October 2010, The Change Game 
This is a simple but powerful activity to help participants understand the human reaction to change; i.e., resistance, and to see that a positive attitude about change is an important enabler for reducing the stress associated with change.
Round one
Have the group members select a partner. The work is done in pairs.
First, instruct them to stand facing their partner and simply observe. If they had to identify them to someone else later, how would they describe the person?
Ask the participants to now stand back-to-back with their partner. They are not to look at their partner.
Give them their first objective—to change three things about their physical appearance, without their partner knowing what the changes are.
Some member may moan and groan a little, but they will all begin to make simple changes, often removing items of jewelry and/or clothing such as a shoe, etc. Some may roll up a sleeve, change the position of their watch, etc.
After all have made the changes, they are to turn face-to-face and each take a turn at trying to identify the things that have changed. Most should be able to identify the three changes in their partner’s appearance.
Ask, “who found all three?” “Who found two of the three?” etc.
Round two
Tell them to leave the changes; not to change them back to the original condition. We are not done yet.
Ask the participants to now stand back-to-back with their partner again. They are not to look at their partner.
Give them their next objective—to change three more things about their physical appearance, without their partner knowing what these changes are.
Some member may moan and groan again, but they will all begin to make more changes, often removing or changing more items.
After all have made the changes, they are to turn face-to-face and each take a turn at trying to identify the additional three things that have changed. A variety of success is typical for identifying the additional three changes.
Tell them to leave the changes; not to change them back to the original condition. We are not done yet.
Round three
Ask the participants to now stand back-to-back with their partner again. They are not to look at their partner.
Give them their next objective—to change three more things about their physical appearance, without their partner knowing what these changes are.
Some member will moan and groan a lot at this point, but they will all begin to make more changes, often removing or changing more items. The process becomes funny. (make sure that all changes in clothing are appropriate.)
After all have made the changes, they are to turn face-to-face and each take a turn at trying to identify the additional three things that have changed. A variety of success is typical for identifying the additional three changes.
Tease your group by asking them to turn back-to-back again, but then say, “no, we are finished. Let’s talk about this.”
Discussion / debrief:
(The focus of the discussion whould be on the challenges of change and the impact of our attitudes for successfully navigating change.)
Ask: What were your reactions to these simple changes?
As you made more and more changes, what were you thinking and feeling?
What reactions of others did you notice, as all were forced into more and more changes?
Key question: How many of you made changes by adding items? picking up a pencil, a book, putting things in your pockets, etc.?
Facilitation point—isn’t it interesting that, just as in this activity, when we think of change we think about what “we must lose, or give up”?
We could have added many items, going through more and more rounds of the game, and never lost all of our clothes…
In life, our attitude about change is critical. Can we find the positive, the potential gains, and concentrate on those? That positive attitude might make a lot of difference in our success, and certainly in our levels of stress when we encounter change.
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