“Four Roles to Bring about Change” is a great tool for leadership training or team-building. It is also called “Helper, Advocate, Organizer, Rebel” based on the names of the four roles in the exercise.
Click here for the facilitation guide from Training for Change.
Training for Change gives a scenario about a tornado hitting a community. Other scenarios can be presented such as how to deal with hunger in a community.
The structure is much like that in the Conflict Animals and Psalm 85.10 (Truth, Mercy, Justice, and Peace): 1) Define the roles; 2) Set up self-selecting groups around those roles; 3) Give each group a set of questions about strengths, weaknesses, and relationship to the others; 4) Have a report back.
In Four Roles you can define the groups roughly in this way, followed by examples of how they would respond to the scenario problem:
Helper: works for change by helping people meet their needs or solve their problems.
Advocate: works for change by making systems, structures, and processes more responsive and fair.
Organizer: works for change by mobilizing people for a common task or issue, getting the right person for the right job and encouraging them along the way.
Rebel: works for change by breaking out of old forms and creating new vision.
After asking each to share their strengths and weaknesses (or problems they might cause if they aren’t working well), I like to ask them what they appreciate about each of the other three roles followed by what is difficult or drives them crazy about the other three roles.