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Why is it Important to Talk to Strangers?
A Curiosity and Exploration into Talking to Strangers
One of the ways I spend my time is as a Design Thinking Facilitator at the Academy of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Maryland. Last week I was prepping for a workshop I facilitated this week about How to Talk to Strangers. The class I’m prepping for is longer than normal so I was able to play within that spaciousness and work to design a learning experience that goes deeper into the material and explore it to satisfy a bit of curiosity.
The What: Talk to Strangers
The skill we are building is talking to strangers to support empathy and interviewing work within the design thinking process. We are acknowledging the need to lean into the uncomfortableness of talking to strangers while also providing a structure and reason to do so. This provides a solid way to learn by doing and build confidence in the ability to do hard things.
The How: Expeditions on Campus
A series of audio guided expeditions that moves the students through increasingly more challenging ways to talk to strangers based on the work and Ted Talk of Kio Stark.
The expeditions:
- Say Hello to everyone you walk by for about 5 minutes.
- Use Triangulation as a…
