Experience Levels

Purpose. Highlights the depth of experience in the room and encourages peer-to-peer help.

When to use. In the first 15 minutes of a session, once names are known and the group is settling in.

Best for. Any group size, in person.

• No materials to gather; decide on a small prize for the closest guess.

Room setup. Cluster seating into small islands so each table can add up its own totals.

Virtual setup. Run this over video call using breakout rooms or chat to collect each group's total.

Hybrid setup. Give remote participants a shared document to add their numbers into.

Materials.

1. Ask participants to guess the group's average tenure with the company, in years, and write a few guesses down.
2. Split into small groups or tables.
3. Have each small group add up their actual combined years of experience, then divide by the number of people to get their table's average.
4. Compare each table's average, then calculate, or estimate, the real group-wide average.
5. Award a small prize to whoever guessed closest to the real average.

Learning outcome. Participants leave with a clearer sense of the collective experience in the room, and who they might learn from.

• Small prize for closest guess
• Debrief questions ready
• Timer set for 10 min
• Groups or tables arranged for adding totals