Adolescents must be aliens to most adults if you read popular literature. But while culture and habits might differ between the two groups, there are still observable behavioral similarities. Some of the same techniques for increasing teamwork and understanding among adults can also work with teens.
I-Sight is a tool written specifically for teens and for adult leaders who don’t have a lot of time to administer a personality profile like DiSC. It’s a quick, simple, easily-to-read tool that gets teens to think about how they behave and want to be treated in a group. It gives them a few strategies for getting along better with others.
Another advantage of I-Sight is that there is a paper record that the teen can choose to share with others if he or she chooses. It can be left out for a parent or friend to run across. It can be kept in a file and referred to when writing a cover letter for a job or a college admission essay. Leaders can suggest that participants keep the assessment and journal about it or just take a look at it again in five years to see if they have changed.
Group activities
If you’re lucky enough to have more time with the adolescents you’re leading, you can try one of these exercises.
Map the cafeteria
Provide a rough map of an area where your audience frequents meets or hangs out. It doesn’t need to be a cafeteria and it doesn’t need to be to scale. It needs to be large enough that it can be drawn on. Ask a few questions like these:
- Do groups naturally form in your cafeteria?
- What unites each of the groups you can identify?
- What makes it possible for a person to move between groups?
- Which groups are the most stable (have had the same members for the longest time)?
- Which groups have the most status?
- Do groups have personalities?
- If there was a crisis (like a fire) how would each group respond?
- If each group was asked to host a party for everyone, how would those parties differ?
- If you wanted to sell a new soda to everyone, how would you do it differently for each group?
Self collage
This is a bit of group task cliche for teens and adults, but it still has its advantages. Everyone can produce something and no one has to disclose more about themselves than they desire. People have to share the materials and naturally start talking. This variation is good for groups where people are hesitant to share much about themselves.
Provide magazines, catalogs, manga or other visual print media along with scissors and glue. Ask participants to create a collage that represents them. One variation is called the treasure map in which each person creates a collage to represent their goals for the next year.
Another variation is to create four collages to represent each of the four DiSC styles. This is a little more abstract so you might want to create one for yourself first. You might chose to put an astronaut in the D section, a person sitting along at his desk in the i section, a relay racer handing off her baton for the S style, and an architect for the C style. Please remind participants that you’re using types as an organizing concept only and that one’s style does not determine their level of success in any job.
Personality and gender
The BBC conducted a personality test with the following findings. Have your teens discuss what they think about the findings.
… men tend to score higher for the trait of Openness than women. Intriguingly, this suggests that men tend to have a higher sensitivity for art and beauty than women, whereas women tend to be more practical.
Women scored higher on average than men in Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Neuroticism. In other words, women tend to be more caring, dependable and emotional, while men tend to be more competitive, distracted and even-tempered.
The Instructor’s Guide to I-Sight® provides more lesson plans and ideas.
