This is an active game that gets people thinking about how many different features we share with others.

Do you know dominoes? Let's play dominoes with our bodies.
 

Issues addressed

• Similarities and diversity within the group.

Aims

• To encourage physical contact
• To help people to get to know each other
• To raise awareness that in a group there are many (sometimes surprising) things we hold in common.

Preparation / Materials

• A large space

Instructions

1. Ask one person in the group to start by thinking of two personal characteristics which they then announce to the group, such as: "On my left side I am a girl, on my right side I have two brothers"
2. Then call for someone else in the group who shares one of those characteristics to hold the first person’s right or left hand (according to the characteristic they have in common) and then add a characteristic of their own on the free side. For example: "On my right I am a girl, on my left I have brown eyes."
3. Get all the members of the group to take a turn so that in the end you have a circle in which everybody is linked to everybody else by holding hands.
4. If a stated characteristic is not shared by someone else in the group and the domino cannot be matched ask players to negotiate another feature so that the chain is continued. Make sure that you also join in.

Debriefing and evaluation

This need not be long or laboured, but a quick feedback will be an opportunity to clear up any misconceptions.

• How easy was it to find personal characteristics you feel comfortable sharing in public?
• What are the most common things that we share?
• Within this group, do we have more features in common than differences?
• If you wish to take it further go on to ask:
• Were there some features only a few people shared? What?
• In general, what sorts of features do you share with your friends? Physical features or ideas and beliefs?
• Think about your 3 best friends, how similar to or different from you are they?
• How do you choose your friends? Is it a conscious decision or not?
• Why have friends with whom you have much in common?
• Why have friends who are quite different from you?
• In general, is diversity viewed positively or negatively in your society?

Tips for the facilitators

The characteristics given above are only examples, any person can choose or start with any feature they like, whether it is visible or not.

You can play the game in two rounds. For instance, round 1: visible features; round 2: invisible features such as taste in music, sports or hobbies, and beliefs and political opinions. If the suggested characteristics tend to be repetitive, you may encourage the participants to come up with new ones. For instance, make a rule that any one characteristic may only be used twice.

It is important that the members of the group actually establish physical contact, this encourages a stronger group feeling. You can ask the group to be creative in the way that they make contact. For instance, it could be to touch heads, to put arms round each other, to put feet together, etc.

This game should be played quickly so people don’t get bored while they are waiting to match up. It works well at the beginning of a session or as an icebreaker. Remember your participation will help to reinforce equality within the group.

This activity is called Dominoes because it uses the same basic rule as the game of dominoes played with tiles marked with a pattern of spots at each end that players match up. Another game played with domino tiles is to stand them on end in a line and slightly apart. When the first tile is knocked, it falls onto the adjacent tile which in turn knocks over the third. The aim is to set the tiles up so that the ripple goes all the way down the line. This is metaphor for the domino effect which we suggest as a fun way to end the activity (see below).

Variations

A fun way to end the activity is by reproducing a “domino effect”. Make sure participants know what the domino effect is. Then ask people to let go of their hands and turn so they are standing one behind the other. Tell them to put both hands squarely on the shoulders of the person in front. They may have to shuffle a little bit closer to make contact. A facilitator locates themself at the end of the line and pushes firmly on the shoulders of the person in front to unbalance them and cause them to fall forward. As they fall, they push the next person in line who, in turn pushes over the third person and so on down the line, so all the dominoes fall over and everyone lands in a heap on the floor!

You could now add a final question to the evaluation: Could the domino effect be a metaphor for how change can happen? Can you give examples of individuals, groups or movements who have stood up to injustice and by their example have changed attitudes, globally and locally?

A more genteel ending could be with a Mexican wave.

Suggestions for follow-up

Take action: Embracing diversity means being open to new ideas and experiences. Ask people to choose one thing that would be something new for them, for instance trying a food they have never tasted before, listening to music they don’t usually listen to and challenge them to try it before the group meets again. More challenging might be to start a conversation with someone who they normally would not talk with, for instance a homeless person, refugee or to go to a gay cafe.

Move on to another activity: Dominoes will have shown you that there’s a lot more to people than first meets the eye. Nonetheless, when we do first meet people we often make judgements about them based on what we can see. Use ‘First impressions’ to explore what we see and to find out if we all see the same thing.