1 Finding connections

• Suggested duration: 15 mins
• Technique used: Group ice breaker (From ‘Linkingthinking’ by Sterling: WWF Scotland)
• Materials required: Marker pens, flipchart paper
• Aim of activity: To look for any links between members of the group and to show these links on a flipchart. This would help the group get to know each other better, but also illustrate that, as individuals, we are more interconnected than we perhaps first realised.
• Underpinning components: UC1.2a; UC1.2b; UC1.3a 
• Connection with other competences: Transdisciplinarity

Short description

Group is divided into subgroups of around 4-6 and given a sheet of flipchart paper and pens. They are asked to look for anything that members of the group might have in common or are connected by and to show this somehow on the paper.
Afterwards, groups can comment to the rest of the group as to what they found.
At the end, the group leader should draw the activity to a close by highlighting the fact that we are interconnected in many different ways – often without realising and therefore part of a complex system.

This should lead to input on systems thinking, boundaries around systems and feedback within systems