Participants must apply active listening and be open to change (some of the 10 Principles of Dialogue). It is recommended to explore a 10 Principles of Dialogue activity shortly before or after this session.
- Introduce the activity and share that it helps participants understand their own safe space and comfort zone, but also how that can vary for others.
- Briefly explain the three zones through participation and movement. Come back to the following explanation during the debriefing.
For real dialogue to happen, people have to step out of their comfort zone and trust that the group will respect their thoughts and perceptions. As in the Learning Zone Model, individuals are advised to step out of their comfort zone, to what is called the stretching or learning zone, but without stepping too far into what is a totally strange area for them, which is called the panic zone. The comfort zone is described as the area where the individual is not only feeling safe, but everything looks familiar – there is no risk. On the other end, the panic zone is where the person steps into an unfamiliar place, with no familiarity at all, no one to trust, and the person feels unsafe to even move a centimetre. It is believed that there is no learning in the comfort zone as there is nothing new. There is also no learning that can take place in the panic zone because the person is threatened by the situation. In the panic zone, people become defensive and/or offensive; they might even shut down.
According to this theory, learning happens in the zone that exists in between the comfort and panic zones; it is called the stretching zone. In this zone, the individual feels challenged. Yet, he/she trusts in the dialogue process or the company of the people surrounding him/her. This allows him/her to take further steps in this new area. In the stretching zone (also called the learning zone), people take risks but up to an extent that is manageable for them. It is in this stretching zone that learning becomes possible.
- Create a floor area good for at least 12-15 scouts (depending on the size of the group). Draw 3 circles, one inside of the other. The diameter of the biggest/outside circle must be at least 3-5 meters.
- Ask everyone to stand on the inside of the circle – the comfort zone. Thisis the space in which you feel confident to discuss the subject mentioned under any angle. Ask each participant to share their favourite colour with the rest of the group.
- Once everyone who wants to share has shared, ask everyone to step out into the middle circle – the stretch zone. This is a space in which you don’t feel as relaxed as in your comfort zone but with little effort, you trust you can make it to discuss some aspects of the topic. Show on a screen or on a printed card an image with the colours written but in none correlating text (example below in resources). Ask them in pairs to try to say the colour and not the word and visa versa.
- Once everyone who wants to share has shared, ask everyone to step out into the outside circle – the panic zone. This is where we feel anxious, on edge and unable to respond conscientiously, it's the space where you feel many forces would prevent you from discussing the subject mentioned (guilt, shame, sadness…). Have a fast continuous loop of colour words on the screen/cards and ask them to say the colour and not the word (and visa versa) as much as they can, if they cant keep up or get it wrong, they have to sit down.
- Ask everyone to return back to the “Comfort Zone”.
- Explain that we will now challenge ourselves to understand our own comfort, stretch and panic zones while observing the differences between ourselves and others.
- Reinforce that this is a safe space and the idea is to learn and improve our understanding of differences, self, and others.
- Explain that you will now read a list of statements and questions, the participants should then stand in the appropriate zone based on how they personally feel about the statement.
- Read each statement and leave a moment between each for participants to reflect and look around.
- Here are some ideas to explore individual zones (you can add to this based on the age section and realities):
11-15: Which zone am I in when I...
- talking about my favourite kind of food
- talking about my home life
- talking about my body
- talking about my religion
- communicating my feelings openly
- talking about my family
- talking about bullying
- sharing my social media with my family
- talking about differences
- talking about my body
- talking about my feelings to an adult
15+: Which zone am I in when I...
- discussing my home life
- talking about my favourite kind of food
- talking about my religion
- communicating my feelings openly
- talking about my family
- talking about bullying
- talking about myself
- talking about racism
- discussing my prejudice
- talking about politics
- talking about my sexuality
- talking about my body
- talking about mental health?
Now, summarise the activity using the below pointers and the reflection questions provided - some will be more relevant than others depending on the age range. Please refer to the age-specific objectives above to guide the summary and reflection.
Notes:
- We can see how everyone feels differently about different topics. You may be surprised when someone is really comfortable talking about something that is in your panic zone or vice versa.
- Consider that if we are pushed too quickly to address the hard issues or topics, that's where confrontation or conflict can arise. Someone may be quickly pushed into their panic zone.
- In the panic zone, there is no dialogue; interaction will either turn into a debate, probably with the use of offensive and defensive arguments. In some cases, the tension might even turn into a violent conflict.
- Equally, there is no constructive dialogue or learning when we’re in our comfort zone, as people we are not challenged to tackle the real issues.
- Often in our comfort zone, we don’t allow ourselves to show what is hidden under the surface – mostly because we are encouraged or don’t feel safe enough to step out.
- Similarly, there is no dialogue in the danger zone, as the participants feel unsafe to share their feelings and opinions.
- Dialogue happens in the stretching or learning zone.
- This model with three overlapping circles thus represents very well the challenges of dialogue: avoid the red and green and promote the yellow.
