Help Me Understand
Help Me Understand is a structured group exercise for closure and transfer: it helps participants close the session and carry learning into the next action.
How to run it
- In a large white space visible to all the players, write the topic of the meeting and the following words as headers across the top: “WHO?”, “WHAT?”, “WHEN?”,“WHERE?”, and “HOW?”. Give all players access to sticky notes and markers.
- Tell the players that the goal of the game is to help leadership understand and be responsive to any and all questions around the topic.
- Start with the question “WHO?” and give the players five minutes to silently write down as many questions as they can that begin with the word WHO.
- Ask the players to post all of their questions in the white space under WHO? and then ask for a couple of volunteers to cluster the questions according to topical similarity.
- Bring the largest clusters to the group’s attention-circle them if you prefer-and ask leadership to offer a response to the most common questions in the clusters and to any outlier questions that look interesting.
- It also allows the players to discover overlaps with other players’ questions and to notice the frequency with which those questions occur-something they may not have known prior to the meeting.
Run this exercise live
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What participants need now
Materials:
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Prompts to use +
In a large white space visible to all the players, write the topic of the meeting and the following words as headers across the top: “WHO?”, “WHAT?”, “WHEN?”,“WHERE?”, and “HOW?”. Give all players access to sticky notes and markers.
Tell the players that the goal of the game is to help leadership understand and be responsive to any and all questions around the topic.
Start with the question “WHO?” and give the players five minutes to silently write down as many questions as they can that begin with the word WHO.
Ask the players to post all of their questions in the white space under WHO? and then ask for a couple of volunteers to cluster the questions according to topical similarity.
Bring the largest clusters to the group’s attention-circle them if you prefer-and ask leadership to offer a response to the most common questions in the clusters and to any outlier questions that look interesting.
It also allows the players to discover overlaps with other players’ questions and to notice the frequency with which those questions occur-something they may not have known prior to the meeting.
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: Help Me Understand. Readiness: Publishable Draft. Core moves: In a large white space visible to all the players, write the topic of the meeting and the following words as headers across the top: “WHO?”, “WHAT?”, “WHEN?”,“WHERE?”, and “HOW?”. Give all players access to sticky notes and markers.; Tell the players that the goal of the game is to help leadership understand and be responsive to any and all questions around the topic.; Start with the question “WHO?” and give the players five minutes to silently write down as many questions as they can that begin with the word WHO.; Ask the players to post all of their questions in the white space under WHO? and then ask for a couple of volunteers to cluster the questions according to topical similarity.. Return a concise facilitator script with timing, wording, safety notes, and remote/in-person adjustments.
Origin unverified
- Where we observed it: The strongest current observations come from Gamestorming; aggregators are listed as additional observations, not origin proof. (2 sources observed, including Gamestorming, SessionLab.)
- 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.