Pick and Choose

Choose this exercise

Purpose: Evaluate trade-offs between low-risk and high-reward targets while testing collaborative planning under time constraints.

Use it when: Use during a workshop on goal setting, risk management, or team coordination when participants need a fast, physical experience of estimating capacity and adjusting strategy.

Skip it when: Skip when physical space is under 10 meters long, when throwing or bending presents safety hazards for the setting, or when the group needs purely analytical or quiet reflection.

Group arrangement: Teams of 4 to 8 participants competing or operating at their own toss lanes

Timing: Playmeo source specifies three 1-minute action rounds with several minutes of planning before each round. UWT sets the total session to 20 minutes to fit setup, 3 planning cycles, 3 action rounds, and debrief.

Materials and tools

• 1 boundary rope or strip of tape per team
• 3 buckets or catch bins per team
• 1 bag of 15 to 20 soft tossable items (fleece balls, beanbags, or foam balls) per team
• 1 measuring tape for initial layout
• 1 whiteboard or flip chart and marker for score tracking
• 1 stopwatch or countdown timer for the facilitator

Before participants arrive

1. Substantial setup required: find an open space at least 10 meters long per team.
2. Lay a boundary line on the floor. Place three buckets in a straight line perpendicular to the rope at distances of 3 meters, 5 meters, and 7 meters.
3. If running multiple teams in parallel, set up parallel lanes at least 2 meters apart.
4. Place a bag of soft tossables behind each team boundary rope.

Say this to open

Your team has three 1-minute rounds to score as many points as possible. The closest bucket is worth 1 point, the middle bucket is worth 5 points, and the furthest bucket is worth 10 points. Before each round, your team must set a target score and decide who stands behind the rope to toss and who stands beyond the rope to retrieve missed items. Once the timer starts, you cannot switch sides. Retrievers may collect missed items and throw or pass them back, but cannot help items into the buckets.

How to run it

1. Set targets and assign roles 4 minutes

   Divide the room into teams of 4 to 8. Explain scoring: 1 point at 3 meters, 5 points at 5 meters, 10 points at 7 meters. Give teams 3 minutes to plan their setup for Round 1. Each team must announce their predicted target score and finalize member locations (throwers behind the rope, retrievers on the bucket side). Once the timer begins, no one may switch sides.

2. Run Round 1 and calculate scores 2 minutes

   Start the 60-second timer. Throwers toss items from behind the line. Retrievers collect missed items and roll or pass them back to the throwers. Retrievers must not deflect or steer items into the buckets. At the 60-second mark, call stop. Count only items that remain inside the buckets. Record the actual score next to the predicted score on the board. Clear the buckets.

3. Iterate plan and run Round 2 4 minutes

   Give teams 3 minutes to adjust roles, throwing distances, and retrieval tactics based on Round 1 results. Each team records a new target score for Round 2 and sets their positions. Run the 60-second action round. Tally and record the actual scores on the board. Clear the buckets.

4. Finalize strategy and run Round 3 4 minutes

   Allow 3 minutes for final strategy adjustments. Teams commit to their Round 3 target and position themselves. Run the final 60-second round. Tally final scores and compare all three rounds of predictions against actual results.

5. Debrief strategy and execution 6 minutes

   Bring all teams together around the scoreboard. Facilitate a structured conversation using the debrief questions. Invite 2 to 3 observations per question.

Debrief questions

• How did your team balance the safe 1-point bucket against the higher-value 5 and 10-point targets?
• What changed in your ratio of tossers to retrievers as you learned the actual pace of the round?
• Did your target scores reflect realistic capacity or wishful thinking, and how did that affect your execution?

Finished output: A completed scoreboard showing predicted versus actual scores across three rounds for each team, highlighting strategic adjustments.

Remote

Pick and Choose requires physical projectile tossing and live retrieval across a 7-meter floor space and cannot be run as the same mechanic online. For a remote team exploring risk and target-setting, substitute a digital estimation game such as an iterative estimation poker exercise where participants forecast task completion rates across three timed sprints.

Hybrid

Not recommended for a split format. If running in hybrid, remote participants cannot throw or retrieve fairly. Instead, remote members can act as dedicated strategic coordinators and real-time score analysts for an in-person tossing team, observing via a wide-angle lane camera and directing target allocations between rounds.

Access and participation choices

• Participants can choose roles that do not require throwing or rapid retrieval, such as scorekeeper, lane strategist, or tossable sorter behind the throw line.
• Any participant may pass on physical tossing without giving a reason and participate entirely in planning and target analysis.
• Distances can be scaled closer if room size or physical ability requires it, keeping the ratio of distances consistent.

If the session gets stuck

Retrievers accidentally kick or knock loose tossables into a bucket.

Clarify in advance that items knocked into buckets by retrievers do not count. When in doubt, count only items clearly tossed directly into the bucket from behind the line.

Teams spend the entire planning time arguing over targets rather than agreeing on roles.

Give a 30-second warning and enforce that any team without a committed target default-adopts their previous round score as their target.

Terms used here

• Tossable: A soft, safe throwing object such as a fleece ball, beanbag, or foam ball that will not cause injury or bounce excessively.
• Boundary Rope: The baseline mark on the floor separating throwers from the target scoring area.