The Catapult is great for planning and preparing for an upcoming challenge. With a simple metaphor, this activity guides participants to look at the challenge from three perspectives: the person facing the challenge, the challenge itself, and people’s organization to overcome the challenge.
Running the activity:
- Draw a catapult with a person flying and a mountain ahead.
- Ask participants to write notes for each of the three areas:
* The catapult: notes related to the everything the organisation can do to empower the person to overcome the challenge.
* Person flying: notes related to the person facing the challenge.
* Mountain: the challenge itself. - Conversation about the notes. Consider guiding the conversation by connecting related notes from the three areas.
Note on the image the nirvana behind the mountain (colored sticky notes at the right side of the picture). The catapult activity builds up on the assumption that people are trying to reach the magic place, the nirvana, and as such it helps the team find out the steps to get there. If the nirvana is not clear, consider running the first part of the Path to Nirvana activity.
We recommend that you play this YouTube video as an opening bang for this activity.
Remote-team advice: This activity works well for remote teams. Use a remote board of your choice.