#15: Turnarounds
Overview: |
In this exercise, participants will review a set of turnaround phrases, create one of their own, and then vote to select their favorite from the posted creations. |
Objective: |
To present participants with problematic situations and give them an opportunity to view them critically and create possible solutions. |
Supplies: |
• Colored adhesive circles, one for each participant • Handout #15-1 • Four apple turnovers (optional) (Note: If the turnovers are used, it is best to present the activity just before the mid-morning break.) |
Time: |
15 minutes |
Advance |
Purchase a box of adhesive circles (and apple turnovers, if you wish). Make copies of the handout, to be distributed to each participant. Arrange seating in triads, if possible. |
Participants/ |
If used as a warm-up, this exercise substantiates the reason participants are in the training: to develop skills that will enable them to solve problems they are bound to encounter at work. If used as an energizer, the favored turnaround could be woven into the context of the lessons that remain. If used as a session-closer, the turnarounds could be used to answer the questions, “What next?” and “Where do we go from here?” There is no limit to the number of triads that could work in this exercise. (If one or two participants are left over, they each can join a three-person team.) |
Introduction to Concept:
Verbal turnarounds are sentences that turn around the thought expressed in the first half in order to offer optimism in the second half. Such statements, admittedly difficult to create, often serve as inspirational forces. They can also suggest possible solutions to a problem or new paths to be followed.
We are often so intent on solving our problems that we fail to establish the context within which the solution can most effectively be found. By articulating the attitude necessary for the poking and prodding of the problem, we can establish the framework that aids us in generating solutions and selecting the most promising among them.
1. Divide the class into triads.
2. Have participants, working in triads, make a list of ten sentences reflecting issues they are concerned about and/or interested in, or problems they have to solve, or major decisions they have to make regarding work.
3. Distribute Handout #15-1, give participants about five minutes to read the entries, and then ask if everyone understands what a turnaround phrase is. Explain, if necessary.
4. Collect each group’s ten sentences and give them to a different group.
5. Now ask the triads to turn around at least one statement made by the first group. They will do so by making the first half of the sentence a declaration and the second half (or second sentence) an expansion/extension of the declaration. (If a team is stuck, review the handout examples with them once again. If necessary, ask them to create a turnaround of their own, without having to rely on the prompt from another group.)
6. Post the contributions along a wall.
7. Give each person one adhesive circle and ask him or her to apply it to the turnaround sentence he or she likes best.
8. Reward the winning triad with apple turnovers or some other token reward.
Extending the Activity:
1. President Jimmy Carter once observed, “America did not invent civil rights. Civil rights invented America.” Collect powerful statements such as this and use them as discussion starters for various classroom topics. President Carter’s turnaround, as an example, would work quite well in a class dealing with sexual harassment or cultural diversity issues.
2. H. L. Mencken once remarked, “For every complex problem, there is one solution that is simple, neat… and wrong.” Lead a discussion with the class regarding serious consequences that have resulted from hasty decisions. Then explore how turnaround statements—which set up the mental and physical framework necessary for successful solutions—can prevent us from leaping at solutions that are “simple, neat… and wrong.”
1. Once participants have diagnosed the problem and fashioned a context for its solution, the next step is to create an action plan for the turnaround sentence. For example, assume that your company’s purchasing department has instituted a number of changes regarding the purchasing policy. The turnaround may have been, “If vendors refuse to change, we may have to change vendors.” The workplace follow-up, then, would be outlining the steps necessary to do that.
2. Ask for a volunteer, ideally one with some artistic talent, to take the winning entry, fashion it into mini-banners or certificates that can be hung in the workplace, and then distribute them to the participants who were part of this training program.
Questions for Further Consideration:
1. What phrases from some of our national leaders do you remember?
2. What makes such phrases memorable?
3. What does this turnaround by Seneca mean to you: “It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that things are difficult”?
4. Parents are often the source of inspirational phrases, even though they are not turnarounds. For example, “health is wealth” is a reminder all of us have to keep in mind. What other succinct wisdom were you exposed to in your formative years?
5. Does your organization have a motto, such as the one Thomas Watson, Jr., gave to IBM (“Think!”) or the one Sam Walton wanted his employees to abide by (“Eliminate the dumb!”)? If so, what is it and how accepted is it? If there is none, what motto would you create for your firm?
6. What uses can you think of for the turnaround statements created in this training session?
Directions: Study the following turnaround phrases. Note that they posit a potential problem in the first half of the sentence, and a potential solution in the second half.
Jesse Jackson: |
“I was born in the slums but the slums were not born in me.” |
Winston Churchill: |
“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity; the optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty.” |
Anonymous: |
“When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” |
LeRoy Satchel Paige: |
“Age is a question of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.” |
Vitamin ad: |
“It may not add years to your life but it can add life to your years.” |
Joseph Joubert: |
“It is better to debate a question without settling it than to settle a question without debating it.” |
Anonymous: |
“How a problem defeats you is less important than how you defeat the problem.” |
Sam Keen: |
“We have to move from the illusion of certainty to the certainty of illusion.” |
Anonymous: |
“It’s nice to be important but it’s more important to be nice.” |
Robert Bolton: |
“A belief is not merely an idea the mind possesses; it is an idea that possesses the mind.” |
A. N. Whitehead: |
“The art of progress is to preserve order amid change and to preserve change amid order.” |
Winston Churchill: |
“This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” |