Marooned

Choose this exercise

Purpose: Surface individual prioritization criteria and observe how a group negotiates trade-offs under constraints.

Use it when: Use when a team needs to examine how they handle prioritization, debate, and consensus before taking on real work projects.

Skip it when: Skip when the team has urgent operational decisions to resolve directly or when participants object to survival scenarios.

Group arrangement: Subgroups of 3 to 6 participants (e.g. 7 divides into 3 and 4; 24 divides into 4 to 8 teams)

Timing: 15 minutes matches the source duration band.

Materials and tools

• Printed Survival Item sheets or a shared slide showing the 15 items (1 per person)
• Pens or pencils (1 per person)
• Blank index card or scratch paper for recording the team's final 5 items (1 per subgroup)
• Digital timer visible to the room

Before participants arrive

1. Print or display the 15-item survival list.
2. Set up tables or breakout spaces for subgroups of 3 to 6 people.
3. Place scratch paper and pens at each table.

Say this to open

Your ship has capsized near an uninhabited island. You have 8 minutes total for this exercise. Look at the list silently for 1 minute, pick your top five items on your own, and jot them down. Then your team will have 7 minutes to agree on exactly five items to save together before the wreckage sinks.

How to run it

1. Introduce scenario and select individually 2 minutes

   Read the opening script (1 minute). Hand out or display the list of 15 survival items. Instruct everyone to work alone for 60 seconds to pick and write down their personal top 5 items on scratch paper. Emphasize that items can be used creatively (1 minute).

2. Negotiate group survival list 7 minutes

   Direct subgroups of 3 to 6 to compare their individual lists. The group must debate and select exactly five items that everyone agrees to keep. One person at each table writes down the final five choices on the scratch card. Announce a two-minute warning. If a group gets stuck, suggest they use quick dot voting or a majority poll to break ties.

3. Report selections across groups 3 minutes

   Call time. Have each subgroup read aloud only their 5 chosen items and name the single item that generated the most debate. Limit each group report to 20 seconds, allowing up to 8 subgroups to present within the 3-minute window.

4. Debrief decision patterns 3 minutes

   Facilitate a brief discussion using the debrief prompts. Hear from two or three participants on how their group reached consensus under time pressure.

Debrief questions

• What criteria guided your final selections, such as immediate shelter, rescue signaling, or basic sustenance?
• How did your group resolve sharp disagreements when opinions were split?
• Where did individuals compromise, and what made you change your initial view?

Finished output: Each subgroup produces an agreed list of five survival items recorded on scratch paper or in a shared document.

Remote

Display the 15 items on a shared screen. Give 1 minute for silent selection on personal scratch paper. Send participants into video breakout rooms of 3 to 6 people for 7 minutes to decide on 5 items. One designated scribe types the five items into the main chat window upon returning.

Hybrid

Form in-person pods and separate online breakout rooms. Provide the item list on a shared digital board accessible to both room and remote participants. Each pod and virtual group posts their five selected items to the shared board simultaneously for the final report.

Access and participation choices

• Participants may pass on verbal debate and instead mark their personal top choices silently on the shared paper or chat.
• A participant who prefers not to debate survival scenarios can act as the group timekeeper and recorder without stating personal selections.

If the session gets stuck

A subgroup is deadlocked with one minute left and cannot agree on the fifth item.

Prompt the group to take an immediate show of hands between the contested items, or award the final pick to the participant who has conceded the most during the session.

Dominant voices drive the group choice before quieter members can share their list.

Remind tables to do a quick round-robin where each member names their single most critical item before opening open debate.

Terms used here

• Dot voting: A quick decision method where participants place marks or dots next to options to reveal items with the highest collective support.