Works with Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or your own local model: paste this prompt and your AI will co-facilitate this exercise with you.

Help me prepare and run the exercise below. First ask for my participant count, time, setting, access needs and intended result. Check these against the stated limits. Use the supplied rules and materials. Explain any proposed changes before using them, and label them as adaptations. Do not invent source claims or require personal disclosure. Give me one step at a time when I say start. I manage the people, physical activity and clock; do not claim to observe the room. Ask me what happened before choosing a next step.

Reference revision: 3d747ebc0f854711ce9ed4f67b51890e3d52cc08e07b2475da760dc4015cf78e

# Cultivating a Willingness to Play

Small groups invent a solution to a public need and pitch it in a fast two-minute commercial using Monroe's Motivated Sequence. Participants then reflect on how time pressure and playful framing affect collaborative creativity.

**Time:** 40 minutes. Public source allocates 40 minutes: 5 min intro, 10 min draft, 15 min presentations, 10 min debrief.
**People:** 4 to 20. Small groups of 3 to 5 participants; full room for presentations and debrief.

## Choose this exercise

**Purpose:** Practice quick collaborative ideation and persuasive message structuring under strict time limits.
**Use it when:** Use when a group needs to move past overthinking, lower analytical barriers, and practice structuring messages rapidly.
**Skip it when:** Skip when the agenda demands sober analysis of sensitive crises or when participants must prepare formal, vetted business proposals.

## Materials and tools

- One display or printed reference sheet of Monroe's Motivated Sequence per team
- Scratch paper (one pad per small group)
- Pens or markers (one per small group)
- One visible countdown timer

## Before participants arrive

1. Write or project the five steps of Monroe's Motivated Sequence where all participants can see them.
2. Arrange seating or breakout spaces for up to 5 small groups of 3 to 5 people.

## Say this to open

Today we will see how playful constraints can sharpen our creativity. In small teams, you will have ten minutes to invent a solution to an everyday public issue, give it a catchy name, and script a two-minute infomercial. You will follow Monroe's Motivated Sequence. Every group member will take a visible or spoken part in your commercial.

## How to run it

### 1. Introduce Monroe's Motivated Sequence (5 minutes)

Display the five steps: Attention, Need, Solution, Visualization, and Call to Action. Share this quick example: 'Tired of single socks cluttering your laundry? The SockSnap locks pairs together. Imagine folding laundry in half the time. Pick up a set on your way out today.' Form teams of 3 to 5 people.

### 2. Draft the two-minute pitch (10 minutes)

Start a 10-minute timer. Teams choose an everyday public problem, invent a playful or practical solution, and outline a two-minute pitch using all five steps. Every member chooses a spoken or visible role. Give time checks at 5 minutes and 2 minutes remaining.

### 3. Present commercials (15 minutes)

Call groups up to present. Cap each pitch at two minutes, with 30 seconds between groups. With up to 5 groups (20 people maximum), all presentations finish within 13 minutes. Use the remaining 2 minutes for an optional quick show of hands on the most creative pitch.

### 4. Debrief the experience (10 minutes)

Gather the full room. Ask 2 or 3 debrief questions from the list. Collect 4 or 5 brief participant reflections so everyone stays within the 10-minute limit.


## Debrief questions

- What did it feel like to build a pitch so quickly, and did the commercial format make it easier to take creative risks?
- How difficult was it to settle on an idea during the first two minutes of team planning?
- Once you had your idea, how easy or hard was it to map it into Monroe's five-step persuasive sequence?

**Finished output:** A delivered two-minute group pitch following Monroe's Motivated Sequence, recorded on group scratch notes.

## Remote

Send teams of 3 to 5 people to breakout rooms for Step 2 with the sequence pasted in chat. Bring everyone to the main room for Step 3. Each team turns on cameras and microphones to perform their pitch. Use chat for audience applause and voting.

## Hybrid

Place in-person participants in room clusters and remote participants in separate online breakout rooms. During Step 3, project remote cameras to the room screen and face the room camera toward presenting in-person teams so both audiences share clear audio and video.

## Access and participation choices

- Participants may choose non-speaking visible roles, such as holding cue cards, acting out silent product demonstrations, or displaying team notes.
- Teams may invent serious civic proposals or absurd comedic gadgets; both satisfy the learning criteria.

## If the session gets stuck

**A team spends five minutes debating ideas and has not started writing.**

Prompt them to take the first idea suggested and assign one sequence step to each person right away.

**A presentation approaches the two-minute mark without reaching the Call to Action.**

Give a visible 15-second cue, then politely call time at two minutes to preserve equal presentation time for remaining teams.


## Terms used here

- Monroe's Motivated Sequence: A five-step persuasive speech framework: Attention, Need, Solution, Visualization, and Call to Action.

## Participant material: Monroe's Motivated Sequence Guide

Five-Step Pitch Structure:
1. Attention: Hook your audience with a striking statement, question, or demonstration.
2. Need: Explain the specific problem or challenge that exists right now.
3. Solution: Reveal your product, service, or policy that solves the problem.
4. Visualization: Describe what life looks like after this solution is in place.
5. Call to Action: Give the audience a clear, immediate step to support or acquire it.

Rules:
- Total pitch time: 2 minutes maximum.
- Every team member must take a visible or spoken role.

## Sources and adaptation

Observed in Collaborative Discussion Project under catalog item '2.5 Cultivating a Willingness to Play', which draws on Monroe's Motivated Sequence, a persuasive speech structure developed by Alan H. Monroe in the 1930s.

Retained the four-step sequence, 40-minute duration, and Monroe's Motivated Sequence framework from the Collaborative Discussion Project. Set group_max to 20 to ensure all groups fit the 15-minute presentation window. Aligned the opening script and draft instructions with non-speaking access choices, and shortened all step descriptions below 90 words.

[Collaborative Discussion Project](https://www.collaborativediscussionproject.com/items-1/25cultivatingawillingnesstoplay)

Current run sheet: https://unitedwetransform.com/exercises/5-cultivating-a-willingness-to-play/