This week we did another exercise that allowed us to practice gaining a consensus as a class. We were given the hypothetical scenario that there was a nuclear winter and only twelve people survived. There was a bunker that could accommodate seven of the twelve people so it was our duty to determine who would stay and who would leave. Our goal was to pick the people that would allow to best chance of repopulating the earth.
The information that was provided in the description of the individuals included the gender, age, IQ, occupation and current health status. We first made rankings on our own as individuals. After we determined our own opinions, we turned to a small group and collaborated. It took about 10 minutes for each small group to exchange ideas on who should stay or not. Most people felt like it was fairly easy to come up with a consensus with the groups of three or four.
The conflict and craziness arose when we had to come up with a consensus as a class. We discovered that all of valued different aspects of the described individuals. For example, some people valued the age and health status of the people because they wanted to have the people who were most likely to live the longest in the bunker. Others made their decisions based of occupation and IQ in effort to pick the people who would contribute the most. Another factor we considered was the sex of the individuals and wanting to make sure there were women of child bearing age available to repopulate.
In the same way that different groups valued different aspects of the survivors, we all have different viewpoints on what needs are more crucial in our community. When the time comes for us to decide on the organization we want to give the grant money to we are bound to face some disagreements. Some people in our class are very passionate about health care and want to focus on an organization that would impact health in the community, while other people may be more passionate about social justice and want the money to go to an organization that directly tackles social justice issues.
We learning from this exercise the importance of recognizing different people’s values and opinions on needs. There were times where we did not listen to each other fully and people were talked over. We also tended to assume everyone was ready to move on after a decision once we felt like the majority of the class was on board. However, even there is only one person who disagrees it is important to listen to their reasoning because their insight may change other people’s minds.