Free lesson · Level 1 of 10 · Beginner
Your first game: what to actually do
Here is the honest version of your first evening: you will not read anybody tonight, because nobody does, and reading people is not the goal of a first game at all.
The goal is smaller than that, and it is completely achievable. Name one player, and give one reason for naming them, even a weak one. Picture it: seat seven answered too fast, or agreed with everybody, or said nothing at all — and then stop talking, because that is already a complete minute.
Now the same circle one day later, and your turn has come round again. Your turn — what do you say? The same shape as yesterday: one name, one reason, taken from something that happened today. A second minute spent explaining your first one buys nothing from anybody at this table.
And you will be wrong sometimes, but being wrong that way costs almost nothing. A wrong reason still gives nine people something to weigh up, while a silent minute gives them a player who came to hide, and the room remembers that for the rest of the evening.
Next game, pick your one player before the circle reaches you, say the name and the one reason behind it, then sit back and watch what the room does with it. Do not wait until you feel sure about anybody, because that feeling is not arriving tonight.
In the school: one idea per lesson, its questions, and a table or a puzzle to try it on.
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Source: Our own coaching advice (MafiaVoice) — not an external source and not a measurement