All Aboard
Purpose - this is a quick warm-up activity designed to stimulate thought about what makes a team effective.
How to run it
- Purpose - this is a quick warm-up activity designed to stimulate thought about what makes a team effective.
- Say, “Your job is to get as many people off the ground as you choose, for as long as you choose.”
- The Rules - “Off the ground means that no one may touch the ground. You may only use yourself and the telephone books. You cannot use anything else in the room to assist you”.
- Say, “You have 10 Minutes to complete the job.” and repeat “Your job is to get as many people off the ground as you choose, for as long as you choose.”
- Ask for questions, clarify anything then start the clock.
- Review - have the team rate their effectiveness on a 1-10 scale (1 meaning you didn’t work well together, 10 meaning you were extraordinary).
- They should then comment on their ratings. Ask, “What would you have had to do to rate your teamwork a 10?” Ask high raters what made them rate the team so high (or low depending on response.)
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Prompts to use +
Say, “Your job is to get as many people off the ground as you choose, for as long as you choose.”
The Rules - “Off the ground means that no one may touch the ground. You may only use yourself and the telephone books. You cannot use anything else in the room to assist you”.
Say, “You have 10 Minutes to complete the job.” and repeat “Your job is to get as many people off the ground as you choose, for as long as you choose.”
Ask for questions, clarify anything then start the clock.
Review - have the team rate their effectiveness on a 1-10 scale (1 meaning you didn’t work well together, 10 meaning you were extraordinary).
They should then comment on their ratings. Ask, “What would you have had to do to rate your teamwork a 10?” Ask high raters what made them rate the team so high (or low depending on response.)
Run this with your AI assistant +
Works with Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or your own local model: paste this prompt and your AI will co-facilitate this exercise with you.
Adapt this exercise for my exact room. Exercise: All Aboard. Readiness: Publishable Draft. Core moves: Say, “Your job is to get as many people off the ground as you choose, for as long as you choose.”; The Rules - “Off the ground means that no one may touch the ground. You may only use yourself and the telephone books. You cannot use anything else in the room to assist you”.; Say, “You have 10 Minutes to complete the job.” and repeat “Your job is to get as many people off the ground as you choose, for as long as you choose.”; Ask for questions, clarify anything then start the clock.. Return a concise facilitator script with timing, wording, safety notes, and remote/in-person adjustments.
Origin unverified
- Where we observed it: The current corpus has one observed source organization: TrainerBubble. (1 source observed, including TrainerBubble.)
- What that means: we track where an exercise has been observed in public sources. We do not claim to know who created it, or how popular it is.
- No efficacy claims: appearing in this library is not a claim that the exercise is proven effective. Facilitator judgment and context decide whether it works for a given room.
- Corrections: if you have evidence of an earlier or more accurate source, read our methodology and trust boundary and tell us.