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In Order of the Queen – An activity about improving process.

Activity Objective: For a team to form four sides of a square as fast as possible using a single deck of playing cards. Each side must have a complete suite in sequential order from Ace through King. 

Facilitated Objective: This activity works well with identifying different processes, understanding shared responsibility, and listening and implementing ideas in a pressure situation.  

Needs: 

  • A deck of cards for every team at a table. 
  • A stopwatch or smartphone to record time for each team. 
  • Teams can be three to eight people in size.  

Numbers: A table or flat surface to work for each team. 

Time:10 – 15 minutes

Procedure: Pass out a deck of cards for each table. Ask someone at the table to pull out a smartphone to time their progress. Then have another volunteer to remove the jokers in the deck and to shuffle the cards. When finished, place the cards at the center of the table. 

Inform the group of the following instructions. 

  1. No one can touch the cards until the facilitator says “GO!” This is when the timekeeper starts the clock. 
  2. When time starts, the team will take the deck and arrange the cards by the suits of the deck. Hearts, Spades, Diamonds, and Clubs must all be collected together in four separate piles and arranged in sequential order from Ace through King. 
  3. Arrange and spread out the four piles to shape each pile to form one side of a square. See picture above in Figure A. 
  4. Once you have four sides of a square, each side representing a suite and the suites arranged in sequential order then the team is done, and time can stop. 
  5. Record times for each team. 
  6. Repeat again for two or three rounds for a chance to improve their times. I like to give additional planning time between each round. Also, I like for each team to shuffle the decks and trade their decks with another team between rounds. This helps with planning and as a facilitator to debrief. One topic may be how the manage the unknown to make it workable for their needs. 

Safety: Watch for paper cuts. Playing cards is a dangerous sport. 

Observations/Questions:

  1. What was the planning like for each round? Did you find it to help with improving time? Please explain.
  2. Did everyone feel that they had a role in participating? Why or why not?
  3. Did the process change or stay the same for each round? Did you feel it needed to be changed? Please explain. Did the process change during the activity? If so why?
  4. What was it like sharing ideas during the planning process? What was that process like?

Variations: 

  1. Do the same as above but instead of creating four sides with each suite, have the teams create a straight line but the order has to be red, black, red then black in sequential order. For example, Ace of Hearts, Ace of Spades, Ace of Diamonds and Ace of Clubs then 2 of Hearts, 2 of Spades, 2 of Diamonds and 2 of Clubs and so on. 
  2. For teams that value quality, have them restack the cards as fast as possible back in a single stack face down. Once a card is placed on the stack it can’t be removed. Check their work at the end and see how many cards were out of order. 

In Order of the Queen is a variation of Chris Cavert’s “52 CARD STACK UP.”

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