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When you want to use games and activities to make your point
Here are three quick puzzles for you:
Puzzle 1
A blind beggar had a brother who died. What relation was the blind beggar to the brother who died? (The answer isn’t “brother”.)
Puzzle 2
Arthur lives with his parents in London.
Last week, while his parents were out, Arthur’s next-door neighbour Sophie came round to spend the evening. At 8pm, she popped out to buy a newspaper.
Just then, two robbers broke into the house and, ignoring Arthur, stole the TV and computer.
Arthur had never seen the robbers before. They had no legal right to remove the goods. Yet he did nothing to stop them. In fact, he didn’t even act surprised by what he saw.
Why not?
Puzzle 3
Colin went to a party and drank some of the punch. He then left early. Everyone else at the party who drank the punch subsequently died of poisoning. None of them had eaten or drunk anything else that could have poisoned them.
Colin didn’t put anything in the punch after he drank it, nor did anyone else.
Why didn’t he die?
How did you get on? The answers are “It was his sister”, “Arthur was a baby”, and “the poison was in the ice. Colin drank his punch before the ice had melted”.
Top tip: things look different depending on your perspective.
Here’s another one – join up the nine dots with four straight lines. The only rule: your pen can’t leave the paper.
Need a clue? This puzzle is where the phrase “think outside the box” comes from.
Top tip: to come up with new ideas, think in new ways. Don’t be constrained by your usual thought processes.
People like games and activities, as long as they’re:
So, since they’re popular, include some. Use ones you’ve seen before. Search online for them. Ask people for recommendations.
As long as they tick these three boxes, they make your communications more enjoyable for everyone; which, of course, makes them more likely to work.
