Responding to Resistance: Why Are We Playing Games?

Choose this exercise

Purpose: Equip facilitators or team leaders with four specific verbal strategies to address participant skepticism about game-based learning without escalating tension.

Use it when: Use in facilitator training, staff professional development, or workshop prep when leaders anticipate reluctance toward group activities.

Skip it when: Skip during standard team-building sessions where participants are already engaged in core project work and not learning facilitation technique.

Group arrangement: Pairs within a whole group circle

Timing: UWT suggested duration based on the 5 to 15 minute time band in source metadata

Materials and tools

• One printed reference card per pair (or projected slide) listing the four response strategies
• Timer or stopwatch

Before participants arrive

1. Print or project the four response strategy prompts (Empathize, Ask the Room, State the Evidence, Honor Choice).
2. Arrange seating so participants can turn to a partner immediately.

Say this to open

At some point as facilitators, someone will ask, 'Why are we playing games?' or 'Why are we wasting time?' Today we practice four concrete ways to answer that question constructively. You will work in pairs to roleplay the pushback and try out the responses.

How to run it

1. Introduce the four strategies 3 minutes

   Explain the four responses from the reference sheet: 1. Empathize (validate their feeling), 2. What do others think? (invite peer perspectives), 3. Evidence (cite the functional purpose of play in trust and collaboration), and 4. Honor choice (make participation clearly voluntary). Read opening script.

2. Practice round one 4 minutes

   Form pairs. Partner A acts as the skeptic and says: 'I am an adult, why are we doing childish games?' Partner B uses one of the four strategies to reply. After 90 seconds, prompt Partner B to try a second strategy with the same scenario. Call time at 4 minutes.

3. Practice round two 4 minutes

   Swap roles. Partner B acts as a busy participant saying: 'We have real deadlines, this is a waste of time.' Partner A responds using either Strategy 3 (Evidence) or Strategy 4 (Honor Choice). After 90 seconds, prompt them to test the other strategy. Call time at 4 minutes.

4. Whole-room debrief 4 minutes

   Reconvene the full group. Ask two participants to share which response felt most natural and which felt hardest to execute. Wrap up on time.

Debrief questions

• Which of the four strategies felt most natural to deliver under pressure?
• How did the skeptic feel when their concern was met with choice rather than defense?

Finished output: Each participant completes at least two practice responses to participant pushback.

Remote

Run in main room or pairs using 2-person breakout rooms for steps 2 and 3. Paste the four prompt scripts into the chat. Broadcast 90-second prompts to change strategies, then close breakout rooms for the debrief.

Hybrid

Pair in-person participants together and remote participants in virtual breakout rooms. If uneven, assign one hybrid pair with an individual laptop in a quiet corner.

Access and participation choices

• Participants may read the printed script verbatim rather than improvising words.
• Anyone may choose to observe a pair's practice without taking an active speaking role.

If the session gets stuck

Participants get defensive or argue during the roleplay.

Remind speakers that the goal is de-escalation; instruct them to start their sentence with empathy before making any other point.

An odd number of participants leaves one person without a partner.

Form one triad where two people play facilitators testing two different strategies against one skeptic.

Terms used here

• Challenge by Choice: A principle where each person decides their own degree of participation without pressure or penalty.