"What If" | Leadership Heights

LEADERSHIP TRAILS

“What If”

Academics

After you’ve finally sent some emails and eaten some lunch, it's time for your daily meeting with your lab assistants. You’ve been wrapping up more projects recently and you need to brainstorm some new ideas for experiments. Unfortunately, your experiment proposal “what if we cloned a bunch of dinosaurs and threw them all on an island” was rejected as being “ToO DaNgErOuS.”

Thankfully, you have an exercise you often do with your lab assistants to brainstorm ideas. In this stage, no idea is too wacky for the group! You put up some big sticky notes, uncap some markers, and it's time to get to work!

Goal

Work as a group to collectively brainstorm and act out ideas.

Goal

Work as a group to collectively brainstorm and act out ideas.

Purpose

Practice the skills of brainstorming, collaboration, and improvisation.

Materials

None

Setup

Choose two or three actors to start. Everyone else forms the audience. [Choose a number of actors that gives everyone an opportunity to participate]

Purpose

Practice the skills of brainstorming, collaboration, and improvisation.

Materials

None

Setup

Choose two or three actors to start. Everyone else forms the audience. [Choose a number of actors that gives everyone an opportunity to participate]

Running the game

This is a game of improvisation where the audience decides how the scenario develops!

Begin by having the actors choose a scenario they would like to begin roleplaying. This could be a leadership scenario, such as resolving a conflict or leading a group activity, or it could be an everyday scenario such as making breakfast or going on a hike. Each scenario should have at least one defined leadership role.
As the actors begin the scenario, at any time a member of the audience can say “What if…” and suggest a modification to the scenario. These modifications should be based around modifying the role of the leader or of the followers in the scene. For example:
- What if the leader refused to take suggestions from the group?
- What if the followers thought they knew better than the leader?
- What if the leader struggled to make any decisions?
Give the actors about 2-3 minutes to play out the scene, with the audience making 2-4 suggestions during that time. Once they have finished, give them a round of applause!
Each group of actors should get a chance to play out a scenario before debriefing.

Debrief

The following debrief questions are meant to give you an opportunity to discuss with your patrol mates and reflect on the game. You can have one leader ask the discussion questions or you could take turns asking the questions, making sure everyone’s voice is heard.

Leaders have many different styles, some of which depend on the scenario. Use these debriefing questions to discuss how different leadership styles and personalities affect a team.

What was the most effective leadership style you saw in this game? Why was it effective? Would it be effective in every situation?
Reflect on a leadership style you’ve seen used by someone you admire. Was it effective? Why or why not?
Do we control the style of leadership we use? How can we make deliberate choices about our approach to leadership situations?