Facilitator Toolkit : Games for Diverging

3-12-3 Brainstorm

The Anti-Problem

Brainwriting

Fishbowl

Poster Session

Pre-Mortem

Stakeholder Analysis

When facing a blank space, or a situation in which you can’t quite define the problem, the most difficult step to take can be the first one.  These games are designed to help you frame and describe your problem so that you can then jump into solving.  In some cases, these games help participants generate a large and diverse set of ideas, in other cases, they help map out the space to be explored.  

Consult GATHER for additional ideas that are not included below.  

Objective: This activity compresses the essentials of an ideation session into a short format: 3 minutes for generating observations, 12 minutes for combining observations into concepts, 3 minutes for presenting.  Strict time keeping forces spontaneous, quick-fire decisions and doesn’t allow for overthinking.  This activity can be used as an energizer before a longer ideation exercise or as a standalone activity, and works equally well in generating new ideas or improvements to existing ones.

Number of Players: Up to 10.  Beyond 10, the activity gets slowed down and may require creating groups of three instead of pairs.

Duration: 21-30 minutes, depending on number of participants

How to Play: Narrow your topic to be explored to two words, for example, “energy efficiency” rather than “How do we incentivize utilities to install energy efficiency measures in residential customer’s homes?”  By doing so, you will evoke thinking about the topic’s defining aspects first, before moving into new concepts or proposing solutions.  

Distribute a stack of index cards and markers to all participants.  Explain the rules then immediately begin.  Speed is key.  

• 3 Minutes: Generate a Pool of Aspects. Have participants write down as many characteristics of the topic as possible (with no filtering) on separate index cards.  If participants seem stuck, have them think in terms of “nouns and verbs” that come to mind.  

• 12 Minutes: Develop Concepts.  Combine all cards into a pile, divide the group into pairs and have each pair randomly select three cards from the pile.  The teams have 12 minutes to develop a concept -- an idea, sketch, prototype, or other media -- to present to the larger group.  If participants have any confusion in regard to the two word topic, clarify with a more complete version.

• 3 Minutes: Make Presentations.  Have teams reveal the card they drew, explain how it influenced their thinking, and present their concept.  Tight time keeping is critical!  

After presenting, groups can dig deeper on concepts, integrate ideas into each other, or vote/rank concepts to decide which they should expand upon. 

Objective: When a group is already working on a problem but running out of ideas for solutions, the Anti-Problem game helps people get unstuck.  By participants identifying ways to solve a problem opposite to their current problem, it becomes easier for them to see where a current solution might be going astray.

Number of players: 5-20, break larger groups down into groups of 3-4

Duration of play: 30-45 minutes

How to play:

1. Define the problem that needs a solution
2. Explain to the group that they’ll be tackling the anti-problem, or the current problem’s opposite.  (For example, if the problem is driving adoption of electric vehicles, brainstorm ways to get consumers to avoid buying EVs.) The more extreme the problem’s opposite, the better.  Give participants 15-20 minutes to ideate ways to solve the anti-problem, encouraging a high volume of ideas.
3. Have each group share their solutions and then discuss any insights and discoveries.  

This game is designed to help teams break out of existing patterns.  The intention is not to solve a complex problem in 30 minutes, but to give participants a new approach that can lead to a solution, even if that idea comes after the meeting.  Use the game to segue into further conversation about the real problem. 

Objective: A simple way to generate ideas, share them, and build on them within a group.  Multiple hands, eyes, and minds can yield some of the most interesting, creative results.  

This game ensures that everyone in the group generates ideas, allows ideas to emerge before being critiqued, and creates ideas with multiple owners which leads to a greater chance of follow-through.

Number of players: 5-15

Duration: 30-45 minutes

How to Play:

1. Start by writing the topic in a visible place
2. Have participants silently generate ideas related to the topic on index cards
3. After participants write each idea, have them pass their card to the person on their right
4. The participant will read the card they received and add their own idea inspired by the one on the card.  Again, they’ll pass the card to the right.  
5. Continue the process until there are various ideas on each card
6. Once finished, tape the cards to the wall around the topic
7. Have the group review ideas and draw stars (or place dots) next to the most compelling ideas and then discuss

(You can also use the brainwriting structure by instructing participants to write ideas down on flip-charts and then rotate around the room adding to ideas on the other flip-charts.) 

Objective: In bringing together diverse stakeholders who may not be familiar with, or agree with, each other’s perspectives, it can be difficult for participants to engage in rich and meaningful conversation.  This game allows participants to voice opinions, but also activates attention and primes listening and observing skills, so that a more substantive conversation can take place.  

Number of players: medium to large groups

Duration of play: 40-45 minutes

How to play:

• Before the meeting, generate several questions associated with the meeting’s topic
• Set up the space with chairs in two concentric circles: the inner circle is for participants engaged in conversation, the outer circle is for those acting as observers

• Create a handout similar to the following, or have participants create the grid on note paper

• Assign “observer” or “player” status to each person and have them sit in the circle relative to their assigned role
• Announce the topic and ask the “players” to have a 15 minute discussion around it, if necessary, use the questions you generated to keep the conversation moving.  The “players” should simply converse in the circle.  The “observers” should pay close attention, recording discussion points and evidence that come out of the conversation
• After 15 minutes, have the group switch seats and begin a new 15 minute discussion on the same topic or a new one
• Following the two conversations, have participants share the information they gathered and describe their experiences in both positions

Most of us aren’t used to listening, observing, and being accountable for observations, this activity is about engaging those skills.  Talk to the group about their experience of being silent and observing.  What was difficult? What was easy?  Did it affect their perception of the topic and the other players?  Use this as a segue to a heightened give-and-take between stakeholders.  

Objective: A poster session allows participants to present their most passionate ideas in an accelerated format.  It forces them to boil their ideas down to the the essentials and represent them via simple images.

Number of players: 10-100

Duration of play: 20 minutes to develop posters, unlimited time to browse

How to play: Creating a poster forces experts to stop and think about the best way to communicate the core concepts of their material, avoiding the default “show up and throw up.”  A set of images that represent the meeting topic will help participants become more familiar with the topic and provides a framework for identifying follow-up topics.

Start by framing the problem.  Explain to participants that there are more good ideas floating around than there is time to address them all.  By creating posters, they will get a quick overview of all the existing ideas and can then decide where to dive in deeper.  

Each participant has 20 minutes to create a poster, with the following two constraints:

• It must be self explanatory.  If you gave it to a person without explaining, would they understand?
• It must be visual. It can include words and labels, but text alone will not grab people’s attention or help them understand.

If participants get stuck, suggest these frameworks:

• Before and after: describe “why” someone should care in terms of drawing the today and tomorrow of the idea
• System: describe the “what” of an idea in terms of its parts and their relationships
• Process: describe the “how” of an idea in terms of a sequence of events

Once 20 minutes is up, have participants hang their poster on the wall and circulate to view the others.  Use dot voting to identify which ideas to pursue further.   

Objective: Often in projects, learning occurs after things have already gone wrong.  Team members will gather in a “post-mortem” to reflect on bad assumptions and courses of action that resulted in the disaster.

A “pre-mortem” allows participants to use their collective experience to identify risks at the beginning of a project.  This is infinitely more valuable than identifying risks post-disaster, as this is a time in which participants can act upon risks to prevent problems down the line.

Number of players: Any, but small teams typically have the most open dialogue

Duration of play: Dependent upon the scope, but generally allow five minutes per participant.

How to play: Most useful at the beginning of a project, after the goals and plans have been established.  Start with the question, “What will go wrong?” or “How will this end in disaster?”  Then let participants brainstorm, postng their ideas into a designated space.  Rank or vote upon risks to determine priority, then identify the actions needed to address the risks.  

This game allows all key team members to directly name risks and voice concerns that may otherwise go unaddressed.  

Objective: At the beginning of a project, it may benefit a group to map out their stakeholders so that they can develop a strategy for engaging them.

Number of players: Any; key members of a team who have a collective awareness of all aspects of a project

Duration: 30 minutes to an hour, depending on the depth of the analysis

How to play:

• Create a list of stakeholder groups, write them down on Post-its
• Who will be impacted by the project?
• Who will be responsible or accountable for the project?
• Who will have decision authority on the project?
• Who can support the project?
• Who can obstruct the project?
• Who has been involved in this type of project in the past?

• Map the list on a grid: the most common way to map is by a stakeholder’s power in the system and by their interest, the degree to which they will be affected by the project

• Develop a strategy and share it broadly: discuss strategies for engaging each stakeholder
• Who needs to be informed of what, and when?
• Who needs to be consulted about what, and when?
• Who is responsible for engaging each stakeholder, and when and how will they do it?