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: 4de04163ec97096f05c1a46176c418a2737719f95aaa9eb7ae102e6ccd429c25

# Draw Toast

Participants silently sketch a diagram showing how to make toast, then compare their drawings in small groups to examine differences in mental models.

**Time:** 15 minutes. 15 minutes total, matching the 10 to 15 minute duration in Gamestorming source records.
**People:** 4 to 24. Individual drawing, followed by groups of 3 or 4, or one group of 5 when there are exactly 5 participants, then whole-room volunteer sharing.

## Choose this exercise

**Purpose:** Compare individual mental models of a single familiar process through rapid visual diagrams.
**Use it when:** Use at the start of a systems thinking, process mapping, or alignment session to reveal how differently people structure an everyday task.
**Skip it when:** Skip when the group already has an agreed process and needs to focus immediately on detailed technical execution.

## Materials and tools

- 1 sheet of blank paper or large index card per participant
- 1 felt-tip marker or pen per participant
- Tabletop surface or wall space with low-tack masking tape
- Shared digital whiteboard platform (such as Miro or Mural) for remote or hybrid sessions
- Countdown timer

## Before participants arrive

1. Place one sheet of paper and one marker at every in-person seat.
2. Clear table space or wall space where participants can display drawings side by side.
3. For remote or hybrid sessions, prepare a shared digital whiteboard with numbered blank frames ready for uploads or digital sketches.

## Say this to open

Please take a sheet of paper and a marker. Your task is simple: draw how to make toast. Work individually and silently. Artistic skill does not matter. Simple sketches or diagrams with boxes and arrows are fine. For example, you might sketch bread moving into a toaster and coming out browned with butter. You have three minutes.

## How to run it

### 1. Introduce the challenge (2 minutes)

Distribute paper and markers. Read the opening script aloud. Confirm everyone understands the individual task, then start the clock.

### 2. Draw silently (3 minutes)

Run the timer. Participants sketch their process silently. Do not tell participants what details or steps to include. If someone asks for guidance, say: Draw it however you think about it.

### 3. Compare in small groups (4 minutes)

Divide participants into groups of 3 or 4. With exactly 5 participants, use one group of 5. Every other total from 4 to 24 can be divided into trios and quartets: for example, 6 is two trios, 7 is one trio and one quartet, and 17 is three trios and two quartets. Small groups lay drawings side by side or compare frames. Group members discuss start points, end points, and node counts. Anyone may choose to simply observe.

### 4. Post drawings to shared gallery (2 minutes)

Have groups display drawings on tables or tape them to walls. In hybrid sessions, in-person participants quickly snap a photo of their sheet and upload it to a numbered digital frame so remote participants can see all work.

### 5. Debrief patterns (4 minutes)

Regather the full room. Ask the debrief questions sequentially, taking one or two brief volunteer observations for each: first on start and end points, second on step counts, and third on mental model differences. Note that while contents differ, most mental models contain 3 to 7 nodes linked by arrows.


## Debrief questions

- What variations did you notice in where the process started and where it ended?
- How many steps or nodes did your drawings tend to use?
- What does this show about how different people mentally model a seemingly simple process?

**Finished output:** A shared gallery of individual process sketches illustrating diverse mental models, with key variations in process boundaries, node counts, and structures identified by volunteering participants.

## Remote

Open a shared digital whiteboard with pre-made numbered blank frames. Give participants three minutes to sketch directly on a frame or draw on paper and upload a photo. Send participants to breakout rooms of three or four, or one room of five when there are exactly five participants, for four minutes to compare frames. Reconvene and invite two or three volunteers to unmute or share observations in chat.

## Hybrid

In-person participants draw on paper while remote participants sketch on numbered frames on the shared digital whiteboard. Small groups stay cohort-specific (table groups in the room, breakout rooms online). During step 4, in-person participants photograph and upload drawings to vacant numbered frames so all participants view the unified gallery during the debrief.

## Access and participation choices

- Participants may represent the process with simple boxes, arrows, and brief text labels instead of pictorial drawings.
- Participants may choose to keep their drawing private and observe discussions silently without being asked to share or display their work.

## If the session gets stuck

**Participants hesitate to draw because they feel self-conscious about artistic skill.**

Remind the room that rough stick figures, boxes, and simple arrows work best. The activity focuses on sequence and components, not art.

**A participant asks whether to include steps like buying bread or growing wheat.**

Tell them to decide for themselves. Where someone sets system boundaries is a core observation for the debrief.


## Terms used here

- Mental model: An internal mental representation of how an external process, system, or object operates.

## Sources and adaptation

Observed in Gamestorming and SessionLab records. Gamestorming attributes the original exercise to Dave Gray, with further extensions documented by Tom Wujec.

Retained the core mechanic of drawing how to make toast silently and comparing diagrams. UWT added explicit group partition arithmetic for 4 to 24 participants, a photo-upload step for hybrid alignment, structured volunteer sharing limits, and a concrete neutral sketch example in the script. UWT aligned the group-format and remote instructions with the explicit five-person exception; the drawing mechanic and 15-minute schedule are unchanged.

[Gamestorming](https://gamestorming.com/draw-toast)

[Gamestorming](https://gamestorming.com/draw-toast/)

[SessionLab](https://www.sessionlab.com/methods/draw-toast)

Current run sheet: https://unitedwetransform.com/exercises/draw-toast/