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: 59045c67ec54a3bd8ceb3da6e69894faf0554cc21fca9f6a301c511da37b28e3

# Thirty-Five

Participants write ideas on index cards, mill around exchanging them sight unseen, pair up across five rounds to distribute seven points between two cards, and count down from thirty-five to surface the highest-rated ideas.

**Time:** 24 minutes. Thiagi specifies 20 to 30 minutes in the source; this 24-minute schedule allows exact time for writing, five scoring cycles, card totaling, and a top-score debrief.
**People:** 6 to 24. Whole group milling followed by ad-hoc pairs across five short scoring rounds.

## Choose this exercise

**Purpose:** Rapidly collect, anonymously peer-evaluate, and rank participant ideas or guidelines on a specific challenge.
**Use it when:** Use when you need a group to generate practical tactics and prioritize the strongest ideas without personal bias or prolonged debate.
**Skip it when:** Skip when the group has fewer than six people, lacks enough shared background to evaluate suggestions, or when physical roaming is impossible and an equivalent digital rating matrix cannot be staged.

## Materials and tools

- One blank 3x5 inch index card per participant
- One pen or pencil per participant
- A chime, gentle bell, or whistle for signaling transitions
- A countdown timer display
- Flipchart and marker to record top-ranked ideas

## Before participants arrive

1. Clear tables and chairs if possible to create open floor space for walking.
2. Write the focal challenge prompt clearly on a flipchart or slide.
3. Place an index card and pen at each seat.

## Say this to open

We are going to harvest practical tactics on our focal prompt and identify the strongest ideas using a fast scoring process called Thirty-Five. On your card, write one specific, actionable idea in legible handwriting. Do not write your name.

## How to run it

### 1. Write responses (3 minutes)

Display the focal prompt (for example: 'How can we ensure every team member is included in key discussions?'). Give participants two minutes to write one concise, legible recommendation on their index card with no identifying marks. Facilitator uses the remaining minute to verify everyone has completed a single legible card.

### 2. Shuffle and exchange cards (2 minutes)

Direct participants to hold their cards writing-side down. Signal them to walk around the room continuously passing and exchanging cards with others without reading the text. After 30 to 40 seconds, sound a chime to freeze movement and tell each person to pair with the person closest to them.

### 3. Round one scoring (2 minutes)

Pairs read the two cards they hold and jointly allocate exactly 7 whole points between them based on relative practical value. Examples of valid splits: 4 and 3, 5 and 2, 6 and 1, or 7 and 0. No fractions or negative numbers allowed. Each person writes their card's score on the back and keeps the card face down.

### 4. Scoring rounds two through five (8 minutes)

Repeat the shuffle-and-score sequence four more times (approximately two minutes per round). For each round: participants mill and swap cards sight-unseen for 20 seconds, form a new partner pair upon the chime, distribute 7 points between their two cards, and record the new score on the back under previous scores. Remind them to score objectively and disregard earlier numbers.

### 5. Tally and countdown (4 minutes)

Participants return to their seats with whichever card they hold. Instruct everyone to add the five scores on the back of their card to calculate a final score out of 35. Facilitator counts down aloud starting from 35 (35, 34, 33...). When a participant's card score is called, they stand and read the idea to the room. Record the top 5 to 7 ideas on a flipchart.

### 6. Debrief and selection (5 minutes)

Facilitator facilitates a brief whole-room reflection on the highest-rated suggestions and guides the group to select one or two for immediate implementation.


## Debrief questions

- What common patterns or principles stand out across our highest-scoring cards?
- Did any surprising or controversial tactics score near the top?
- Which one of these top-rated ideas can our team commit to testing immediately?

**Finished output:** A ranked flipchart list of participant-generated solutions with the top-scoring five to seven ideas identified for implementation.

## Remote

In a virtual meeting, use an anonymous digital whiteboard or survey tool. Participants submit one anonymous sticky note. In five sequential breakout rounds of two people, assign pairs two random digital notes to compare and distribute 7 points using form fields or private tally sheets. At the end, tally points in a central spreadsheet and reveal the top entries.

## Hybrid

Hybrid delivery requires all participants, both in-room and remote, to submit and score ideas on the same digital board using laptops or mobile devices. Avoid physical index cards in a hybrid room to prevent remote participants from being excluded from the blind exchange.

## Access and participation choices

- Participants with limited mobility may sit at a central station while mobile partners rotate to them during the exchange.
- Anyone may choose to submit a card with 'Pass' or participate strictly as an objective scorer without authoring an original recommendation.

## If the session gets stuck

**An odd number of participants leaves one person without a partner during a scoring round.**

Form one group of three. Give them three cards total and have them distribute 10.5 points, or invite the spare participant to act as an objective third-party judge who settles disputes for a pair.

**A pair cannot agree on how to split the 7 points.**

Enforce a hard time cap of 45 seconds for discussion; if unresolved, default to a 4 to 3 split and move on.

**A participant receives their own card during a scoring round.**

Remind them before rounds begin to keep a poker face, evaluate the idea with strict objectivity, and avoid revealing authorship.


## Terms used here

- Framegame: A reusable game structure whose rules remain identical while the topical content or questions change.
- Thirty-Five: The mathematical maximum possible score a card can achieve across five rounds of two-card comparisons allocating seven points.

## Sources and adaptation

Observed in Thiagi GameLetter (March 2008), which presents the framegame Thirty-Five and its application 'Guidelines' designed by Sivasailam Thiagarajan.

Preserved Sivasailam Thiagarajan's core Thirty-Five / Guidelines mechanic from the March 2008 Thiagi GameLetter: anonymous card generation, blind milling, five rounds of 7-point pairwise distributions, and countdown from 35. UWT adjusted the total run schedule to an exact 24 minutes, structured clear pair handling for odd numbers, added explicit hybrid and remote operational paths, and drafted standard facilitator debrief questions.

[The Thiagi Group](https://thiagi.net/archive/www/pfp/IE4H/march2008.html)

[The Thiagi Group](http://thiagi.net/archive/www/pfp/IE4H/march2008.html)

Current run sheet: https://unitedwetransform.com/exercises/tgl-march-2008/