3 Things That Need to Be True

Choose this exercise

Purpose: Surface operating conditions, personal boundaries, or success criteria across a group before collaborative work begins.

Use it when: Use at the start of a project kickoff, planning session, or team retreat when you need to align on baseline conditions for success.

Skip it when: Skip during high-velocity crisis response or operational standups where people need immediate tactical task allocation rather than reflective boundary-setting.

Group arrangement: Individual silent reflection followed by pairs and brief whole-room reporting.

Timing: Source indicates under 5 minutes; UWT expands to 10 minutes to allow full pair sharing and room debrief.

Materials and tools

• 1 index card or blank piece of paper per participant
• 1 pen or pencil per participant
• 1 whiteboard or digital shared canvas with markers

Before participants arrive

1. Distribute one card and pen to each participant chair.
2. Select in advance whether the prompt focuses on personal conditions, team conditions, or outcomes for the gathering.

Say this to open

Take a card and a pen. Today we are setting the bar for our time together by writing down three things that need to be true. These are non-negotiable conditions or requirements for this project to succeed for you.

How to run it

1. Set prompt and write 2 minutes

   State the chosen lens (personal, team, or gathering). Ask everyone to work in silence for 90 seconds. Instruct participants to write down three clear, declarative statements starting with 'I need...' or 'We need...'. Provide a concrete neutral example: 'We need clear decision-makers named before Friday.' Participants may choose to keep their notes private.

2. Form pairs 1 minutes

   Ask participants to pair with someone sitting behind them or someone they work with least often. If an odd number is present, form one triad.

3. Pair exchange 4 minutes

   Partners take two minutes each to read their three statements and explain the practical reasons behind them. Signal the halfway mark at two minutes so partners swap roles.

4. Room share and debrief 3 minutes

   Reconvene the full group. Ask two or three volunteers to read one condition from their list. Record these on the whiteboard. Ask the debrief questions to close the exercise.

Debrief questions

• What common patterns or requirements appeared across your pairs?
• Which conditions on your cards are within this room's direct control to uphold today?

Finished output: A shared whiteboard list of core operating conditions and individual cards with personal or project requirements.

Remote

Display the prompt on a shared slide. Give participants 90 seconds of silent writing on physical paper or a private document. Create breakout rooms of two people for four minutes. Return to the main room and have up to three volunteers paste one statement into the chat.

Hybrid

Pair in-person participants with in-person partners, and pair remote participants in dedicated virtual breakout rooms. Use a shared online document where both in-person scribes and remote attendees post their chosen conditions during the whole-room wrap-up.

Access and participation choices

• Participants may choose to frame items as soft preferences rather than hard requirements.
• Any participant may pass during pair sharing or state that their written items are private without explanation.

If the session gets stuck

Participants write vague corporate aspirations instead of operational conditions.

Remind the room to write observable behaviors or requirements, like 'We need meetings to end five minutes early' rather than 'We need excellence'.

One partner talks the entire time during the pair exchange.

Enforce a distinct verbal chime at the two-minute mark and announce that the second partner must now have the floor.