend allowing:
30 minutes
Aims:
To check listening skills.
To illustrate the dangers of making assumptions. To provoke discussion about prejudices and stereotypes.
Group Size:
Very small groups (fewer than 8 participants).
Normal groups (8-15 participants).
Large groups (more than 15 participants).
Very large groups (more than 25 participants).
Useful for:
Staff at all levels.
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Course Module
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You’ll need:
None but we suggest pre-preparing a flipchart sheet with the statements
listed on page 5 of the trainer’s notes.
Notes:
This module is suitable for staff at all levels and can be used as an
icebreaker or short exercise in a variety of situations. For example:
In a call centre environment, where making assumptions about thenature of a customer’s problem could lead to greater problems finding
a solution.
To raise awareness of our inbuilt prejudices, perhaps as an
introduction to diversity or equal opportunities training.
To show how important questions are for checking understanding and
avoiding assumptions being made.
We’ve included a recording of the story, which you can play if you prefer
not to read it yourself. This can add to the story telling atmosphere.
Symbols used:
Background information. Ideas that you might want
to use.
Things to look out for. Visual Aid – for example,
PowerPoint.
This module is endorsed by Show Racism the Red Card. Find outmore about the great work this charity is doing at: www.srtrc.org
In a nutshell:
Participants identify the dangers of making assumptions.
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Course Module
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Assumptions– The Witches of Glum
By the end of this module, participants will be able to:
Explain the importance of effective listening skills.
Describe how beliefs based on past experiences can lead to
prejudice or false assumptions.
Describe the dangers of making assumptions.
Pre-prepare a flipchart with a list of the statements on
page 4 of this guide, without participants seeing. Ensurethese are kept covered until after the exercise is
complete.
It is important to run the following exercise without too much
introduction.
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Ask participants to put their papers and pens aside, sit back,and listen to the following story. Then read the story that begins
below at a normal storytelling pace:
Read the story through a few times out loud beforehandto practise.
The Story
Once upon a time, there was a great city called Glum that stood
beside a lake in the kingdom of Bung. In the centre of the city
was a castle, where the King lived with his only daughter,
Christina. The king could no longer walk, but he was often seen
being pushed around the city in a white, wheeled chair by hisservants. Christina was a popular princess; happy and always
willing to help others. The people of Bung often commented that
she would make a good queen.
Now it so happened that as well as the King, his daughter andhis subjects, there lived in the kingdom of Bung two witches.
Groga, an ugly, disfigured witch, lived on the other side of the
lake in a dark, damp cave. Gwendolyn, a beautiful witch who
wore a gown that sparkled with the light of a thousand crystals,
lived in a house to the West.
On the tenth anniversary of Groga’s arrival, the king was
wheeled onto his balcony, where he addressed those gatheredbelow.
“Who will rid the kingdom of my arch enemy, Groga?” he asked.
“Many brave men have ventured forth on this mission before,but none of those sent have returned. Do any of you have the
courage to complete this deed?”
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The crowd included knights from all the surrounding lands; their proud horses neighed at the ruler’s words. But only one in the
crowd spoke out - a stranger who had arrived the day before.
“I will kill her,” said the stranger, “in return for your crown”.
The king replied: “That is too much to ask, but I will give youhalf of all the gold in the city treasury if you rid the kingdom of
her.”
The stranger accepted the offer, and went to see the beautiful
Gwendolyn. Gwendolyn was impressed by the stranger’s
boldness, and she agreed to help in return for a share of theking’s gold. She went into another room, where she mixed a
strange potion. This she poured into a small green bottle.
“This will give you the strength of ten men”, she said, handing
the potion to the stranger.
The stranger travelled from Gwendolyn’s house to the dark
caverns on the opposite side of the lake, where Groga, who had
seen her fate in a crystal ball, was waiting.
“So, you have come, as many men before you have”, she said.
“Seeking the king’s favour?”
They fought for many hours, but the witch was no match for her
adversary.
Eventually, tired and exhausted, she agreed to leave the
kingdom forever.
The stranger returned to the city to claim the promised reward.
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After reading the story, issue pens and papers to theparticipants and explain that you are going to make fifteen
statements. The participants should record on their paper,
without conferring, whether they think these are true
statements based on the information they’ve been given.
Read each of the following statements once.
The Statements
1. The city was called Bung.
2. The city was ruled by an old king, who could no longer walk.
3. The castle was in the centre of the city.
4. Groga was a wicked witch, who lived in a cave on the other
side of the lake.
5. Princess Christina was very beautiful.
6.
The stranger was a knight from far away.
7. The stranger wanted to be made king in return for killing
Groga.
8. The king offered the stranger a great fortune instead.
9. A good witch lived to the West of the city.
10. The stranger agreed to give Gwendolyn half of his gold, if
she helped him.
11.
Gwendolyn mixed a potion, which she poured into a greenbottle.
12. The stranger rode from Gwendolyn’s house to Groga’s cave.
13. Groga had killed many other men before.
14. Groga’s magic was no match for the stranger.
15. The stranger used a magic potion to defeat Groga.
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Once you’ve read all of the statements, ask participants to swaptheir answer sheets with someone else.
Uncover the flipchart you prepared previously with the list of
statements and run through each one in turn.
Read the first statement again and ask for a show of hands fromparticipants who thought it was true.
Ask one participant to explain why they thought it was true, andthen ask someone else why they didn’t.
Explain that it was not true.
Run through the rest of the statements in turn. The answers
follow. Discuss the reasons for mistakes as you go.
1. The city was called
Bung.
2. The city was ruled
by an old king who
could no longer walk.
False. The city was called Glum. The
kingdom was called Bung.
The fact that both words sounded
similar may have made this difficult.
False. We are not told the king’s age.
He may or may not have been old.
Those who said he was old were
probably making an assumption based
on the fact that he ‘could no longerwalk’.
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3. The castle was in
the centre of the city.
4. Groga was a wicked
witch, who lived in acave on the other side
of the lake.
5. Princess Christina
was very beautiful.
6. The stranger was a
knight from far away.
7. The stranger
wanted to be made
king in return forkilling Groga.
True.
False. At no point are we told that
Groga is wicked. Participants probablyassumed she was wicked because she
was ugly and disfigured. We know too
that the king doesn’t like her, but
again nowhere does it say the king is
good!
False. Princess Christina was
“popular.” She was also happy and
always willing to help others. But
nowhere in the story are we told sheis beautiful.
False. The crowd “included knights”.
We don’t know that the stranger was
one.
False. We don’t know if the stranger is
even a man, so we don’t know if
he/she would be a king or a queen.Anyway, the stranger only asks for
the crown – and doesn’t specifically
state he/she wants a title, or even
power. For all we know the stranger
may have wanted to sell the crown tothe highest bidder - on ebay!
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8. The king offered the
stranger a great
fortune instead.
9. A good witch livedto the West of the city.
10. The stranger
agreed to giveGwendolyn half of his
gold, if she helped
him.
11. Gwendolyn mixeda potion, which she
poured into a green
bottle.
12. The stranger rode
from Gwendolyn’shouse to Groga’s cave.
13. Groga had killed
many men before.
14. Groga’s magic was
no match for the
stranger.
False. The king offers the stranger
half of all the gold in the treasury. We
aren’t told how much gold is in the
treasury – maybe none!
False. We are not told Gwendolyn isgood – only that she is beautiful and
wears a sparkly gown!
False. He/she agreed to give her “a
share”. We are not told what theshare is. And, of course we don’t
know the stranger is a ‘he’.
True!
False. We don’t know the stranger
‘rode’. The story says the stranger “travelled”.
False. We don’t know whether Groga
had killed anyone before. All we know
is that those sent to kill her had not
returned. Perhaps they had a changeof heart and left the kingdom?
False. We are not told that Groga
used magic.
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15. The stranger used
a magic potion to
defeat Groga.
False. We don’t know if the stranger
used the potion given to him/her by
Gwendolyn.
Discuss the results of this exercise, developing the learning
points you want to. Some suggested discussion questions are
included on the following pages.
How many of you
made mistakes?
What caused you tomake mistakes?
How many of you
made assumptions,
based on the limited
information provided?
Most participants are likely to have
made mistakes.
The biggest cause of mistakes willhave been assumptions. Participants
will have made assumptions based on
the limited information provided.
These assumptions will have included
the belief that Gwendolyn was a goodwitch (because she was beautiful),
and that Groga was wicked, (because
she was ugly and disfigured).
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What caused you to do
that?
Why did you make
these assumptions?
What were the
assumptions basedupon?
What does this tell
you?
Participants may also have assumed
that the king was old (because he
couldn’t walk), or that the princess
was beautiful (because she was
happy, helpful and popular).
The most common assumption made
is that the stranger is a man.
Our assumptions are based on past
experiences. This exercise feeds onthe stereotypical images many of us
are familiar with from fairy tales,
where the wicked witch was always
ugly and shrivelled, and the hero wasa young prince or knight.
The important thing for participants to
understand from this exercise, is that
we all have the potential to make
assumptions, and that we all have
inbuilt prejudices.
You can use the quotes on PowerPoints 1-3 as
appropriate to emphasise some of the key learning
points and provoke further discussion.
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Optional Additional Exercise
Split participants into teams of 3-4 and provide each team with
a flipchart and pens.
Ask them to think about the potential consequences ofassumptions at work, and to list all of their thoughts on the
flipcharts.
Allow 15 minutes for this exercise. Provide participants with the
handout from this module (make sure you don’t do so earlier),
and then ask each team to present its findings.
You may want to provide a more detailed brief for this
exercise. For example, if you want to focus on equal
opportunities and diversity, you might say: “Think aboutthe consequences of making assumptions. How could
they impact upon our efforts to create a working
environment that promotes equal opportunities and
diversity?”
Discuss the results using the discussion questions below to help
you and encourage participants to make notes.
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Course Module
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What are the potential
implications of making
assumptions?
What problems canassumptions cause?
Assumptions can be very dangerous
things. For example:
Assumptions may cause us to pre-
judge the value of individuals or
groups of individuals – for example,colleagues or customers. This may
result in individuals’ potential not
being fully realised, and create
many other equal opportunity and
diversity related issues.
Imagine you are in a telesales role.
You telephone a customer who is
rude to you. When you come to
ring the customer again, how likelyare you to make the sale if you are
already assuming that their
behaviour will be difficult?
Imagine you work in a helpdesk
environment. Making assumptions
about the cause/solution to a
customer’s problem could result inyou taking much longer to actually
solve it. A few questions to clarifythings at the outset may have led
you down a more efficient route.
These are just a few very simpleillustrations of the problems
assumptions can create.
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What can help you
avoid making
assumptions?
What skills can youuse to make sure
you’ve understood
what you’ve been told?
What else have you
learned from thisexercise?
Try to look at every situation with
‘fresh eyes’. Consider what the
situation would look like to a
completely neutral third party
observer. Listen carefully to what isactually being said, and ask questions
to check understanding.
Summarise what you have heard
using your own words. This provides
an opportunity for misinterpretationsto be spotted and corrected.
We are all capable of making
assumptions – they are probablyunavoidable. The important thing is to
recognise the danger and to usesummary and good questioning skills
to check understanding and to provide
an opportunity for incorrect
assumptions to be identified early.
Allow some time for participants to record the learning points.
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This module is endorsed by Show Racism the Red Card.
For more information about the great work this charity is
doing, visit: www.srtrc.org.