By: Blonde Two
This VERY SERIOUS Duke of Edinburgh’s Award experiment was carried out on Exmoor in July 2019. Its aim was to investigate ways to maximise the comfort and communication levels of tired DofE staff after long days of supervision and long nights of not-quite-enough sleep. We took a set of camp chairs and arranged them in a series of SCIENTIFICALLY CALCULATED positions. We then observed the effect of said chairs on group behaviour (but mostly had a great time naming them).
I can’t lay claim to most of the chair designs or the names (which are still making me smile weeks later) but, as always, it was great to work with a team of people who knew (as well as when to be serious) when a bit of fun was required.
Breakfast Bus – great for observation, not so great for conversation, didn’t really go anywhere
Arc of Judgement – nobody wanted to sit in the hot seat
Kitchen Table – sociable, predictable, a bit boring really
Constant Vigilance – fantastic for team observation, very poor for visual communication cues
Determined Delta – gave the adult team a real sense of direction, for about five minutes
Diverse Delta – good for communication and cooperation, no sense of direction whatsoever
Love Seat – nobody actually wanted to sit in the love seat
Lone Warrior – either a superiority or inferiority complex was experienced (personality dependent)
Last Man Standing – or woman standing of course! A chair arrangement for action!
