JP Jakonen is a researcher, author and healer of the healthy who helps people in working life to increase joy and reduce suffering. In this text, JP shares his experience of the benefits of the Topaasia game in facilitating group discussions. How can the game make communication easier and more effective, and create a safe environment for conversation?
You are a professional coach. Why have you used Topaasia as a tool for group discussions?
“One everyday reason is being in a hurry. I am heading to some event where I have been asked to facilitate or speak. But before that the children demand attention, the dog needs walking, and oh right, there was still that thing to write. The game solves the problem of how do I get the job done as simply and easily as possible”, JP says. JP says that Topaasia is 80 per cent as good as if he had sat down and prepared the discussion himself with plenty of time: "I have used the game in situations where I have wanted a group of people to discuss a particular topic."What does the game bring to the discussion?
The lightness of the game and the structure the cards provide offer a safe way to deal with challenging themes. JP describes how the perspective cards and topic cards guide the discussion “The game brings lightness to the discussion when fairly challenging matters are being handled in facilitated group discussions. Take, for example, the perspective card the most challenging thing. Then a topic card is drawn that relates to, say, sharing information or communication. The discussion of the matter then happens as if guided by those cards. Through the game we notice we are in a situation of oh, oops, now we ended up in this square and in this square we talk about this thing. The game creates that much-talked-about safe space for discussion”, JP puts it. JP describes metaphorically how the game turns the discussion situation into a shared space: “I could say I have acted in the facilitator's role more as a participating observer than as a purely external leader. I have noticed that systems and games always take on influences from whoever plays them and whoever deals the cards. For example, if you have a house party with no music in the background, everyone can have a perfectly nice time, but if you put music on in the background, it sort of softens the atmosphere, and everyone's individuality blends slightly into that music. The game does the same thing for the discussion. Everyone's individuality blends slightly into the game being played. As if the room had just changed. The empty space that normally separates us has turned into a jelly that connects us. That is what the game does. “The empty space that normally separates us had turned into a jelly that connects us. That is what the game does.