Tool No 31: Spaces within Spaces
HOW? Turn up in plenty of time before a presentation, class or other training activity, and scan the room for potential Spaces within Spaces. For example, is it possible to set up a circle of chairs in one corner for a particular activity? Could one of the activities be done standing up at the back wall? Is there an area with soft seating that lends itself to reflection?
Spaces within Spaces is a tool devised mainly for consultants, facilitators and teachers who need to actively involve an audience. If you force the audience to sit still, in the same position, looking in the same direction for more than 30 minutes, the probability of their attention wandering is actually close to a certainty.
The opposite is also true. The more you can get your participants to move physically from place to place, look in different directions, alternate between sitting in groups, standing up and sitting behind a table, the more stimulated they will feel.
It is important to mark out your Spaces within Spaces, and make them obvious. Position chairs, posters and printed material in advance. If you physically arrange the chairs in a particular way, the audience will find it easier to accept the idea of moving between your Spaces within Spaces.
