Go To Move: Follow the Crowd

Dev, a Bal Sabha Sanchalak and Sabhaologist shares a go to move that did not go as planned either in Kishore Mandal or Bal Mandal, but still worked to drive home his overall message. He writes the following:

This week in Bal 1, our theme for the Sabha was simplicity. We played a game of Follow the Crowd in the beginning to show simplicity among our lives. This activity was played in Kishore sabha (K1) and did not go as expected (it was still unexpected but the presenter had to maneuver on his feet to make it fit the simple). We thought it would be a great activity for Bal Sabha (B1) and decided to try it out there as well. Here is what we sent in our sabha preview and review (combined into one post).

Simple: Simplicity is key in happiness.

Unexpected/Go To Move: Follow the Crowd.

Follow the Crowd is a game which will show who follows the crowd or who can stay away from the influence of fellow balaks/balikas.

Objective:  Sway a few balaks away from the right answer to show that we can all get influenced by others.

Supplies/Equipment:

­   Whiteboard

­   Markers

How to Play:

• Before sabha, when MC is talking or as soon as sabha starts, take one balak/balika in the hallway or away from the other balaks where he/she can’t hear what the presenter has to say.
• Talk to the balak and distract him from what’s going on inside of the sabha, making sure that he/she can’t hear the presenter.
• While the balak/balika is outside, tell the rest of the sabha to say the wrong answer, and not tell the balak/balika that was outside what is going on. 
• For example, draw a big box and a small box on the board. Tell the balaks/balikas to say the wrong answer. If the presenter asks which box is bigger, everyone must point to the box that is smaller.
• The balak/balika will not know what is going on and will say that everyone else is wrong. This will show that he is not influenced by the crowd and strongly believes in his answer.
• What is expected is for the balak/balika to go along with everyone and say the wrong answer.

Outcome:

• When we played the game in Kishore Sabha, the game did not work as the Kishore that was picked went against everyone’s saying. He was a fellow Bal Karyakar and, so we decided to try the same game in Bal Sabha.
• When the MC was talking, a balak was taken out and “talked to”.  The other Bal Karyakar explained to the rest of the sabha to say the wrong answer.
• As soon as they were ready, the balak was brought inside. Even though everyone was told not to tell the balak, one of the balaks told him to say the wrong answer. 
• This game did work in a way but did not go as planned since the balak already knew what was going on and said the wrong answer like everyone else.

Relation to Simple:

• The simple of the sabha was that simplicity is key in happiness.
• In life, we tend to go with everyone else and fall into the trap of wanting to get everything that everyone else has.
• In this game the balak/balika had a choice of going with everyone or keeping firm in his belief of the right answer.
• In our game, the balak went along with everyone because he knew about what was told to the rest of the balaks.
• In Kishore Sabha, the other Bal Karyakar went against what the rest were saying.
• While everyone else is getting new toys, games, etc. we must be the one who stays simple in our lives. We must stay away from the influence of other balaks/ balikas.
• We must live a simple life by staying away from what everyone else wants. Only keeping what we truly need will lead us to happiness.

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In general this is a great unexpected activity that makes the point of that we all can be influenced by our peers (follow the crowd).  It may not go exactly as planned, but it will still bring home the point, just be prepared to think on your feet.  When we tried it in Kishore Sabha the kishore simply refused to be influenced. Kudos to him. We then used this as a counter example - he was like fire and not water as Yogi Bapa used to say. He stayed true to being simple. In Bal 1 our execution was off. We took one balak out of the room but when he came back in the rest of the balaks told him what we were about to do so the activity turned out to be a bit pointless. We salvaged it by asking the balaks to image if it had gone as planned - what would have happened? This game might work better in groups 2 and 3 since the older balaks (hopefully) won’t tell the one balak. Let us know how it works out for you.