Opening - Learners' Experience that People have Different Perceptions and Viewpoints

Here's a great idea to introduce content relating to different perceptions and viewpoints.  You could use this in relation to:

• Management training - Manager's viewpoint, report's viewpoint
• Customer service - Differing perceptions of organisation vs customer
• Mediation - Differing viewpoints from different parties

and the need for both sides to see the different pictures

Preparation

Find and print some picture illusions.  Below are 3 examples.  Simply search the internet for hundreds of other examples.

How many legs do you see?

What do you see

(Old lady/Young lady)

What do you see?

(Face looking left/Scripted word 'Liar' written vertically donw the page)

How to

• Ask learners to work on their own for the next 2-minutes.
  
  
• Hand out an illusion (the same one) to each learner.
  
  
• Ask them to look at it and remain silent for the next minute and consider what they see.
  
  
• Ask learners to form pair and discuss what they see in the picture.
  
  
• Allow a couple of minutes.
  
  
• Ask learners what they saw - you will probably get 2 or even 3 differing pictures seen.

How to use this

Debrief this as, eg for customer service:

"Imagine you are at work, taking incoming customer service calls.  Someone calls in with a complaint.  How does this illusion relate to this situation?"

Answers - Different viewpoint ie the organisations view or perception and the customers experience.

"In your pairs, take 3-minutes and be ready to share, "What can we do in this sort of situation?"

You'd be looking for comments such as, to ensure both parties can see both pictures, not to assume theirs only one viewpoint (ours), to see two parts to the same picture etc