The Potato Poke
The Potato Poke is a team reflection exercise for reflection and learning: it helps participants reflect on experience and turn observations into learning.
How to run it
- Set up a table at the front of the room with your potatoes and straws set aside
- Ask for 5 volunteers - give each one a straw and a potato
- Tell the volunteers that they have 2 minutes to put the straw through the potato you can even show
- The Potato Poke Timing 15 30 minutes Purpose/Objectives Ask for 5 volunteers give each one a straw and a potato..
- Debrief the team after the a few minutes.
- Discuss why some failed and some succeeded.
- volunteers fail, demonstrate how the potato can be successfully poked with focused speed and direction instructions below .
- Hold the straw about two thirds of the way up, so there s lots of straw to go into the potato.
- you hold the straw in the hand that you write with.
- a readiness to have some fun.
Run this exercise live
The facilitator console stays in this browser. Its QR handoff is a short-lived participant snapshot containing only public exercise instructions, phase, prompt, and timer state.
What participants need now
Materials:
This is a participant-safe snapshot, not a response form. It sends nothing back to the facilitator.
Prompts to use +
Set up a table at the front of the room with your potatoes and straws set aside
Ask for 5 volunteers - give each one a straw and a potato
Tell the volunteers that they have 2 minutes to put the straw through the potato you can even show
The Potato Poke Timing 15 30 minutes Purpose/Objectives Ask for 5 volunteers give each one a straw and a potato..
Debrief the team after the a few minutes.
Discuss why some failed and some succeeded.
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: The Potato Poke. Readiness: Publishable Draft. Core moves: Set up a table at the front of the room with your potatoes and straws set aside; Ask for 5 volunteers - give each one a straw and a potato; Tell the volunteers that they have 2 minutes to put the straw through the potato you can even show; The Potato Poke Timing 15 30 minutes Purpose/Objectives Ask for 5 volunteers give each one a straw and a potato... 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 Relationship Makers Handbook; aggregators are listed as additional observations, not origin proof. (1 source observed, including Relationship Makers Handbook.)
- What that does and does not claim: we track where an exercise has been seen in public sources. We do not claim to know who created it, how popular it is, or that it works. See methodology and trust boundary.
- Corrections welcome: if you have evidence of an earlier or more accurate source, tell us.