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COLOURBLIND®

COLOURBLIND® Case Study

Advanced Communication Skills

Imagine this scene. Eight newly recruited European graduates, working for a multinational communications technology business, are sitting around a boardroom table. In the group of 8 are 5 people who do not speak English as their mother tongue although English is the language of their business. Many of the group speak more than one language: Spanish, French, German, Italian. Each of the young people is wearing a blindfold and holding a collection of small, irregular, coloured plastic shapes. Following a set of instructions, and carefully abiding by the rules of the activity, they are working together to establish the answer to a complex puzzle: "Which are the two components that are missing from the set of shapes we have in our possession?" Listen to some of the dialogue.

" I have a piece that is like a rectangle with points and a hole in the middle."

"Yes, I have one too...two points and a circular hole."

"Yes, I think I have one...does it look like a Capital A?"

"No, not an A...like a rectangle with a diamond shape lying over it..."

"Would you describe it as an arrowhead?"

"No, that's a different shape..."

"So there is more than one piece with a circle hole in the middle?"

"Yes, I've got two, one looks like a Star Trek symbol..."

"What's a Star Trek symbol?"

"Like a triangle, but instead of having three flat sides one is an arc..."

"I think that might be my arrowhead...how many of those have we got?"

"Does anyone know what arrowhead is in Italian?"

"Shouldn't we be finding out what colours these are?"

"Do we need a leader?"

Think of the potential for exploring the communication issues which that one-minute exchange raises!

COLOURBLIND® was developed in 1991 when Geoff Cox was asked to design and deliver the first week of an induction training programme for Air Traffic Control cadets. The young people involved came from a range of backgrounds: direct from school or university, from business and industry, from air traffic control in the Armed Forces. Each had to face an intensive, demanding training programme in which teamwork and communication would be fundamental to success. Each, ultimately, would accept professional responsibilities which allow absolutely no margin for communication error, misunderstanding or ambiguity.

COLOURBLIND® enabled participants to rehearse every communication skill which Air Traffic Controllers need and to highlight the problems and pitfalls which communication breakdown inevitably brings. Since 1991 COLOURBLIND® has been used worldwide across languages, cultures and business backgrounds, to focus on the fundamental skills of great communication.

How does it work?

Wearing blindfolds to ensure total dependence upon the quality of their verbal communication, a group works together to gather information that will allow them to solve a puzzle. The size of the group (ideally between 6 and 16) demands different types of communication skill - information and group management, effective listening and questioning, strong chairing skills, the ability to clarify and summarise. The exercise lasts for approximately 20-40 minutes and generates a large amount of discussion, so requires a similar length of facilitated review.

What are the business benefits of this resource?

COLOURBLIND® develops skills required by every individual in a business. As participants work through the exercise they refine skills that will help them to save time, effort and money by ensuring common understanding between people involved in projects. The emphasis on checking and feedback are vital to those involved in teaching, instructing or delegating responsibility.

The exercise also demonstrates how communication breaks down in particular groups or teams, enabling them to identify their own specific problems so that they can correct them together.

Give me an example of how it is used.

Our partner organisation in the USA, Action Learning Associates, uses COLOURBLIND® as the basis for an intensive Culture Change programme. Using the metaphor of the exercise, in which participants recognise the effort that goes into agreeing the meaning of abstract shapes, they explore how to develop shared understanding of abstract concepts: organisational and cultural values, beliefs, standards and expectations. In the same way as our graduates discovered problems in relying upon assumed understanding of specific references (cf. the Star Trek symbol overleaf), senior managers can identify how to strengthen organsiation-wide understanding of, and commitment to, their desired corporate culture.
Colour blind. Color blind. Colour-blind. Color-blind.

colour blind. colour-blind. color blind.