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TIME VALUE

Time is money. This game helps players make sure that their time and money are well spent.

Purpose

To enhance the value of short periods of time.

Players

6 to 30

Time

30 - 45 minutes

Supplies

Four or five flip charts with felt-tipped markers
Timer
Whistle

Preparation

Assemble a panel of judges. Near the end of this game, you need 2-5 people to determine the winning teams. Enroll a few of your friends and tell them that all they have to do is to listen to half-a-dozen ideas and decide which one is best and which one is the most unique. This activity should not require more than 5 minutes of their time.

Flow of the Game

Form teams. Organize the participants into three to five teams, each with not more than seven members. It is not necessary for all teams to be of equal size.

Assign teams to flip charts. Ask each team to stand by a flip chart. Make sure that the teams have plenty of markers.

Announce the first topic for brainstorming. Tell the teams that they have 5 minutes to brainstorm alternative responses to this question:

You have $5 to spend. How can you make sure that you get the maximum value for this money?

The teams should make sure that all members participate and someone writes down their ideas on the flip chart. The team should generate as many ideas as possible within the 5-minute period. They may use several sheets of the flip chart paper.

Conclude the first brainstorming session. After 5 minutes, blow the whistle. Announce the end of the brainstorming session. Explain that the first session was just a warm-up to get prepare them for the second one. Ask the players to flip the pages over and begin with a blank sheet of paper.

Announce the second brainstorming topic. Tell the teams that they have another 5 minutes to brainstorm alternative responses to this new question:

You have 5 minutes of free time to spend any way you want. How can make sure that you get the maximum value for this time?

Ask the teams to use the same procedure as before.

Conclude the second brainstorming session. After 5 minutes, blow the whistle again. Announce the end of the brainstorming session. Tell the teams that you are now going to award score points for their accomplishments.

Identify the winning team in the first category. Begin by asking the teams to count the number of alternative ideas in their list. Identify the team with the most ideas and declare its members to be the winners in the Number of Ideas category.

Identify the winning team in the second category. Bring in your friends and introduce them as the panel of judges. Ask each team to copy the two best ideas from its flip chart list on to index cards, each on a separate card. Collect these cards, shuffle them, and read the ideas. Ask the judges to select the best one among these ideas. Identify the team that contributed this idea and declare its members to be the winners in the Quality of Ideas category.

Identify the winning team in the third category. Explain that one of the goals of brainstorming is to generate unique and unusual ideas. Ask each team to copy the two most unique ideas from its flip chart list on to two index cards. Use the same procedure as before and ask the judges to select the most bizarre -- or the least conventional -- idea. Identify the team that contributed this idea and declare its members to be the winners in the Unique Ideas category.

Thank the judges. Tell the judges that their job is done and they may retire to their chambers. Lead a round of applause for the departing judges.

Debriefing

Introduce the debriefing session. This game requires some in-depth debriefing to ensure that the players discover and share key learning points. Explain the purpose and the format of the debriefing session. Here's a suggested script:

You probably have some interesting things to discuss about your experiences in the game you played. I want to conduct a debriefing session to help you share your insights in a structured fashion.

Conduct the debriefing. Begin with a broad question such as: What did you learn from this activity? Encourage the participants to share their insights. Whenever appropriate insert these questions into the discussion:

This activity used several time-management techniques. Can you figure out what they were?
Whenever you have to solve a problem or explore alternatives, brainstorming is an efficient and effective technique. Could you have come up with such a variety of alternative ideas by working individually? What are the advantages and disadvantages of brainstorming?
Imposing an artificial deadline is a useful time-management technique. We used a deadline of 5 minutes. What would have happened if we did not have any deadlines? What if we had a 2-minute deadline?
Your ideas were evaluated according to three different criteria: quantity, quality, and uniqueness. What if I had specified these criteria at the beginning of the activity? Could you have worked more efficiently? Why did no one ask for the goal, or the criterion, or the scoring system at the beginning? What assumptions did you make?
What if the judges used a single criterion (such as clarity of language) that was not specified in the beginning? What if this criterion was specified at the beginning? What implications does the goal or criterion have for efficient time management?
People claim time is money. We brainstormed ideas for enhancing the value of $5 and 5 minutes. Compare your two original lists. Which ideas are similar between the list for spending money and spending time?
To continue with our brainstorming topics, here's another: You have 5 extra minutes every day. How can you make sure that you get the maximum value for spending this time? How can you build up some thing valuable over a year?

Conclude the debriefing session. End with this broad question: How can you apply your insights back in your workplace? Encourage the players to select one or two 5-minute value-enhancement strategies for immediate application.

Variations

Not enough time? Jump right into the 5-minute value-enhancement brainstorming. Replace the debriefing with a questionnaire for the players to complete at their own convenience.

Can't assemble a panel of judges? You act as the judge. Or ask some of the participants (preferably the latecomers) to work as observers during the game and judges at the end of the game.

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