Team Traversing Challenge for Strategic Planning - Magic Shoes
Team Traversing Challenge for Strategic Planning - Magic Shoes is a team reflection exercise for reflection and learning: it helps participants reflect on experience and turn observations into learning.
How to run it
- Identify two ‘safe’ areas on the ground approx 10 metres apart.
- Direct your group to stand in one of the two safe areas.
- Your group’s goal is to move every person to the other safe area without touching the hazardous pit in between.
- To assist the group in their task, they will be given an imaginary pair of ‘magic shoes’ which, when worn, allow the wearer to cross the pit.
- The magic shoes can only be worn by each person once, and then only in one direction.
- Allow ample planning time, and then permit the group to make their first attempts to cross the pit.
- Impose a time limit, or allow as many attempts as necessary to complete the task.
- Magic Shoes Team traversing challenge to develop planning & cooperation.
- Magic Shoes is essentially a strategic puzzle that requires careful planning and teamwork to resolve.
Run this exercise live
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Prompts to use +
Identify two ‘safe’ areas on the ground approx 10 metres apart.
Direct your group to stand in one of the two safe areas.
Your group’s goal is to move every person to the other safe area without touching the hazardous pit in between.
To assist the group in their task, they will be given an imaginary pair of ‘magic shoes’ which, when worn, allow the wearer to cross the pit.
The magic shoes can only be worn by each person once, and then only in one direction.
Allow ample planning time, and then permit the group to make their first attempts to cross the pit.
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: Team Traversing Challenge for Strategic Planning - Magic Shoes. Readiness: Publishable Draft. Core moves: Identify two ‘safe’ areas on the ground approx 10 metres apart.; Direct your group to stand in one of the two safe areas.; Your group’s goal is to move every person to the other safe area without touching the hazardous pit in between.; To assist the group in their task, they will be given an imaginary pair of ‘magic shoes’ which, when worn, allow the wearer to cross the pit.. Return a concise facilitator script with timing, wording, safety notes, and remote/in-person adjustments.
Origin unverified
- Where we observed it: The strongest current observations come from Playmeo; aggregators are listed as additional observations, not origin proof. (1 source observed, including Playmeo.)
- 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.