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: cbf4205535b3a3b93d9c4e5fb2dcfbd414c0e3caf385daac23ed974c1c05ca8c

# 90 Days

Players evaluate workplace situations confronting a new manager, debate whether each event helps or hinders progress, and move markers along a vertical board based on agreed point values.

**Time:** 25 minutes. Source specifies 20 to 30 minutes; 25 minutes allocated.
**People:** 3 to 24. Small tables of 3 to 6 players each, working in parallel. For any group count, divide evenly into tables of 3 to 5 (for example, 7 splits into 4 and 3; 13 splits into 5, 4, and 4).

## Choose this exercise

**Purpose:** Assess the operational and relational impact of early management dilemmas through structured peer negotiation.
**Use it when:** Use during new manager onboarding or leadership workshops when participants need to anticipate real-world challenges and calibrate their responses.
**Skip it when:** Skip when participants are individual contributors with no leadership scope, or when physical or digital tracking boards cannot be prepared.

## Materials and tools

- 1 printed vertical game board (numbered track from -15 to +15 with 0 in the center) per table
- 1 distinct colored pushpin or pawn per player
- 1 deck of 16 printed situation cards per table
- 1 tabletop cork tile or foam core sheet per table to secure pins

## Before participants arrive

1. Print and cut the situation cards for each table.
2. Mount each board onto a cork tile or heavy backing at the center of each table.
3. Place the shuffled card deck facedown next to the board along with one colored pin per participant.

## Say this to open

Welcome. Stepping into a management role brings unexpected challenges and wins. In this exercise, each of you navigates your first ninety days. On your turn, draw a situation card and read it aloud. We will debate whether it helps or hurts your standing, assign it a value from 1 to 5 points, and move your piece up or down the board. If anyone prefers not to draw cards, you may act as the table timekeeper and vote recorder.

## How to run it

### 1. Set starting positions (3 minutes)

Explain the rules using the opening script. Direct every player to place their colored pin at position 0 in the center of the track. The player whose birthday falls earliest in the calendar year starts first.

### 2. Draw and debate situations (14 minutes)

The active player draws the top card, reads it aloud, and places it faceup. Table members discuss if the event is positive or negative and assign a value from 1 to 5 points. The active player argues for higher positive points or fewer negative points. If consensus takes over 60 seconds, call a majority vote. The active player moves their pin up or down. Play passes clockwise. Aim for 4 to 6 rounds.

### 3. Review final positions (4 minutes)

Halt turns. Ask players to inspect the final pin locations on their board. Give tables 3 minutes to review which specific situations caused the largest leaps upward or drops downward and identify recurring themes.

### 4. Facilitate room debrief (4 minutes)

Gather the whole room. Take 2 to 3 table reports addressing the debrief questions on how early events shape perception and leadership effectiveness.


## Debrief questions

- Which situation provoked the most disagreement about whether its impact was positive or negative?
- What strategies could turn a severe negative event into a neutral or positive outcome?
- Looking at where pins ended up, what early habits give a manager the most stability during their first three months?

**Finished output:** A mapped board showing each player's standing along with agreed-upon impact ratings for 4 to 6 management dilemmas per table.

## Remote

Run in breakout rooms of 3 to 6 people. Provide a shared slide or digital whiteboard with a vertical numbered track (-15 to +15) and colored digital tokens. The active player copies the text of their assigned situation into chat or reveals a digital card. Teammates discuss and enter a consensus score, and the active player drags their digital token.

## Hybrid

Keep remote and in-person participants at distinct tables or breakouts where possible. If mixed, pair one remote participant with an in-person partner who handles physical board movement and reads cards into the shared audio link.

## Access and participation choices

- Provide large-print card text for participants with visual strain.
- Participants may choose to pass their turn drawing a card and instead serve as table timekeeper (tracking the 60-second debate limit) and vote recorder (logging final point values) without penalty.

## If the session gets stuck

**A group deadlocks on whether an event is positive or negative.**

Remind the table of the 60-second limit and call an immediate hand vote. The majority sets the sign and point value.

**One dominant player dictates the point value for every card.**

Step in and prompt the active player or quieter members first: 'Before we vote, what does the cardholder think the impact should be?'


## Terms used here

- First 90 Days: The critical transition period during which a new leader establishes credibility, relationships, and priorities.

## Participant material: Management Dilemma Card Deck

Card 1: Your team finishes a major project two weeks ahead of schedule and 10 percent under budget.
Card 2: Your direct manager asks you to lay off two people from your team, but everyone is performing well.
Card 3: An executive stops you unexpectedly in the corridor and demands a detailed status update on a struggling project.
Card 4: Your organization announces an overseas transition for data processing, directly affecting two members of your local team.
Card 5: A top-performing direct report tells you privately they received an offer from a competitor and will leave in two weeks.
Card 6: You identify a software redundancy that saves your department $15,000 annually.
Card 7: Two peers at your level openly challenge your authority during an all-hands cross-functional meeting.
Card 8: Your team hits all quarterly operational metrics without taking any overtime.
Card 9: An employee files a formal HR grievance alleging unfair task distribution under your leadership.
Card 10: A stakeholder praises your team's responsiveness directly to your executive vice president.
Card 11: Halfway through your second month, your departmental budget is cut unexpectedly by 15 percent.
Card 12: You successfully resolve an interpersonal conflict between two key technical leads before it impacts delivery.
Card 13: A direct report bypasses you completely to pitch an initiative directly to your boss.
Card 14: You recruit an exceptional internal hire to fill a critical gap on your squad.
Card 15: Critical equipment fails during peak production hours, causing missed client deadlines.
Card 16: You establish weekly one-on-one meetings that uncover three major process bottlenecks.

## Sources and adaptation

Observed in Thiagi GameLetter (March 2009), published by The Thiagi Group, featuring the activity '90 Days'.

Retained the core mechanic of drawing situation cards, debating positive or negative impact on a 1-to-5 scale, and moving colored markers along a central game board from '90 Days' in the Thiagi GameLetter (March 2009). The source suggested having participants author blank cards during play, but also offered a pre-made deck variant for limited time; UWT standardized on a prepared 16-card deck to fit a reliable 25-minute delivery. Consolidated steps to ensure all step instructions remain under 90 words, expanded play time to 14 minutes, realistic output to 4-6 dilemmas, and defined the observer/recorder role clearly.

[The Thiagi Group](https://thiagi.net/archive/www/pfp/IE4H/march2009.html)

[The Thiagi Group](http://thiagi.net/archive/www/pfp/IE4H/march2009.html)

Current run sheet: https://unitedwetransform.com/exercises/tgl-march-2009/