Carton Rouge, how to help silent stakeholders talk

By Mioe on Dribbble

The quality of the results obtained at the end of a workshop depends on numerous factors; stakeholder expertise, exercises, experience of the facilitator, interactions in the group, among others, are good examples.

The planning of a workshop involves thinking about how to reduce these risks as much as possible in order to extract the best possible data, and it is, in large, the experience of the facilitator that determines a workshop’s chances of success.

One of the tricky phases is the start-up phase as it is requires breaking the ice quickly and efficiently between the participants but also between the participants and the facilitator. Participants may not know each other, they may also be subordinate to another groupmember, or they may simply be introverted.
The first two workshop threats can be identified through preliminary research and work.

It is to counter the participants’ shyness that I have invented the Red Card method, inspired by the object used in sport.

A Bit of History

Steindy (talk) 11:44, 19 June 2011 (UTC), CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

The red card is a concept that stems from sports and is better known and recognized in Europe than in America, since referees use it in soccer or rugby, but also in a multitude of other sports.
Its use often differs from one sport to another, but its main characteristic is to stop the game and indicate a mistake made by a player. In certain sports, it even leads to the expulsion of the offending player.

The invention of these colored cards dates back to the 1966 FIFA World Cup quarterfinal game opposing England and Argentina. The referee gave a warning to two English players and sent an Argentine player off the field. However, this decision was not well-understood by the spectators — and even one of the coaches — that were present at the time.

To remedy to this, Ken Aston — who was in charge of the referees during this competition — came up with the idea of brandishing a colored card to indicate a foul. He chose two colors: yellow and red.
Because they are globally used for traffic lights, their meaning transcends the language barrier. Also, these two colors have the additional advantage of being easy to see from afar.

The first cards were used 4 years later at the 1970 FIFA World Cup in Mexico City and they’re now used in many other sports.

Carton Rouge, Why?

By Konrad Szlapa on Dribbble

I tend to speak faster than the average person.
Although I try to slow down the pace, sometimes my words still come out too fast for them to be understood properly. So, I’ve been looking for a way that would allow workshop participants to alert me quickly, and in a funny way, when my rate of speech increases, without disturbing the group.

It was when I thought of people raising their hand to ask a question that I realized that this gesture was very similar to the one referees make when waving their red cards.

But unlike raising one’s hand to ask a question, raising a red card has many advantages:

• It is not associated with the school system, and therefore prevents participants from thinking of me as their teacher.
• Raising the card does not necessarily mean that the participant wants to ask a question; they might want to alert me.
• It is derived from a playful activity.
• It is in itself quite original.
• By allowing the participants to interrupt me playfully at any time, they feel reassured from the start of the workshop.
• Last but not least, it is quick to set up and requires little explanation in order for it to be understood by everyone

How to do it concretly?

Setting everything up is very simple.
A few pieces of red cardboard paper suffice, one per participant.
You can also follow my lead and order the famous red and yellow cards used by referees during official competitions on the official FIFA store.

At the beginning of the game, once the red cards have been distributed, I suggest you use these simple rules:

1. The card can be brandished as soon as you have a question or feel as though you might have misunderstood something.
2. They can be used as many times as necessary by the participants.
3. If a card is raised, the person speaking must rephrase what they have just said in different way.
4. If the card remains up, there is an issue that requires your intervention.
5. The cards can be used throughout the workshop, but only if their use does not negatively impact the group dynamics and goes well with the exercises chosen.
6. Don’t forget that this method remains above all a gimmick that allows you to quickly break the ice and reassure introverted participants.

Bonus: You can also use yellow cards to distinguish between questions and other demands, but it is not necessary.

Thank you for reading! I hope this short article was interesting enough for you! Let me know if it was or if you have ideas to improve the ‘Carton Rouge’ concept.
Stay tuned, stay unicorn!