Key Punch represents one of the few iconic group initiatives that people just love to play. It’s fun, engaging, challenging and can be varied in many, many ways.
In advance, you’ll need to lay a very long rope (approx 10-15 metres) on the ground in the shape of a square, rectangle or circle. I prefer a rectangle because it will soon represent a regular keyboard as if belonging to a calculator. It’s up to you.
To this end, randomly place a set of 30 spot-markers or gym-spots inside this shape, each of them marked with a number (facing up) from 1 to 30.
Finally, lay a second rope in a straight line about 10-15 metres away from the calculator and gather your group behind this line.
Adopting a clever scenario or just telling it as it is, announce that the area they can’t see very well is filled with a jumble of 30 spots with the numbers 1 to 30 marked on them.
Explain that the group’s task is to physically touch as many, if not every one of these spots in sequence from 1 to 30 in less than 30 seconds.
The time will start as soon as the first person crosses the start line, and will stop as soon as the last person in the group crosses back on their return.
At first glance, this will seem like a tough challenge, and for most groups, it will be.
To govern fair play, explain two more critical parameters:
- Only one person is entitled to stand or be inside the roped-area at any point in time, and only this person is permitted to touch the spots. The person inside the roped-area can change, but there can only ever be one person inside this area at any point in time; and
- The spots must be touched in the ordinary sequence of 1 through 30 (in case that wasn’t obvious.)
If one or both of these parameters are infringed, issue a penalty. Ordinarily, I will simply declare that round as ‘unofficial’ and they need to start a new round to record an official attempt.
Give your group the opportunity to use a total of eight rounds in which to complete their task. Oh, and one final very important parameter – at any time the entire group does not return behind the starting line in under 30 seconds, the group will lose or forfeit one round. Ouch, that hurts.
This means, if it takes longer than 30 seconds for every member of the group to cross back over the starting line, the group will lose one round, eg if this occurs during their 2nd round, they lose their 3rd round, and will have only 5 rounds left to play. Like I said, tough.
Allow ample time between each round for your group to discuss strategies and plan their next attempt. Clearly, all of this planning time will occur behind the starting line.
You can expect that your group’s first attempts will be a mix of having achieved a very low tally of touched spots (maybe up to 10 spots) and returning to the starting line after 30 seconds has elapsed. Gradually, their discipline and systems-thinking will improve their performance.
Your role is primarily concerned with recording the time and monitoring the level of integrity your group brings to the exercise, eg did they touch every spot in sequence, and did more than one person stand inside the roped-area at any point in time.
As with all group activities, a more significant role of yours is to pitch the appropriate level of challenge to suit your group’s needs. Many elements can be tweaked to vary the challenge, including the distance between the starting line and the roped-area, the number of spots, the placement of the spots, etc.
Certainly, you can expect there to be many teachable moments in the activity, so be sure to find the time to invite your group to process their experience at the end.
If possible, locate the starting line as far away from the roped key punch area so that your group can not read the numbers on the spots.
If you don’t have 30 gym-spots or do not want to write numbers on them, use a bunch of smaller circle-shaped plastic camps, eg tennis ball cans caps. The key is that they do not move on the surface you place them. There will always be a little bit of movement, but you want to avoid any dramatic slipping when they are touched.
Any part of the human body is entitled to touch the spots. Ordinarily, this will mean feet, but on occasions, a good system involving hands works well too.
To be honest, it can sometimes be hard to know if a particular spot was touched (or not) owing to the rush and random nature of the spots. Do your best and, perhaps, err on the side of effort and not so much perfection – unless this is your goal for introducing the exercise.
Note, a switched-on group may game the system to their advantage by using one of their early rounds to study the numbers inside the roped-area for as long as they like, knowing that they will incur a one-round penalty. The penalty will be totally worth it in their opinion. This is true, and entirely permissible – a wonderful example of truly understanding and identifying the problem at hand.
For the record, this initiative was first called Going for Gold because the final 15 spots (16 to 30) were gold-coloured to differentiate them from the first 15 green spots, to add an embedded system to the puzzle. Karl Rohnke observed me presenting this exercise during one of his tours of Australia in the early 1990’s, loved it and promised to feature it in his next book QuickSilver (which was published 1995). True to his word, it did appear in the book, but, by his own admission, forgot the name I gave it. Under pressure to give it a title before publication, it became Key Punch and this name has stuck ever since. He was most embarrassed.
The company’s IT system has been hacked and a virus has infected everyone’s computers. The only way to stop the virus from spreading is to debug it in a very specific coded sequence…
Did you do the beep test in school? For those who don’t know, this test would measure how quickly you could run between two points on the ground. The challenge gets progressively harder over time. If you happen to be good on your feet, then you’re going to love this next exercise…
The instructions to open a vault of money – a lot of money – has been lost up and only your group can solve the problem. There are a total of 30 combinations and they must be touched in order from 1 to 30, however, a malfunction has occurred and the order of the numbers has been messed up…
Love this activity. Good for problem solving through observation as well as a great way for facilitator to observe the participants and reactions. Suggestion to run the activity on level area and ideally dry space as spots could get slippery.