The Coordinate Mesh

Field of application

Dealing with diversity

Resume / Brief description

This activity belongs in the category of structured #exchange and promotes #self-observation output and #self-confidence

The exercise should be done as an #individual activity.

Target group

Students

Lecturers

Entrepreneurs

Colleagues of the same company or work team

Colleagues working in intercultural contexts

Professionals of different area

Group size

Optional

Objectives

The activity has the objective

• To recognise personal likes and dislikes
• To create a personal plan to achieve useful results
• To appreciate what has been achieved and avoid the undesirable
• To accept things that are beyond your control

Requirements

Materials

• One coordinate grid per participant (fold an A4 paper or similar in the middle and then fold again - open the paper and number the quadrants with a fine line as follows

Time

• 45-60 minutes

Implementation - Guidelines

1.       Process

Write the following in the four quadrants:

• 1st quadrant
  • Create a list of things you want and currently have
• 2nd quadrant
  • Create a list of things you want but do not have at the moment
• 3rd quadrant
  • Create a list of things you do not want and currently do not have
• 4th quadrant
  • Create a list of things you do not want but currently have

2.       Consolidation

• Go through the list of thought aids and if necessary, add something to the quadrants

3.       Debriefing

Reflect on the process and your feelings when filling in the coordinate grid. The instructor or moderator will ask a series of questions. The participants think about the answers and try to find out what they mean.

• Process review
  • Did you feel good or bad during the writing process?
  • Do you like or dislike thinking about yourself?
  • Did you feel calm and concentrated or rather harassed and unfocused?
  • Did you proceed systematically, or did you jump back and forth between the quadrants?
  • Did you proceed at a steady pace, or did you stay with one task for a short time or for a longer time with another?
  • Were you biased or did you feel as if someone else was analysing you?
  • Did you always keep an eye on the time, or did you forget it completely?
  • Do you know how much time you spent on this activity? Did it take longer than you expected? Or less long?
  • Did the thought aids give you additional ideas? Or did you hardly get anything at all?
• Content check
  • Which points came to your mind quickly and spontaneously? And which ones did you have to dig out slowly?
  • Which quadrants have more or less points than the others?
  • Which points did you think of many times in your life and which ones appeared out of nowhere?
  • Which points are about you directly and which are about other people?
  • Which points are about people, which are about objects?
• Comparisons between two quadrants
  • Comparison of number and meaning of the points on the right side with those on the left side. What does this say about your focus on negative or positive aspects?
  • Comparison of the number and importance of the points in the upper half with those in the lower half of the coordinator network. What does this say about your focus on the current and future?
  • Compare the number and meaning of the points in the diagonally opposite quadrants 1 and 3 with those of quadrants 2 and 4. What does this say about their tendency to optimism and pessimism, respectively?

Additional format/references

Thiagarajan, S. (2016). Interaktive Trainingsmethoden: Thiagis Aktivitäten für berufliches, interkulturelles und politisches Lernen in Gruppen (3. Auflage.). Schwalbach: Wochenschau Verlag.