Shuffle

If you think it is a pain in the neck to ask a group of creatures that have never seen a tree to discuss the suitable strategy for preserving the tropical forest, you may may even a lower opinion to know what happened that very morning after we fixed up with the direction.

Alas, we had a tea break and then shuffled – all creatures moved randomly to another area and discussed what projects should be undertaken to materialize the strategies being chosen. (You see? It is really poisonous to go outside the solar system. I stayed there half a day and begin to talk like an extra-terrestrial!)

And, if you have ever tried the megaphone game (傳聲筒遊戲), it is easy to predict what’s going to happen. When the earthworm was dismissed (and joined the group for South Pacific Current) and the strategy on the tropical forest was elaborated by a Neanderthal, a polar bear, a platypus, an oyster from mercury, and a ladybird from Uranus, the original strategy was interpreted in an entirely different manner.

As Humphrey Appleby always says, this kind of workshop serves only one purpose:

They appear to be doing something.