Cooperative Games for a Cooperative World
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
What others are saying about Cooperative Games for a Cooperative World “Cooperative games can change our future. You can read the entire book for an overview or simply select a particular game and try it. Dada masterfully presents safe ways to explore cooperation, to experiment, to create new learning pathways. These games change institutional practices within organiza- tions and lead to collective and personal insights that shift the present, so that a new future can be created. A powerful book by a powerful teacher.” — Sohail Inayatullah, UNESCO Chair in Futures Studies, USIM. Professor, Graduate Institute of Futures Studies, Tamkang University; Associate, Melbourne Business School, the University of Melbourne. Co-director: Metafuture.org: Mooloolaba. “Recent research clearly shows that play is as essential to human development as sleep and nutrition. Play, in all its forms, offers fun and engaging ways to develop interpersonal skills, such as communication, collaboration, creativity and critical thinking; and cooperative games do this by the truck-load.” — Mark Collard, experiential trainer and author of No Props (www.playmeo.com) “Dada...Well Done! When I see a book like this it makes being retired seem less attractive.” — Karl Rohnke, pioneer of adventure education, founder of Project Adventure, author of Quicksilver: Adventure Games, Initiative Problems, Trust Activities and a Guide to Effective Leadership “Theater is a collective effort, and it is necessary to develop a unity of focus and purpose. Actors must learn to serve each other to make the whole performance great. I use many of the cooperative games in this book both in training actors and in developing a tight ensemble for productions. I measure the suc- cess by the level of rich belly laughter provoked during the play.” — Ole Brekke, founder and director of The Commedia School, Copenhagen, Denmark “The world—now more than ever—needs strategies for engag- ing and connecting with each other to build both cooperation and resilience within local communities. This book provides concrete tools to that end with themes that allow facilitators to maximize their impact working with groups.” — Mallory McDuff, PhD. Professor of Environmental Studies and Outdoor Leadership Studies, Warren Wilson College, and author of Conservation Education and Outreach Techniques. “Cooperative Games for a Cooperative World has brought together a powerful set of play-way tools for exploring possibility. They allow us to take risks and learn to trust creative process as we reflect, co-create, dream and problem solve our way into richer and more livable futures.” — Dr Marcus Bussey, Senior Lecturer in History and Futures Studies, University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia “We never, never outgrow our need to play, to have fun and to engage with a larger community. Here is a compendium of games that connect us to each other rather than separate us. The reward from playing these games is not a gold medal or a trophy. Rather, one gains more focus, joy and wisdom.” — Grandmaster Marilyn Cooper, www.pushingforpeace.org Cooperative Games for a Cooperative World Dada Maheshvarananda Also by the Author After Capitalism: Economic Democracy in Action Cooperative Games for a Cooperative World Facilitating Trust, Communication and Spiritual Connection Dada Maheshvarananda InnerWorld Publications San Germán, Puerto Rico www.innerworldpublications.com dada maheshvarananda Copyright 2017 by Dada Maheshvarananda www.cooperativegamesworld.com All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by InnerWorld Publications, PO Box 1613, San Germán, Puerto Rico, 00683. Library of Congress Control Number: 2017903025 Cover Design © Devashish Donald Acosta Cover photo: Dada Pranadiiptananda No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy- ing, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review. ISBN 9781881717584 Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication data Names: Maheshvarananda, Dada, author. Title: Cooperative games for a cooperative world : facilitating trust , communication , and spiritual connection / Dada Maheshvarananda. Description: Includes bibliographical references. | San Germán, Puerto Rico: InnerWorld Publications, 2017. Identifiers: ISBN 9781881717584 | LCCN 2017903025 Subjects: LCSH Group games. | Games. | Sports. | Cooperation. | Creative activities and seat work. | Group relations training. | BISAC GAMES & ACTIVITIES / General Classification: LCC GV1203 .M34 2017 | DDC 796.1/4--dc23 vi cooperative games for a cooperative world For Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar, who devoted his life to “the good and happiness of all,” and who also continues to give me more love and support than I ever dreamed possible. vii Contents FOREWORD by Bill Ayers 1 INTRODUCTION WHY COOPERATIVE GAMES FOR A COOPERATIVE WORLD? 6 CONCEPTS AND THEMES 9 FACILITATING COOPERATIVE GAMES 20 At the beginning 20 Sequencing activities 21 Trust 22 Communication 24 Cooperation 24 Creative thinking 25 Fun 25 Practical Techniques 27 How many can play? 27 What ages? 27 How to present the games 27 Planning and timing 28 Participating 29 Enforcing rules 29 Gender and cultural issues 29 Leading Large Groups 30 Making yourself heard 30 Placing yourself strategically 31 Training assistants 31 Official greeter 31 Activities in pairs or small groups 32 Some Cool Equipment 32 SAFE BOUNDARIES AND DEBRIEFING 35 Full Value Contract 35 Debriefing Tips 35 Three Parts of a Debrief: 36 The Whip 37 Thumbs Up 37 Headliners 38 Large Groups 38 Paired-Shares 38 Back to Back 38 Small Groups 39 General Guidelines 39 Feeling Cards 40 GETTING TO KNOW ONE ANOTHER GAMES 41 Interviews 41 Name Chain 43 Blanket Game 45 The Invisible Knowledge of the Universe 47 Making Contact 49 Two Truths and a Lie 51 Comfort Zone 53 GENERAL COOPERATIVE GAMES 55 The Cross and the Circle 55 Gotcha! 57 Clumps 59 Human Spring 60 Cooperative Competition 61 Support Your Partner 63 Martian Hypnosis 69 Mirroring 71 Balanced Unbalance 73 Dancing Sticks 75 Galloping Hands 77 Walking Tag 80 Pairs Squared 81 Tusker 82 Tank 84 Catch the Falling Animals 86 Group Juggle 88 Moon Walk 90 Stone Face 92 Telephone Game 94 Collective Back Massage 96 The Lap Sit or Lap Circle 99 The God Dance 103 Leadership Game or Ouroboros 104 Letting Go 106 The Human Machine 108 Moonball 109 Yurt Rope 111 REFLECTION GAMES 113 Namaskar Game 113 Questions 117 Running Your Dreams 120 Twenty Things I Love to Do 122 Life Map 126 Good Grief 128 The Friend Game 131 INITIATIVE TESTS 133 Cooperative Musical Chairs 133 Quick Lineup 136 Welded Ankles 137 The Human Knot 140 Mergers 142 Flip Side 144 Balloon Frantic 146 Balloon Trolleys 148 Balloon Samadhi 151 The Nine Dots Problem 153 NASA Exercise: Survival on the Moon 156 TRUST ACTIVITIES 159 Car-car 159 Confidence Walk 162 Trust Wave 165 Trust Standing Circle 168 Trust Sitting Circle 170 Levitation 172 Trust Fall 176 GAMES OF YOGA AND SPIRITUAL CONNECTION 182 Deep Breathing 182 Yoga in Pairs 185 Sound Adventure 192 Moving in Om 194 Coiling and Uncoiling of the Kundalinii 196 Kiirtan Heart Circle 198 GAMES ABOUT VALUES AND ECONOMIC DEMOCRACY 204 The Values Game 204 Neohumanist Identities and Ho’oponopono 207 Moral Dilemmas 212 How Much Money is Enough? 214 Putdowns and Praise 217 What Do You Need? 219 Prejudice 221 Barter Game 223 The Sarkar Game 227 When Will Hunger, Poverty and War End? 232 Coming Back from the Future 234 INTUITION GAMES 236 The Sense of Being Stared At 237 The Walk of Intuition 240 What Am I Thinking? 243 Will 245 What to Ask the Universe? 247 MIND OVER MATTER GAMES 249 Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board 249 Deeply Rooted 251 Move Faster by Thinking Differently 255 Finger Ring 257 Unbendable Arm 258 Kokyu Dosa 260 CLOSINGS 262 Two Strokes and a Wish 262 Web of Appreciation 263 Sundowner 265 All Good Things 266 APPENDIX A Answers to NASA Exercise: Survival on the Moon 269 APPENDIX B The Ten Ethical Principles of Yama and Niyama 271 APPENDIX C The Progressive Utilization Theory (Prout) 274 ALPHABETICAL LIST OF GAMES 279 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 283 BIBLIOGRAPHY 286 ABOUT THE AUTHOR 288 Dancing Sticks in Visão Futuro, São Paulo, Brazil FOREWORD by Bill Ayers ada Maheshvarananda is an activist with a D poet’s mind, a dreamer and a doer, a love warrior. At our first encounter years ago, I felt myself in the pres- ence of someone who was both fierce and gentle, ecstatic and burdened, transcendent and unremarkably material. In other words, I saw a person a lot like you and me—a three-dimensional being with a mind and a heart, a body and a spirit, living his life smack in the middle of things, a mass of human contradictions, tensions, ambiguities, and incompleteness. He lives simply and yet seems determined to squeeze the most out of every moment, and he clearly chooses to live with one foot firmly planted in the mud and muck of the world as it is, while the other foot is stretched toward a world that could be, but is not yet—a place of harmony, peace, joy, and justice. In Cooperative Games for a Cooperative World, Dada Maheshvarananda offers an accessible, hands-on practice to reach toward that possible world. It’s an easy book to plunge into head first, and it’s a book that allows each and all of us to prepare for that more harmonious place. Think of it as a book of cooperative calisthenics, little exercises to prepare us for the huge changes that are essential to our survival on this earth. What does it mean to be human today? Where are we on the clock of the universe? What does this political and social moment demand of us? How shall we live? dada maheshvarananda These are the substantial questions that are illuminated through the small activities and joyful games on display here.