imPERFECT - Free Energiser
imPERFECT - Free Energiser is a visual thinking exercise for relationship mapping: it helps participants build useful connections and understand how people, roles, or ideas relate.
How to run it
- Resources - flipchart easel Flipchart paper Pens A4 plain paper
- You should also prepare the flipchart paper with the bulleted words below listed. However, you must do this in such a way that you only reveal one word at a time (we would say write each word on a separate sheet, but this is a terrible waste of paper).
- Ask the team that are drawing to place an A4 sheet of paper in front of them and prepare to draw the items you are going to present to them. Explain that they should work at pace as you will not be giving them long.
- Begin to slowly reveal each word while only giving seconds before revealing the next. You can gauge this by how quickly participants are keeping up, but a good guide is 5 - 10 seconds each.
- Once you have revealed all of the words, ask the participants to stop and hand their completed A4 sheets to a person on the other side of the room (the people who could not see the words).
- The people who did not take part in the activity should now write down what they think each of the pictures is.
Run this exercise live
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What participants need now
Materials:
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Prompts to use +
You should also prepare the flipchart paper with the bulleted words below listed. However, you must do this in such a way that you only reveal one word at a time (we would say write each word on a separate sheet, but this is a terrible waste of paper).
Ask the team that are drawing to place an A4 sheet of paper in front of them and prepare to draw the items you are going to present to them. Explain that they should work at pace as you will not be giving them long.
Begin to slowly reveal each word while only giving seconds before revealing the next. You can gauge this by how quickly participants are keeping up, but a good guide is 5 - 10 seconds each.
Once you have revealed all of the words, ask the participants to stop and hand their completed A4 sheets to a person on the other side of the room (the people who could not see the words).
The people who did not take part in the activity should now write down what they think each of the pictures is.
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: imPERFECT - Free Energiser. Readiness: Publishable Draft. Core moves: You should also prepare the flipchart paper with the bulleted words below listed. However, you must do this in such a way that you only reveal one word at a time (we would say write each word on a separate sheet, but this is a terrible waste of paper).; Ask the team that are drawing to place an A4 sheet of paper in front of them and prepare to draw the items you are going to present to them. Explain that they should work at pace as you will not be giving them long.; Begin to slowly reveal each word while only giving seconds before revealing the next. You can gauge this by how quickly participants are keeping up, but a good guide is 5 - 10 seconds each.; Once you have revealed all of the words, ask the participants to stop and hand their completed A4 sheets to a person on the other side of the room (the people who could not see the words).. 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.