Guess The Number is a fun activity that helps participants realise the importance of looking widely for solutions. It’s a great game to play prior to a problem-solving or brainstorming session, as it raises awareness of how our brains work when looking for solutions.
Materials Required: None
Preparation: You can run this game with no preparation, however if you have limited time, it can be helpful to have one person in the group who already knows the trick.
Set-Up Instructions for Participants:
“Shortly we are going to play a game which will help get our minds into a problem-solving space. In order for the game to work, we need to be sitting in a circle on the floor and I need each of you to contribute an object as a game piece.
It might be something you are wearing, like your watch or an earring—or you are welcome to grab an object from the room. Each person needs to contribute something different and add it to our group pile.”
How to Facilitate the Activity:
1. Invite the group to move to a clear space in the room and give them the set-up instructions above.
2. As participants contribute an object, add it to a pile in the centre of the circle. Make a big deal about what each person is contributing, so that people connect the object to the person.
3. Explain that in a minute, one person will leave the room, and the rest of the team will choose a number between 0-10. Let them know that you will arrange the game pieces, and then when the ‘leaving person’ returns to the room, they will need to guess which number was chosen. (Be careful NOT to say you will arrange the pieces to represent the number. That’s not what you’re doing.)
4. Ask for a volunteer to leave the room and invite the group to choose a number between 0-10.
5. Arrange all the objects into a random order or pile. Be sure to make it look like you are thinking hard and being intentional about how the objects are placed.
6. Sit back in your spot and rest your hands on your knees, making sure that the number of fingers showing is the same as the number that was chosen.
7. Invite the absent participant to come back into the room and try to guess the number.
8. Continue the game with other volunteers for as long as time allows.
In the beginning, participants will study the pile of game pieces with great intention and will be guessing based on all sorts of theories. If someone makes a correct guess, it’s important to send them out again so you’re sure they have worked out the signal, and it wasn’t just a lucky guess.
Once a member of the team has worked out the signal, ask them not to tell anyone and invite them to be the facilitator for the next round/s. You can keep playing until everyone is guessing correctly OR stop the game and explain the trick.
Debriefing Questions:
- When we first started playing the game, where did you assume you would find the answer?
- What made you assume that the answer could be found there?
- For those of you who worked it out, what triggered you to look further afield?
- For those who didn’t work it out, what stopped you from looking further afield?
- How do you think this relates to problem-solving at work?