Video Transcript for Tin Can Pass
presented by Mark Collard
Here’s the exercise. Again, it’s something I’ve already prepared in advance. This is something that I worked with just last week with another group. It’s just a regular A10 tin can. It’s been around forever.
And the first task, again I’m going to assume we’ve actually done this, is that I would pass it around the group, and I invite the group to actually consider what would be one or more things they would love to see this group ‘be.’
And I mean “be” in the true sense of its word, that it’s we’re human “beings”, not human “doings”. What would you actually be?
So for example, we would be risk takers, we would be positive, we would be accepting, we would be friendly, we would be comfortable, we would be understanding, teachable, and so on. We would be honest, we would be having fun.
For this particular group last year, it was a group of students, these are the things that they developed in their conversation about this is how we would like to be, in terms achieving our goals, whatever that might be.
So assume that we’ve actually done that, just for purposes of time.
Here’s the next task which I invite you to now do, is that we’re now going to uphold this conversation. We’re actually going to uphold it both literally and also in the sense of how you work together as a group, is that by passing this tin can around again, your object is to keep it off the ground and have it fall as few times as possible, because the only point of contact you have with the tin can now is with your feet.
And when I say feet I do mean shoes and socks, but I certainly don’t mean hands, shins, or anything else other than could be considered to be a foot, shoe, or a sock.
So to repeat, the object is to have this tin can passed around the group. You can use your feet. And the object is to have it fall to the ground as few times as possible. This is obviously a fall, but so would if it touched inside the nook of your little foot there, or your hand or anything like that.
It’s pretty simple. I’m not asking you a great deal at this point, but did most people get a sense of what I’m asking? Okay, what’s your name?
(Zoe.)
Zoe, would you mind starting?
(Okay.)
Your can. Okay.
(people performing Tin Can Pass)
Nice. So it’s about as few falls as possible.
(people passing tin can)
That looks like a fall. I think we had more than a foot touch it there. Two now. Keep it going. That’s clear.
(people moving tin can pass)
Back to where it started. Excellent. Alright, great. How many falls?
(Two.)
Just two. Okay, great. Do we sense that we could probably do that in less than two? Awesome. I’m going to actually step that up, because I think that’s a gimme.
So now I’m going to take it to the next level, is that, I don’t actually have it with me today, but ordinarily I’d place a lid on this so that you couldn’t use it as a shoe.
So resist the temptation. You could still use this end, you just can’t put your shoe inside it. So it’s the same task, but this time it’s still as few falls as possible.
So Zoe, would you like to still start with it? You can’t do it like that anymore, so do what you need to do to start.
You can use the end, you just can’t put your foot inside it.
(people passing tin can)
And stop it there. Okay, good job. Excellent. Good job. Just roughly how many drops did we have?
(Three.)
Might have been three? Okay, Great. And that included putting a shoe inside. That’s cool. And we’ll keep going. Again, I want to move us forward here, but what did you note? How might you connect the things that, if you had, written onto this tin can are related to what you just did?
Anyone got some ideas? Again I know you’re having to imagine what you’d wrote on here, but you can see it.
(people respond to question…)
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, so it might be I might invite a group… think back to what you wrote on the can and then describe to the group whether you saw it happen or it didn’t happen. It might be that “maintain an open mind”.
It might be that yes, the group did actually have an open mind for three different solutions to how the problem could be solved, as an example. Great. Excellent.
And then I can then directly relate that conversation to other parts of my curriculum, other parts of the life of this group. How might this appear on the football field or whatever other form of curriculum that you might be working with?
Well, having an open mind mean…. offering suggestions to the captain, or if you’ve got an idea or maybe someone else has an idea but they have a lesser voice than you, encourage them to speak up or maybe show to the group hears that person. That might be a way in which that occurs.
And of course it also invites the group to consider… actually, we weren’t having much fun. It might be that’s what I wrote. We didn’t really have much fun. Why was that? Why was that that we didn’t have much fun? Again it opens up that permission to have that conversation.
And literally speaking, who was upholding the standards? Anytime they dropped, we can say okay, in the life of this group, metaphorically speaking, when do we drop the can? When do we drop this can? That might be in the world of safety, emotional safety for example.
In terms of bullying, and I’m sure most of your schools have bullying campaigns, that’s a huge tin can that we drop all the time. How might we actually manage that better? Note that I’m using an exercise, an activity, to engage the conversation to then move the group forward.
Just for further ideas, this could go on for two hours. Two cans, both going different directions, swapping, coming back. I already talked about the tin can lid. And then to the ultimate level, like you could put things inside, that bias its weight and all that sort of stuff.
My favourite is same thing but only one foot per person. So when you’re physically involved in the possession or passing of the can, you can only have one foot touching it.
And it’s like how is that possible? The group works it out. There’s never been a group that hasn’t been able to work out how do you make that happen, because they work out at some point, well it’s one person but we could have ten feet on it involving ten people. Yes, of course you can. And then that opens up a whole new world of how we solve problems.
My favourite, all-time favourite is one foot, tin lid, and have something on top here like a glass of water filled to the brim within a centimetre of the top, and the object is to have it passed all the way around the group without it falling.
Now there’s often a lot of wet legs in the process, with ready access to the water, but do you think there will be a level of performance within this group? The ability to manage themselves is pretty high, it’s pretty dynamic.
It’s not something you bring them to on the first day of class. There’s stuff that you would need to prepare to get to that level.
Sitting in a circle, preferably on the floor (but in seats will work okay,) introduce a large A-10 tin can to your group – you know, the type often found in dining halls and restaurants which store large quantities of preserved fruit or coffee, etc.
For the purposes of this activity, one end of the can should have its lid completely removed.
Explain to your group that their task is to pass this tin can around the group, but … using only their feet (shoes and socks included.) Indeed, their goal is to pass the can around the circle with as few falls as possible.
Describe a ‘fall’ as anytime the can comes into contact with anything other than a shoe or foot, eg the floor, an ankle, a hand, etc.
Pass the can to someone close to you (so as to not give anything away,) and let them at it.
The passing will be typically awkward in the beginning, but someone will quickly discover that the can can be positioned like a shoe over the top of a foot (belonging to every second person) to secure it firmly as it is passed. At this point, zero falls will likely be recorded, and the group will be feeling rather proud of itself.
Now, introduce the second tin can (which has remained hidden to this point,) to be passed simultaneously as the first tin can but in the opposite direction. Naturally, it will take some further problem-solving to have the two cans pass each other successfully. Allow the group time to discuss different ways to solve the problem and achieve their desired goal.
From here, you have many options to choose from.
If this task has been a challenging one for your group, take a few moments to review what has happened. Or, if the group is prepared for more, try something new described in the Variations tab.
Great sequence and activity to help a group setup their interactions, values, intentions and belief, structures. I love the fact that they get to immediately test out and reflect afterwards on those values and constructs in a practical way.
Usually the first part of establishing common ground rules might be where it ends at. This practical activity pushes further in a fun and challenging manner and encourages more by in and deeper connection and reflection to concepts that were put down on paper.