Champions
Sheet #1
1. Marshall Field. (Try to give customers what they want without arguing.) 2. Cold calls.
3. (b) Offer assistance. (Nervous customers are frequently shoplifters.) 4. Direct mail (mail order).
5. Premiums (token gifts, coupons, gift with purchase).
Sheet #2
1. True. (Proper diet gives you energy, but rest rejuvenates you.) 2. Coffee.
3. False. (Egg whites are an excellent source of protein.) 4. Loss of control.
5. Aerobics. (Toe touches are good for flexibility; power lifting for strengthening.)
Sheet #3
1. Crisis management.
2. Information retrieval—finding what you are looking for.
3. Women (Priority Management Study).
4. Answering the telephone.
5. True (fewer distractions).
Games That Boost Performance. Copyright © 2005 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Reproduced by permission of Pfeiffer, an Imprint of Wiley. www.pfeiffer.com
Clue Less
• PURPOSE
• To promote critical thinking and problem-solving skills in teams.
• GAME OBJECTIVE
To solve the scenarios in the shortest possible time.
• PLAYERS
Six or more.
• TIME
Fifteen to thirty minutes per round.
• SUPPLIES
• Four or more problems, each containing a set of clues, prepared in advance by the facilitator. (See Sample Game Play section and Additional Scenario Sheet for examples.)
• One Time Card for each team.
• One Master Time Card to track team scoring.
• An overhead projector (if using transparencies) or a newsprint flip chart and felt-tipped markers for tracking ongoing time cards.
• Masking tape.
• Paper and pencils for each team.
• Noisemaker (optional).
• GAME PLAY
1. Divide the group into teams of four to six players each.
2. Have each team sit at its own table.
3. Distribute one Time Card to each team.
Round 1
1. Introduce the first scenario/problem.
2. Present the first clue.
3. Give each team 3 minutes to try to solve the case problem and charge the team 1 hour for the clue.
4. Have each team write down its response on its Time Card.
5. Review each team’s response.
• If the response is correct, this completes the team’s round.
• If the response is incorrect, team continues to play.
6. Present clues until all teams have solved the problem or all clues have been given. All teams are charged 1 hour for each clue it requires to solve the problem.
7. Post the hours charged for each team.
Subsequent Rounds
Play is the same for each round, with a different problem/scenario being presented for each round.
End of Game
1. Tally all the team scores.
2. The team that solved the scenario using the least number of hours wins.
• POST-GAME DEBRIEFING
When a team brainstorms, it is as important to understand the process that led to the decision as the decision itself. The following questions prompt teams to think about their thought processes and the impact that these processes had on their success or failure.
• What assumptions do you think your team made about the limits on possible solutions?
• Did you dismiss any solutions as “too off the wall”?
• Did you set up any kind of process for selecting an answer or did you just allow anyone who thought that he or she had an answer to submit it on behalf of the team?
• Did your team set up any sort of a process for capturing what you knew? If so, what was the value of writing down ideas and facts?
Successful teams are usually a combination of sensors (people who focus on the facts) and intuitors (people who focus on the possibilities). You can help teams understand the dynamics of these two groups through the following questions:
• Who on your team took the facts and tried to lay them out in some sort of log- ical order? What was the value of doing that?
• Who on your team began brainstorming different interpretations or possible solutions? What was the value of doing that?
• If you could hand pick a team, who would you rather have, more of the fact folks, more of the possibility people, or some balance of the two? Why is that?
• GENERAL COMMENTS
• Although, strictly speaking, the brain is not a muscle, it does benefit from exercise. Clue Less is designed to help teams exercise their mental muscles by actively testing their assumptions as part of the problem-solving process.
Prompt players to ask broad questions within their teams about the range of things that might be happening in a situation.
• Encourage players to be logical, imaginative, straightforward, and devious all at the same time. Instruct them that when one line of reasoning runs into a brick wall, they should reexamine their assumptions and start again.
• Clue Less requires both a deductive reasoning mentality and an ability to rea- son laterally. The group will be given one clue at a time and each team can take a guess after every clue—just like solving a mystery. This paradoxical process is called lateral thinking—the ability to develop imaginative solutions to existing problems.
• We suggest you use this recipe as a “starter” for composing your own mys- tery. Start by focusing on one teaching point. Develop a set of facts that pro- vide details to the teaching point or lead one to a specific conclusion concern- ing why someone acted as he or she did. Arrange these facts in a specific order. Decide the order you want to establish for your clues and then arrange the clues:
• From the most difficult to the most simple (or the other way around).
• From the earliest dates or times to the most recent dates or times.
• From data based on who, what, where, when, and why to how.
• SAMPLE PLAY Preparations
1. Select an important scenario you wish discussed within your group.
2. Create a mini-case study to introduce the scenario and set the tone for the series of clues that lead to the solution or conclusion of the scenario.
3. Develop a set of five to six facts that lead to the solution.
4. Rewrite each fact into a clue.
5. Sequence the clues into an order to present the information, such as the most difficult clue (first) to the easiest clue (last).
Game Play
1. Divide the group into four teams of four to six players each.
2. Have each team meet at its own table.
3. Distribute one Time Card, paper, and pencils to each team.
4. Have each team enter its name on their Time Card.
5. Introduce the scenario: This is the story of a man who forgot his five-digit house number. Our job is to help him find his house number with the fewest number of clues. The five-digit house number is composed of four single-digit num- bers—specifically 0, 1, 2, 3—with one of the single-digit numbers used twice.
Clue 1
• The first clue is read aloud: “The five-digit number ends with a score.”
• Teams record their responses on the first clue of the Time Card.
• No team presents the correct solution.
• Charge Teams A, B, C, and D 1 hour.
• (All teams interpreted “score” as 20 and placed a “two” and “zero” in the last two digits.)
• 2 0
Clue 2
• The second clue is read aloud: “The five-digit number starts with the lowest primary number.”
• Teams record their responses on the second clue of the Time Card.
• No team presents the correct solution.
• Charge Teams A, B, C, and D 1 hour.
• (All teams interpreted “lowest primary number” as “one” and placed it in the first digit.)
• 1 2 0
Clue 3
• The third clue is read aloud: “The middle single-digit number is the sum of all other numbers.”
• Teams record their responses on the third clue of the Time Card.
• Team C identifies the solution. This concludes its round.
• Teams A, B, and D are still working on the case.
• Charge Teams A, B, C, and D 1 hour.
• (All teams interpreted “sum” as 1 ⫹0⫹2” and placed “three” in the middle or third digit. Team C inferred that if the middle digit was “three,” the missing number was “zero” and placed that in the second digit.)
• 1 3 2 0
Clue 4
• The fourth clue is read aloud: “The value of the last two digits is double the value of the first two digits.”
• Teams record their responses on the fourth clue of the Time Card.
• Teams A, B, and D identify the solution. This concludes their round.
• Charge Teams A, B, and D 1 hour.
(Teams A, B, and D determined that the last two digits, “20,” were twice the value of the first two digits, “10,” and placed a “zero” in the second digit.)
• 1 0 3 2 0
Scoring
1. The facilitator posts the Master Time Card.
1 Team A
I II IV
Total Hours III
1
1 1
1 Team B Team C Team D
1
1 1 4
1 1 1 0
1 1 1 1
3 4 4 Time Charged
Clue #
Subsequent Rounds
Play is the same for each round.
End of Game
The team with the lowest number of hours wins.