Run it in 15 minutes
Open breakout rooms for 15 minutes. The page sets the timing from the group size the Keeper chooses at the start. Do the short demo in the main room first.
| Players | Rounds | Defend | About |
|---|
| 3 | 2 rounds | 1 minute each | 14:50 |
| 4 | 1 round | 1 minute each | 11:10 |
| 5 | 1 round | 1 minute each | 12:40 |
| 6 | 1 round | 1 minute each | 13:40 |
| 7 | 1 round | 45 seconds each | 12:55 |
| 8 | 1 round | 45 seconds each | 13:40 |
Every game: Set up 1:00 · Match 0:40 · Defend (one turn each) · Draft 1:00 · Choose 1:30–2:00 · Reflect 3:00.
Video call settings
The game works on Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, or any platform with breakout rooms, chat and screen sharing. It also works in person with the print kit.
- Groups of 3 to 8. Four to six is the sweet spot.
- Let participants share their screen in breakout rooms, so the Keeper can share this page.
- Turn on live captions. All the major platforms have them.
- Set breakout rooms to 15 minutes, with a closing countdown if your platform offers one.
- Paste the link before you open rooms. On some platforms, people in breakout rooms can’t see the main chat.
- Chat can disappear when breakout rooms close (Zoom deletes it, for example). The Reflect step reminds the Keeper to copy the three questions out first.
- Copying from the chat is fine. The page removes the names and times that Zoom, Teams and Meet add when chat is copied.
- Optional: add
?doc= plus a link to a shared document to the page address, and every room gets an “Open the shared document” button. Add ?room=3 to show a room number.
Make it work for everyone
- A pick is one number. Anyone can say theirs aloud instead of typing.
- Defending is a gift of attention. The speaker can stop early. Silence in the minute is fine.
- Any language is fine for thinking and writing questions. The page works with the browser’s translate feature.
- Timing is flexible. Keepers can pause, add 15 seconds, or turn off auto-advance.
- Display: “Larger text” and “Light mode” make the page easier to read through screen share.
- Screen readers announce each new move, each new speaker, the 10-second warning, and SEND.
Broadcast message
- At 10:00: “If you haven’t yet, move to choosing your three must-explore questions.”
The 60-second demo
MatchShow “The signal we absolutely cannot underestimate.” Everyone types a signal number in the chat and sends on “SEND.”
ThenInvite one person to defend their pick for 30 seconds while everyone else stays silent. Ask: what question does that make you want to explore?
Then say: “In your rooms, you’ll defend, listen without responding, and turn what you heard into questions. You’ll leave with three questions your group most wants to explore.”
The statement cards (draft · edit me)
There are 12 statements: two each for Understanding, Rethinking leadership, Governance, Connection and Stewardship, plus two wild cards with a blank that the reader fills in. A good statement never names a signal’s topic. It makes a claim people can disagree about, so several signals are easy to defend. Edit them in cards.js.
What to watch in the first playtest
- Is one minute of uninterrupted defending energising or exposing? Do people use the whole minute?
- Can listeners stay silent? (The urge to respond is the point.)
- Do the drafted questions build on what was said, or could they have been written before the game?
- Do the three chosen questions come from different people?
- In Reflect, do people talk about their role, or drift back to the signals?
- Afterwards, ask: which moment felt playful, and which felt like filling in a form?
Why the rules look like this
- Inspired by The Metagame by Local No. 12 (Colleen Macklin, John Sharp & Eric Zimmerman), a card game where players match everyday things to bold prompts and argue for their match. All the card text here is original. metaga.me
- Attention without interruption. Nancy Kline’s work on the Thinking Environment argues that people think best when they know they won’t be interrupted. That’s why nobody responds during Defend. (Kline, Time to Think, 1999)
- Rarest pick first. Research on minority dissent finds that hearing a real dissenting view early makes a whole group think more widely, even when the dissenter turns out to be wrong. Nemeth (1986)
- Questions, then priorities. The Question Formulation Technique has people produce questions without discussing them, then choose their priority questions together. Draft and Choose follow that pattern. (Rothstein & Santana, Make Just One Change, 2011)
- Rules create feelings. Sending together creates a reveal. Silence makes the minute feel like a gift. Hunicke, LeBlanc & Zubek (2004)