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: 23c420bc1c52fdf9627789504e30b165bff04c6b47540ae1c6268818c0e73caa

# Meeting Games

Participants identify unstated behavioral patterns played out in group meetings and draft practical verbal interruptions to reset them.

**Time:** 45 minutes. Workshop Weaver suggests 30 to 60 minutes. UWT structured this run sheet for 45 minutes.
**People:** 4 to 24. Small groups of 3 to 4. For group sizes with remainders like 5, 9, 13, or 17, form groups of 3 to 5 so no one works alone.

## Choose this exercise

**Purpose:** Identify unproductive meeting behaviors and agree on observable ways to interrupt them.
**Use it when:** Use during team resets or retrospectives when unspoken rules, posturing, or avoided conflict slow down meetings.
**Skip it when:** Skip if active interpersonal conflict or severe distrust makes public discussion of behaviors unsafe.

## Materials and tools

- One prompt reference card per participant
- Sticky notes (one pad per small group)
- Fine-tip markers (one per participant)
- Whiteboard or flip chart and markers for the facilitator
- Digital whiteboard for remote or hybrid settings

## Before participants arrive

1. Place prompt reference cards, sticky notes, and markers on small group tables.
2. Draw two columns on the main board labeled 'Observed Game' and 'Practical Interruption'.

## Say this to open

Meetings often feature unwritten scripts or games people play to protect status, avoid hard choices, or dodge friction. For example, 'Agreeing with the Boss' happens when people wait to see leadership react before stating a view. Today we will name these patterns as behavioral dynamics, not personal flaws. Our goal is to agree on practical ground rules that help us interrupt these patterns in real time.

## How to run it

### 1. Introduce meeting games (8 minutes)

Read the opening script. Review the Common Meeting Games Reference Card. Emphasize that these games describe systemic team dynamics, not personal character attacks. Ask participants to read the card silently for two minutes and think of where they have seen these patterns.

### 2. Identify observed patterns in small groups (12 minutes)

Divide participants into small groups of 3 to 4 (or up to 5 to handle remainders). Groups discuss patterns they have experienced across past or present meetings. Each participant writes at least one observed pattern on a sticky note without naming names. Groups post their notes together.

### 3. Develop practical interruptions (13 minutes)

Each group selects one primary pattern from their cluster. Have them draft a concrete, observable action or spoken phrase that anyone can say to pause or reset the meeting when that game starts. Each group writes their chosen pattern and proposed interruption clearly on sticky notes.

### 4. Synthesize team agreements and debrief (12 minutes)

Reconvene the full room. Call on each group in turn to post their chosen pattern and proposed interruption on the main board. Keep shares under 90 seconds each. Lead a focused debrief using the planned questions and confirm which practical ground rules the team will adopt.


## Debrief questions

- Which pattern was easiest to spot once it had a clear label?
- What makes it hard to speak up when one of these games starts in a live meeting?
- Which two or three agreed ground rules will we commit to testing in our next meeting?

**Finished output:** A documented list of named meeting patterns paired with agreed verbal prompts or ground rules to interrupt them.

## Remote

Use video breakout rooms of 3 to 5 people. Set up a shared digital whiteboard with the prompt card text pre-loaded. Groups write sticky notes on the digital board. Reconvene in the main video room for step 4, calling on each breakout room to share.

## Hybrid

Seat in-person participants in small clusters and create dedicated online breakout rooms for remote attendees. All groups, whether in person or remote, post their observations and counter-actions to the shared digital whiteboard so everyone sees contributions live.

## Access and participation choices

- Participants may base their observations on past organizations rather than the current team to avoid personal confrontation.
- Participants may pass during verbal group sharing and contribute solely through anonymous sticky notes.

## If the session gets stuck

**Participants name specific colleagues or air personal grievances.**

Intervene immediately. Remind the room that the activity examines systemic meeting dynamics and incentives, not individual performance. Restate the prompt as observable behaviors.

**Groups propose vague solutions like 'communicate better' or 'be more honest'.**

Ask the group for an exact sentence or practical mechanic: 'What words would a person say out loud in minute twenty of an agenda to pause that behavior?'


## Terms used here

- Meeting game: An unwritten, recurring pattern of behavior that people fall into during meetings to avoid risk, defend status, or smooth over conflict.

## Participant material: Common Meeting Games Reference Card

Common Meeting Games:

1. Agreeing with the Boss: Waiting for the senior person to speak, then repeating or validating their point rather than offering alternative facts or views.
2. Let's Pretend We All Agree: Nodding along or staying silent during decision points to avoid friction, then complaining or ignoring the decision after the meeting ends.
3. The Circular Rehash: Reopening a settled issue from three meetings ago because an absent party wants to re-litigate it.
4. Filibustering: Speaking at length on background detail to exhaust the meeting clock and avoid making a concrete choice.
5. Deflecting to a Task Force: Suggesting a new sub-committee or future meeting rather than resolving a clear choice right now.

## Sources and adaptation

Workshop Weaver describes this method and attributes the core concept to Gamestorming (gamestorming.com/meeting-games/).

Workshop Weaver outlines four broad steps for Meeting Games based on Gamestorming concepts. UWT added explicit time divisions totaling 45 minutes, group remainder rules for up to 24 participants, safety guidelines to prevent personal finger-pointing, prompt reference cards, and aligned debrief prompts.

[Workshop Weaver](https://workshopweaver.com/facilitation-methods/meeting-games)

Current run sheet: https://unitedwetransform.com/exercises/meeting-games-facilitation-method/