The Goldfish bowl!
So back to the highs at insight and the goldfish bowls in particular. So what are they?
Well simply put you set up a number of chairs in a large circle facing inwards and in the middle you set another circle of typically 5 chairs also facing inwards. The organiser of the goldfish provides the context in advance that is typically a viewpoint with a key question for debate and identifies 4 ‘seed fish’ who’s responsibility it is to start the debate and to keep it running if necessary. The session starts with the attendees taking places in the outer circle of chairs and the seed fish occupying 4 of the 5 chairs at the centre. The organiser (facilitator/note taker) start’s off by setting the context for the goldfish bowl and then hands over to the seed fish to start the debate. So why one seat spare at the centre? Well this is available to any of the people on the outer circle to take part in the debate (you are not allowed to contribute unless you are part of the centre). On taking a place it is up to one of the existing 4 fish to then remove themselves. This is a self selecting process that the facilitator will help with if necessary although this does not generally need to happen.
The result is a debate that flies off all over the place and ends up with people jumping in and out as it takes on its own life. A good facilitator can keep it on track but it is amazingly great fun and like karaoke, once you’ve overcome your nerves and had a go then even if you are a poor signer as I am it sort of becomes a bit of an addiction.
So watch out Insight – more mad ideas await you next year round!!
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