Matt facilitated our meetup today with Conquer the Numbers. Due to events surrounding the Coronavirus pandemic, games like the Ball Point Game were no longer feasible for video conference-based training. Enter Conquer the Numbers created by Bogoy & Nikola Bogdanov. This virtual game serves as a suitable replacement to the Ball Point Game driving home the same learning in similar amount of time.
The group is tasked with working together to count as high as they can in 1 minute… but there’s a catch. The team must follow the following rules:
- Play as one team
- Start counting from the number 1
- Count in sequential order – 1, 2, 3 …
- One person speaking at a time
- Only say a number and nothing else (laughter is okay! and we had plenty of it!)
Here’s where things got tricky…
- No repeat turns until everyone has taken a turn
- If two or more people talk at the same time, the count start over from 1
- If there’s a counting mistake, the count starts over from 1
We were given 1 minute to plan, 1 minute to execute that plan and play the game, and 1 minute after as a retrospective. We ran through that 3-minute iteration 5 times. We stumbled early as we encountered a few challenges with people joining the team late or having to leave early that threw off, but found a rhythm by round 4… only to be met with an additional challenge of having to count BACKWARDS from our Round 4 score during round 5.
Overall, the group had a great time and we were able to see a lot of the same behaviors and aha moments from the Ball Point Game show up with this game as well. Thanks to Matt for sharing with us!
Download Matt’s slides: Conquer the Numbers
