2.4.3 Practical Activity: Challenging Sandwiches

Objective: The main goal of this exercise is to become aware of the possible challenges and problems which may occur in agri-food relationships, and how to address them politely and effectively.

Instructions:

1. Divide your business team into a few groups (ideally 4-5 people each).
2. Give each team a unique name of a sandwich they have to prepare and provide them with only some of the ingredients needed for preparing a particular sandwich.
3. Discuss with the teams how much time do they need to finish the sandwich.
4. Allow the discussion in the groups on how they can solve the problem of missing ingredients, their expectations of the sandwich. The teams may collaborate together to exchange the ingredients if they are in need or they can come up with different solutions.
5. Each team has to assign tasks and responsibilities.
6. Inform the teams that if they encounter the problems, they should remember about the methods for addressing the conflicts and challenges (see p. 18).
7. After all the groups finish the task, let them discuss the potential challenges that have arisen, and why (see p. 17).
8. Ask each team to give a 2-minute presentation to share their observations, how they approached the problems, and whether they succeeded in solving them. If not, discuss the possible solutions with everybody.