5 for 25

Present the prompt or issue to the participants. Provide a short timebox for them to consider the prompt and write down a brief response on their note card.The response should be as brief as possible and should be in the form of a few words or a phrase – no explanations or descriptions.

Participants then get up and share their card with someone else. Each participant reads the card they are handed. The process then repeats several times with the participants moving to share cards with new people each time. Continue until told to stop by the facilitator.

When told to stop, each participant reads aloud the card they have in their hand. After reading, they write down a rating for the idea on the back of the card, using a scale of 1 to 5. (A rating of 5 = brilliant, 1 = not at all brilliant.)

This process is repeated for 4 more rounds (ensuring 5 grades are recorded on the backs of the cards). No one can grade their own card. The participants then total the scores on the backs of the cards.

When the last round is finished, the facilitator asks “Does anyone have a card with a score of 25?” If not, the facilitator asks the same question, counting down. “24… 23… 22…” until someone has a card with that score. Ask the cardholder to read the card aloud, and then place the card on a board or other area designated to capture the ideas. Continue until at least the top 5 ideas have been identified (though you can continue longer if more ideas would be beneficial).