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: 96356123337ce69ded501aaf357dca30d0170508d098f61712498930ecbd5856

# Raise Your Hand and Then Again

Participants raise a hand, stretch it higher on a second prompt, and reflect on hidden reserves of effort and self-imposed limits.

**Time:** 5 minutes. Relationship Makers Handbook suggests under 5 minutes; UWT structures this to exactly 5 minutes.
**People:** 4 to 24. Whole group standing or seated

## Choose this exercise

**Purpose:** Demonstrate the gap between initial compliance and full reach through a physical stretch.
**Use it when:** Use as a brief physical energizer before goal setting or discussing team effort.
**Skip it when:** Skip when the group has physical mobility limitations where overhead reaching causes pain, or when exploring effort through physical exertion is mismatched to the session topic.

## Materials and tools

- No special materials.

## Before participants arrive

1. Ensure participants have enough vertical clearance to raise their arms without hitting light fixtures or low ceilings.

## Say this to open

Let us start with a simple physical prompt. If you are comfortable doing so, raise one hand in the air.

## How to run it

### 1. First hand raise (1 minutes)

Speak the opening script. Wait until hands are up. Observe the posture of the room without correcting anyone.

### 2. Reach higher (1 minutes)

Ask the group: 'Now, without standing on your toes or leaving your seat, raise that hand higher.' Pause while people extend their shoulders and fingers. Acknowledge the visible change, then ask everyone to lower their arms and shake them out.

### 3. Explore the contrast (1 minutes)

Ask the group: 'What happened between the first prompt and the second? Why did most of us leave room to stretch higher?' Take 1 or 2 quick verbal responses.

### 4. Debrief baseline effort (2 minutes)

Facilitate a brief discussion linking the physical stretch to daily working habits using the debrief questions. Take up to 3 short observations from the whole room.


## Debrief questions

- Why did we hold back extra reach during the initial request?
- What is the difference between doing what is asked and offering your full capacity?
- Where in our current project might we be operating at our first reach instead of our full reach?

**Finished output:** A shared team reference point for baseline compliance versus full discretionary effort.

## Remote

Run via video conference with cameras on. Participants raise a hand in view of their camera frame. The facilitator checks gallery view during both prompts.

## Hybrid

In-person and remote participants raise their hands at the same time. The facilitator addresses the whole room and confirms camera feeds show remote participants stretching on cue.

## Access and participation choices

- Anyone unable or preferring not to reach overhead can raise a finger, extend a hand forward horizontally, or use a digital thumbs-up icon.
- Participants may keep hands down and simply observe the dynamic across the room without explanation.

## If the session gets stuck

**Participants immediately reach as high as possible on round one.**

Ask if they strained or locked their joints. Note that even fully extended arms often find an extra inch when challenged.

**Someone has a shoulder or arm injury and feels excluded.**

Remind the room before starting that a flat palm forward, a single finger, or visual observation is completely acceptable.


## Terms used here

- Discretionary effort: The level of effort an individual chooses to exert beyond the minimum required to satisfy a request.

## Sources and adaptation

Observed in Relationship Makers Handbook, page 335.

Retained the core mechanic from the Relationship Makers Handbook: raising hands, asking for a higher reach, and drawing a comparison about effort. UWT structured the activity into timed steps, added precise mobility access options, and framed debrief questions around project commitments rather than comparing participants to young children.

Current run sheet: https://unitedwetransform.com/exercises/raise-your-hand-and-then-again/