TECHNIQUES

The Messy Room

Pretend a tornado ripped through the room, leaving it soooo messy. What happens when you ask a group of young researchers to fix it as they want? The first step in taking ownership of the research process, is to learn how to co-create a common working space.

Written by

Kirsten Williams

Edited by

Denisse Albornoz

Developed by

We used this technique during our first day of a training course on Participatory Action Research (PAR) in Colombia. We watched participants nervously enter the space in its disastrous state. A look of confusion crossed their faces while we giggled – equally nervous to see if it would work out. Once they all settled uncomfortably on the floor, we asked them the first question: so, how are you all feeling? Seeing them sufficiently awkward, we asked them to recreate the space in the way they want. We put a song on and they started reorganizing.

For us, it was an important way to get participants involved in co-creating space, as a first act of taking ownership in the research process.

The Messy Room - Research Technique

This exercise encourages people to play with and take ownership of the space. It gets people to start working together in the first few minutes of a workshop and it’s a lot of fun! For the facilitators it’s also the opportunity to get a read on the vibe of the group (are they shy? Playful?)

You have to be ok with awkwardness.

The Messy Room - Research Technique — Here is a photo of Gioel coping with participants stepping in and acting awkward.

If used in a training on participatory research/facilitation it can be used to stress that space does matter in workshop settings.

You can do two rounds of this exercise: one with and one without music to talk about the power of music in getting people energized.

You can ask participants to do this exercise various times within a workshop as an icebreaker and to change the vibe of the room. Put good music on while they are re-arranging the room. Put a song you know participants like and gets them going.