Game to not say anything negative

The following idea was taken from a post to www.earlytorise.com. It would be an interesting experiment in any class. Set the penalty amount to $1.00 and it might be acceptable. Let me know if you try it!

If you'd like to make a major, powerful change in the way your team (class) interacts, get them to agree to the following experiment.

The Game: For a certain period of time (a month works well), everyone is prohibited from saying anything negative. All comments and questions, however urgent or important, are to be posed in a positive way.

The Rules: If a person cannot find a positive way to make his point, he cannot say anything at all. Couching a criticism in a positive statement does not make it positive. The deciding factor, when there is doubt, is how it makes the recipient of the comment feel. If it stings -- however
nicely it is said -- it is deemed negative.

The Penalties: Every time a negative comment is made, the perpetrator must donate $5 to a common pot. At the end of the time period, all the money is counted and given to charity.

Marshall Thurber, a partner in a large San Francisco real-estate firm, did a similar thing with his employees. He began during the company's weekly Monday meeting by reading a page from a book about the life of Rolling Thunder, an American Indian medicine man.

"He [Rolling Thunder] said that people have to be responsible for their thoughts, so they have to learn to control them. It may not be easy, but it can be done. First of all, if we don't want to think certain things, we don't say them. We don't have to eat everything we see, and we don't
have to say everything we are thinking. So we begin by watching our words and speaking with good purpose only."

According to the rules Thurber's employees went by, anyone observed speaking with other than a good purpose had to put $2 in a money bowl. The game had a "transforming" effect on his entire office, Thurber later reported. Nothing he did before or since, he said, had such a powerful
impact.