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: 6920622a9220310ac7b853cbbfcb9deedb09a6317773d36f8de000972ba6b3a4

# Decode

Teams attempt to decipher an encrypted sentence within tight time limits while one secretly briefed participant holds a cooperation strategy that can unlock the solution for everyone.

**Time:** 30 minutes. Thiagi source specifies 30 minutes total (15 minutes for the activity, 15 minutes for debrief).
**People:** 8 to 24. 2 to 4 small teams of 4 to 6 people each

## Choose this exercise

**Purpose:** Examine what helps or hinders an individual from stepping up to organize group-wide cooperation under perceived competitive pressure.
**Use it when:** Use during leadership, communication, or cross-team collaboration workshops to show how default assumptions of competition block shared problem solving.
**Skip it when:** Skip when the team has real interpersonal distrust, when participants need psychological safety before competitive exercises, or when the group has fewer than 8 people.

## Materials and tools

- 1 printed copy of Handout 1 (Standard Instruction Sheet) for each participant
- Exactly 1 printed copy of Handout 2 (Secret Instruction Sheet) placed inside one packet
- 1 printed copy of Handout 3 (Cryptogram) for each participant
- 1 copy of Handout 4 (Answer Sheet) for the facilitator only
- Blank scratch paper or index cards (1 per person)
- Pens or pencils (1 per person)
- Countdown timer
- Audible chime or whistle
- Flip chart and markers for debrief capture

## Before participants arrive

1. Divide the room into separate team tables (4 to 6 people per table).
2. Prepare instruction packets face down for each table. In exactly one table packet, replace a standard instruction sheet with Handout 2 (Secret Instruction Sheet). Do not mark which packet contains it.
3. Keep cryptogram sheets face down in separate piles at each table until instructed.

## Say this to open

In this exercise, you will work in teams to solve an encrypted puzzle. Each team that decodes the cryptogram completely within 2 minutes earns 200 points. If it takes between 2 and 3 minutes, your team earns 50 points. Before you see the puzzle, each of you will study an instruction sheet silently for 2 minutes to prepare. You may take notes on scratch paper, but do not write on the instruction sheets.

## How to run it

### 1. Study Cryptogram Clues (4 minutes)

Deliver opening script. Give each person a face-down instruction sheet (one person gets the secret sheet). Start a 2-minute timer. Participants read silently and write notes on scratch paper. At the 2-minute signal, announce time and collect all instruction sheets.

### 2. Launch Puzzle Solving (3 minutes)

Explain the consultant rule: at any time, a team may send one representative to the facilitator, who will reveal the plain text for any one chosen word. Hand out face-down cryptograms. Tell everyone to turn them over, start the 2-minute countdown timer, and observe the secret leader's actions.

### 3. Score and Reveal Secret Mechanic (5 minutes)

If a team finishes under 2 minutes, verify against Handout 4 and award 200 points. If not, add 1 final minute. At the 3-minute mark, call stop. Read the decoded solution aloud. Reveal the core design: one person received secret instructions outlining a cooperative strategy (coordinating word reveals across teams). Invite that person to identify themselves if comfortable, or read the secret sheet aloud.

### 4. Debrief Leadership and Assumptions (18 minutes)

Facilitate a structured whole-room reflection focusing on perceived competition, communication across silos, and the hurdles of taking charge. Chart key takeaways on the flip chart.


## Debrief questions

- To the secret leader: What made it easy or difficult to persuade your team and other teams to adopt a cooperative approach?
- To the group: What assumptions did you make about whether teams were competing against each other, and where did those assumptions come from?
- What specific workplace conditions make people hold back when they possess an effective strategy that crosses team boundaries?

**Finished output:** Completed cryptograms and a charted list of systemic obstacles that prevent cross-team collaboration.

## Remote

Set up breakout rooms for each team. Privately direct-message the Secret Instruction text to one randomly chosen participant during the reading phase. Use an online shared document or whiteboard displaying the cryptogram. The facilitator stays in the main room; one runner from any breakout may pop into the main room to request one decoded word.

## Hybrid

Keep in-person and remote participants on distinct teams so runners operate cleanly. Post digital cryptogram sheets for remote teams while handing paper to in-person tables. The facilitator serves remote runners via a dedicated breakout channel and in-person runners at the facilitator desk.

## Access and participation choices

- Provide high-contrast, large-print cryptogram handouts for participants with visual impairments.
- Any participant who prefers not to be the secret leader may quietly exchange their sheet with the facilitator before the timer begins, without explanation.
- Participants may contribute to puzzle solving, note-taking, or running to the facilitator, depending on comfort.

## If the session gets stuck

**The secret leader remains completely silent and tries to solve the cryptogram alone with their own team.**

Allow the round to run its course. This outcome is common and provides the central data point for debriefing why competent individuals hesitate to assert leadership across groups.

**Teams solve the puzzle on their own within two minutes using letter frequency analysis before the secret leader can intervene.**

Congratulate the team on their speed, reveal the secret card text anyway, and center the debrief on why organic cooperation was bypassed.


## Terms used here

- Cryptogram: A short piece of text encrypted with a simple substitution cipher where each letter stands for a different letter.

## Participant material: Handout 1: Standard Instruction Sheet

In a cryptogram, each letter in the message is replaced by another letter of the alphabet.
Example: LET THE GAMES BEGIN! might become YZF FOZ JUKZH CZJVQ!
Notice that the same letter substitutions are used throughout: every E becomes Z, every T becomes F.

Letter Frequency Tips:
- Most common English letters: e, t, a, i, o, n, s, h, r.
- Common word beginnings: t, a, o, d, w.
- Common word endings: e, s, d, t.

Word Frequency Tips:
- One-letter words: a, I.
- Common two-letter words: to, of, in, it, is, as, at, be, we, he, so, on, an, or, do, if, up, by, my.
- Common three-letter words: the, and, are, for, not, but, had, has, was, all, any, one, man, out, you, his, her, can.
- Common four-letter words: that, with, have, this, will, your, from, they, want, been, good, much, some, very.

## Participant material: Handout 2: Secret Instruction Sheet

The other participants are learning how to solve cryptograms. But you are specially selected to receive some secret instructions.

Forget the mechanics of solving a cryptogram.

Here is the best strategy for winning the game:
1. Teams should cooperate with each other.
2. Each team should ask the facilitator to decode a different word.
3. Teams should share the decoded words with each other.
4. They should help each other to decode the entire message.
5. All teams can win as long as they decode the message within the time limit.

When the game begins, share this strategy with everyone. Convince them to use this strategy.

## Participant material: Handout 3: Cryptogram Sheet

Decode this message:

ISV'B    JZZXYH    BPJB    BPH    SVQE    UJE
---'-    ------    ----    ---    ----    ---

BS    UCV    CZ    BS    FSYTHBH.    ZSYHBCYHZ
--    ---    --    --    -------.    ---------

BPH    AHZB    UJE    BS    UCV    CZ    BS
---    ----    ---    --    ---    --    --

FSSTHWJBH    UCBP    SBPHWZ.
---------    ----    ------.

## Participant material: Handout 4: Facilitator Answer Sheet

Cipher key and full text:

ISV'B JZZXYH BPJB BPH SVQE UJE
DON'T ASSUME THAT THE ONLY WAY

BS UCV CZ BS FSYTHBH. ZSYHBCYHZ
TO WIN IS TO COMPETE. SOMETIMES

BPH AHZB UJE BS UCV CZ BS
THE BEST WAY TO WIN IS TO

FSSTHWJBH UCBP SBPHWZ.
COOPERATE WITH OTHERS.

Word Index for Facilitator Reveals:
Word 1: DON'T
Word 2: ASSUME
Word 3: THAT
Word 4: THE
Word 5: ONLY
Word 6: WAY
Word 7: TO
Word 8: WIN
Word 9: IS
Word 10: TO
Word 11: COMPETE
Word 12: SOMETIMES
Word 13: THE
Word 14: BEST
Word 15: WAY
Word 16: TO
Word 17: WIN
Word 18: IS
Word 19: TO
Word 20: COOPERATE
Word 21: WITH
Word 22: OTHERS

## Sources and adaptation

Observed in Play for Performance newsletter (May 2002), published by Workshops by Thiagi, Inc., edited by Sivasailam Thiagarajan.

The raw record contained an entire newsletter issue titled PFP: May 2002. The primary experiential exercise in this issue is the jolt titled DECODE (also called TAKE CHARGE). Retained Thiagi's original puzzle text, handout wording, scoring rules, secret briefing mechanic, and debrief prompts. UWT structured the session into an exact 30-minute agenda, added explicit script text, hybrid/remote adaptations, and participant choice provisions.

[The Thiagi Group](https://thiagi.net/archive/www/pfp/IE4H/may2002.html)

[The Thiagi Group](http://thiagi.net/archive/www/pfp/IE4H/may2002.html)

Current run sheet: https://unitedwetransform.com/exercises/pfp-may-2002/