I was slightly sceptical about whether my audience would be receptive to this activity but I’m so glad I used it. It really helped people to think about their own tendencies and why some delegates felt they could not be assertive. I used it as the opening activity in my Assertiveness training and this worked really well to get delegates to think about the difference between passive, assertive and aggressive.

I recently downloaded and use ‘Yes but, no but – seeking a win win in day-to-day situations’, as part of my Assertiveness Skills training course. Apart from me being able to put a slide up of Vicky Pollard, which made the group laugh, the activity was really well received. The feedback for the group was that it got them thinking about what they would do and learn about what other individuals would do in certain situations. The said that is made them realise that sometimes they were too aggressive or passive, but other times they did actually assert themselves and with this info they could analyse why they acted that way when faced with certain problems, and how other react as well. They informed me that due to this activitiy they would actually stop and think next time and an choose to act assertively or not.

The only problem with this activity is that the group did not want to stop doing it, so it lasted a lot longer than planned, but hey, if they are enjoying themselves whilst they learn who am I to interfere.