This is an interesting exercise to help people understand some of their own 
natural biases when working with other people.  I participated in this 
exercise as a trainer preparing for a training situation where I would 
evaluate 30-35 students.  It was useful to see how I valued certain behaviors 
more than others, which in turn helped me evaluate my students more fairly 
throughout their training.
 
Time required:  30-60 mins (depends on how much time you use to process the 
results)
 
Materials needed:  Plain bond paper (15-20 Sheets)
                   Markers
                   Pens/Pencils
                   Tape
 
Preparation required:
 
  1.  Make three signs on bond paper, one each reading "LIONS" SAINT 
BERNARDS" and "FOXES".  Use markers and make the letters large and easy to  
  2.  Position the signs around the room to provide space for small group 
activity to take place without interfering with another group.  (we did ours 
outside on a patio area and each group took a different corner of the patio)
 
  3.  Pre-position bond paper (at least 3 sheets) and pens/pencils in each 
area.  
The exercise:
 
Gather your "class" (trainers, students, etc) in a central location, set the 
stage by explaining how we can categorize human behavior into 3 simple 
categories--those identified by the signs around the room.  We have Lions, 
Saint Bernards and Foxes.  Ask your students to identify various behaviors 
associated with each label -- no doubt you'll have a variety of answer pretty 
quick such as:  "foxes are cunning" "lions are strong, fierce" "saint 
bernards are lovable" etc.  Listen to just enough to make sure they are on 
the right wave length and then suggest that they move to the sign that *they* 
 feel best describes the way they behave. [depending on the nature of your 
group, you could specify ...how you interact with students, how you interact 
with your subordinates, your family etc.].  Lots of milling around will take 
place as they move to their areas.  Once they've sorted out how they see 
themselves, ask them to take 5 minutes to list (as a group, using 
brainstorming techniques) all the qualities, attributes of their chosen 
group.  They should have a recorder write these on the bond paper provided. 
[you can tell them they need a recorder, or simply observe how each group 
handles it and process that as part of the exercise].  After the 5 mins is 
up, collect the lists and set them aside. Next have each group rotate around 
the room, lions go to the saint bernard area, saint bernard go to the fox. 
Again, give them a 5 min limit and have them list what they perceive are the 
attributes of the group they are now at [lions list their perceptions of 
saint bernards -- ie. their soft, too "touchy feely", avoid conflict etc]. 
The records should note that this list is observations of saint bernards made 
by lions.  After the 5 mins has expired, turn in sheets and rotate one last 
time...repeat the exercise.
 
Processing the results:
 
Call everyone back together and make throw out some overhead questions to 
find out how they liked the exercise --- expect a wide variety of responses, 
take mental note of those that really enjoyed it and those that didn't, you 
may be able to tie that to their "type" as you process the exercise.
 
First read the attributes that each group wrote about themselves--generally 
you can expect positive or complimentary terms used to describe the 
characteristics they see in themselves.
 
Next, simply go through the remaining sheets reading what the lions thought 
of saint bernards and foxes, what foxes thought of lions and saint bernards 
and what saint bernards thought of lions and foxes.  As you read these lists 
you should see some trends develop on how each group views those in another 
group -- characteristics that a fox listed as complimentary to themselves, 
creative for example, may be viewed as "sneaky" by a lion and so forth. Take 
note of who identifies with various comments as you can work off of those as 
you go.
 
The point behind the exercise is to show how we tend to appreciate or value 
behavior similar to our own and put less stock in those behaviors that don't 
neatly match up with our way of seeing things.  As a teacher/trainer in an 
evaluation role, it's important to know if we have a bias toward the dominant 
lion or the more quiet saint bernard.  Is the student constantly speaking out 
of turn or are they taking initiative?  Are they "soft and over sensitive" or 
do they exhibit "strong human relations skills"?  Are they resourceful and 
creative or are they sneaky and can't be trusted, always working outside 
established rules? How we view them depends a lot on our own orientation.
 
If you use this with students, it can be processed in a way to show them how 
they interact with their peers in group situations, whether it be in small 
work groups in the class or in student leadership positions in the school. It 
could be tied to how they interact with family members, co-workers or 
significant others.
 
Reinforcement:
 
Throughout your class/training situation, you can point out examples of 
"lion" behavior or "fox" behavior and show how another may have handled the 
situation.  Again, depending on the class you have you will use more or less 
guided questioning to help identify the behaviors you want to highlight.
 
In my particular situation, when we did the final evaluation of our students, 
we had to review our top five performers to see if as a saint bernard for 
example, did I pick all saint bernards as my top performers? or was I able to 
look at and evaluate each students strengths on their own merits.  This is a 
surpisingly simple exercise but was a lot of fun and somewhat of an eye 
opener for the trainers.  
I'm sure there are lots of variations of this out there and would love to 
hear of your experiences with it.  If you do choose to use it, please let me 
know how it went!
 
Dale
 
dhill@badlands.nodak.edu
captain.scarlet@spectrumbbs.com 
--- DB A3000sl/005017
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