Exchanges in pairs

A collective intelligence exercise that stimulates thinking and listening. Working in pairs, each participant builds his or her own argument on a given topic, alternating between opposing points of view. A democratic and emancipating experience.

A genuine space for expression and elaboration

This collective intelligence exercise can be used as an ice-breaker, but like the “Sit-Stand” exercise, in my opinion, it can lead much further. It’s a much more powerful space for elaboration, encounter and expression than it might at first appear.

Here’s how to get started:

• The group is asked to move around the space, to occupy the stage, to move not in circles, but in a lively way, with different rhythms, for a short time (30 seconds or 1 minute).
• It’s a way of getting yourself moving, mentally too.
• The rules of the game will have been set out in advance, so that people know what we’re going to suggest.
• At one point, you say “top”, everyone stops and you pair up with the person you’re standing next to, preferably someone you know little or nothing about. You can, of course, look for another person if you find yourself next to someone you know very well.

With these pairs, the exercise will last three minutes, in two sequences of one and a half minutes each:

• For one and a half minutes, the first person in the pair will explain something to the second, who will listen, and for the second and a half minutes, the second person will argue his or her point of view on the same subject. It’s an exercise in elaboration and listening, not discussion.
• For example, if we take the subject of social networks, the first person’s role is to define social networks for the other person, and explain why social networks bring so much to humanity.
• Once the two people have exchanged ideas, the group is asked to move back into space.
• Then we say “top”, everyone stops and forms new pairs.
• And now, we’re going to take the same subject, do the same exercise, but take the controversy. In other words, if we take the example of social networks, this time we’re going to talk about why social networks are dangerous for humanity. It’s not a question of pretending, but of really looking for arguments for, in the first exercise, and against, in the second.
• In this exercise, the participants don’t introduce themselves, but each develops a personal argument on a subject that echoes the topic of the day’s training, the meeting, etc., and that’s why we’re going to talk about why social networks are dangerous for humanity.

Giving everyone the chance to speak, in a democratic system

At the start of a meeting or training session, one of the great advantages of this exercise is that it gives everyone a chance to speak, and each person is invited to elaborate his or her thoughts. It’s a well-known fact that when we put our thoughts together to explain something to someone else, we’re also building our own thoughts. On the one hand, this is enriching for the listener, but it’s also extremely structuring for the speaker. That’s why this exercise is not a discussion, but an elaboration, each in turn. What’s more, this exercise allows everyone to speak without fear of judgment. You’re with another person whose social status you may not know, so it’s simply two human beings talking. We enter directly and immediately into a profound exchange, stripped of the trappings of hierarchical social reality.

Speaking up can be particularly difficult, and many people find it hard, for fear of the impact of their words: fear of being ridiculed, fear of not having anything interesting to say, and so on. In this exercise, everyone speaks at the same time, you’re invited and encouraged to do so, there’s nothing at stake, so you do it!

That’s the whole point of this kind of dynamic: people find themselves doing something important, potentially very constructive for them, in intellectual, conceptual, self-confidence-building terms, etc., that they might never have allowed themselves to do on their own.

For me, it’s a very democratic exercise, which also sends out the message that everyone has the right to speak, that everyone has the absolute right to express themselves. Our fears and inhibitions are not only detrimental to our personal development, but also to the exercise of democracy. We need to have the confidence to be able to enrich the collective with our own point of view. It’s also very beautiful and democratic that no one can pass judgment or exercise power over what anyone says, because it’s impossible to listen to everyone at the same time!

We can then build on what each person has said during this time to begin in-depth work on the subject that brings us together, producing writings, podcasts or other elaborations.

This activity was passed on to me by Sonia Leplat, who received it from Christelle Blouët.