What Can I Do?

Choose this exercise

Purpose: Distinguish between broad systemic demands and personal spheres of influence to identify local, self-directed actions.

Use it when: Use during a workshop or retrospective when conversation stalls on complaints about senior management or outside departments.

Skip it when: Skip when an issue requires structural authority or policy changes that line participants genuinely cannot enact.

Group arrangement: Whole-group listing followed by individual reflection and optional plenary sharing

Timing: Source notes 5 minutes for individual drafting; UWT specifies 20 minutes total to accommodate group listing and debrief for up to 24 people.

Materials and tools

• 1 flipchart easel with paper
• 2 chisel-tip markers for the facilitator
• 1 sheet of blank paper per participant
• 1 pen per participant

Before participants arrive

1. Select one specific organizational challenge tied to the session topic.
2. Write the challenge title at the top of the flipchart paper.
3. Distribute one sheet of blank paper and a pen to each seat.

Say this to open

When we look at workplace challenges, it is natural to focus on what management, other teams, or the company as a whole ought to fix. Today we will map those big needs, but then pivot to what is directly within our own reach. Let us start by naming what needs to happen to address this issue.

How to run it

1. Brainstorm external and systemic fixes 4 minutes

   State the target issue clearly. Ask participants to call out what needs to be done across the business to improve it. Write their points directly on the flipchart. Stop after 4 minutes or when 6 to 8 distinct points are recorded.

2. Filter for local influence 3 minutes

   Point to the flipchart list. State: 'Notice how many of these ask someone else to act. Looking at this list, which of these points can an individual contributor or small team actually influence directly?' Ask for hands or call-outs. Underline the items participants identify as within direct personal or team influence. If none are named, ask: 'What tiny piece of this touches your desk?'

3. Draft individual micro-actions 5 minutes

   Ask everyone to take out their blank paper. Direct them to write down 1 to 3 specific actions they can personally take, no matter how small, to improve the situation. Provide a neutral example: 'Instead of waiting for an updated company manual, I can write a 3-bullet checklist for my own handoffs.' Allow 5 minutes of quiet individual work.

4. Share ideas across the room 5 minutes

   Invite 4 to 6 volunteers to read one concrete action from their page. Keep turns to 30 seconds each. Remind the room that sharing is voluntary. Add any novel, practical habits to a clean side of the flipchart.

5. Debrief the shift in focus 3 minutes

   Facilitate a brief debrief using the provided debrief questions. Collect 2 to 3 responses from the room.

Debrief questions

• What shifted in the room once we stopped looking at what the organization must do and started looking at our own desks?
• How can you tell the difference between a problem you can influence and one you must escalate?
• What is one micro-action you can test before the end of this week?

Finished output: A flipchart list highlighting local influence areas and individual written personal action commitments kept by each participant.

Remote

Create a shared digital whiteboard with two columns: 'What the organization needs to do' and 'What I can influence'. Have participants add sticky notes to the first column, vote on what can be influenced locally, and then spend 5 minutes typing personal micro-actions into a private document or into an optional shared action grid.

Hybrid

Maintain the shared board digitally so both in-room and remote participants see the same list. Have a co-facilitator or designated volunteer read remote sticky notes aloud into the room during the brainstorming step, and pair remote and in-room participants or alternate turns evenly during volunteer sharing.

Access and participation choices

• Participants may keep their written action notes completely private without having to share aloud.
• Participants who prefer typing over writing on paper may record actions on a personal mobile device or laptop.
• Offer spoken reflection in pairs as an alternative for participants who face barriers with handwriting.

If the session gets stuck

Participants insist that every item on the board requires senior leadership intervention.

Acknowledge that systemic change belongs with leadership, then ask: 'While leadership works on that, what boundary or routine can you set on your own desk this week to make your daily work 5 percent easier?'

A participant uses the session to blame a specific peer or department for blocking progress.

Redirect immediately to neutral language: 'We are mapping general workplace tasks, not individual performance. Let us focus strictly on what actions we control ourselves.'

Terms used here

• Micro-action: A tiny, concrete operational behavior that an individual has the autonomy to start immediately without external budget or sign-off.