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Miguel Ángel Ballesteros

Maker, using software to bring great ideas to life. Manager, empowering and developing people to achieve meaningful goals. Father, devoted to family. Lifelong learner, with a passion for generative AI.

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Game 9: Group Landing

Game 9: Group Landing

Objective: Learn to intervene in a disordered group conversation to synthesize, validate, and advance, gaining status as a facilitator leader.

Players and Roles

  • Roles A, B, C (The Noise): Speak at once, change subject, argue.
  • Role D (The Control Tower): Has to land the plane (the group).

Quick Set-up: The Chaos

The group must start arguing heatedly about one of these ridiculous topics.

Discussion Topic Roles (The Noise)
Christmas Dinner A: “Vegan”. B: “Only meat”. C: “Cheap”.
Birthday Gift A: “Clothes”. B: “Experience”. C: “Money in envelope”.
Travel Destination A: “Relax beach”. B: “Adventure mountain”. C: “Urban tourism”.
Project Name A: “Cool English”. B: “Classic Spanish”. C: “Weird acronym”.
Office Color A: “Nuclear white”. B: “Corporate colors”. C: “Wallpaper”.

Mechanics

  1. The group starts arguing about “where we dine” mixing topics (soccer, money, allergies). A scripted chaos.
  2. The Control Tower waits for the moment, raises hand (visual gesture) and says:
    • “Time. (Silence). I’ve heard three options: A, B and C. We discard A for expensive. B and C remain. We vote now. Who wants B?”
  3. The goal is to achieve that the group votes and decides in less than 2 minutes of intervention.

Debriefing (Closing questions)

  • Did you feel fear of interrupting? (It is the main barrier).
  • Did the group feel commanded or relieved? (The good leader relieves, does not oppress).

Pro Tip

Use people’s names when summarizing. “As John was saying…” + “As Mary was saying…”. That validates you as a listener and gives you the right to close.

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