Open or Closed

A jolt is a brief experiential activity that lasts for less than 5 minutes and drives home some important point. I borrow from children’s games to create some of the effective jolts. Here’s a game I witnessed during a recent birthday party. I must confess that I was too naïve to catch on to the trick.

Secret Move

You give a book to someone with your right hand and say, “I am going you the book, open.” Or “I am giving you the book, closed.” The words open or closed do not refer to the state of the book but to whether your left hand is open or closed. The participants mistakenly assume that you are talking about the book.

Synopsis

Give the book to someone and make an open or closed statement referring to your left hand. The participants mistakenly assume that you are talking about whether the book is open or closed. You reveal the trick and debrief the participants.

Purpose

To demonstrate how people frequently ignore background information.

Players

Minimum: 3

Maximum: Any number

Best: 10 to 30

Time

10 to 20 minutes

Supplies

A hardback book

Flow

Get ready. Seat yourself at a table. Clear the table of everything except a book. Invite the participants to stand around the table.

Give the book. Pick up the book and hold it open in your right hand. Place your left hand casually on the table with the fingers open. Give the open book to one of the people standing around you and say, “I am giving you the book, open.” Make sure that the fingers of your left hand are open but do not draw attention to this. Take the book back, close it, and unobtrusively close the fingers of the left hand into a fist. Say, “I am giving you the book, closed” and give the book back to the participant. Notice that during these first two moves both the book and your left hand are in the same state.

Repeat the actions and statements. Keep taking the book back and giving it to another participant, making an open or closed statement. Always refer the statement to the state of your left hand. Sometimes, keep your left hand closed while the book is open and vice versa. Your statements would confuse the participants who are focusing on the book.

Invite the participants to make the statement. It is likely that some of participants standing around you would have caught on to the left hand being open or closed. After you give the book, instead of making the statement yourself, invite one of these sharp participants to do so.

Reveal the secret. Demonstrate how you open or close your left hand and make statements related to it.

Debrief

Debrief the participants. Conduct a discussion about how people don’t pay attention to the background information (the left hand) and focus only on the foreground (the book). Relate this phenomenon to workplace events.

Learning Point

People frequently do not pay attention to the background information.

Variation

Use other objects. Instead of using a book, you may use some other object that could be clearly opened and closed. We have used a pair of scissors or a box with a lid.