communication · pairs · offline
Blind Portrait.folder
One describes, one draws — nobody watches the pen. Two people, fifteen minutes, and a debrief that turns the drawings into evidence about how they listen.
// kit v2: a stage-ready HTML deck (presenter drawer, run-of-show timer, built-in QR codes) · poker-spec print-and-cut cards with backs and blanks · an A3 activity poster · manuals in A4 and US Letter with bookmarks · three license tiers (CC BY free / single event / organization).
The classic back-to-back drawing exercise, rebuilt as a complete workshop folder: a timed run sheet, printable prop cards, a judge card, and — for assessment-type sessions — a two-minute pre/post measure that shows each pair how their communication style actually landed.
The props are poker-spec print cards (63.5 × 88.9 mm, bleed and cut guides included) — describer, drawer, judge, timing — sized so the whole deck fits one sheet per pair. Nothing in this folder needs a projector, and nothing needs an account to download.
the run sheet
// this is the guide file, word for word — read it here, run from it here. the .md at the bottom of the page is the same text, offline.
Folder:
blind-portrait· Category: communication · 2 people per pair · 15 min · offline · print props · assessment-typeLicense: CC BY 4.0
A back-to-back drawing exercise where one participant describes an image and the other draws it — without either seeing the other's work. The debrief turns the gap between the two pictures into concrete evidence about instruction-giving, listening, and assumption-checking.
Objectives
By the end of the activity, participants will have:
- Experienced the cost of one-way instructions versus checked understanding.
- Seen their own default role: describer who assumes, or drawer who guesses silently.
- Practiced one repair move: asking one clarifying question before starting.
Setup
Space: two chairs per pair, back-to-back, ~30 cm apart. No table between them — the drawer holds the pad on their knees.
Materials per pair:
| Item | Source |
|---|---|
| 1 × describer card | blind-portrait-prop-cards.pdf (card 1) |
| 1 × drawer card | blind-portrait-prop-cards.pdf (card 2) |
| 1 × judge card | blind-portrait-prop-cards.pdf (card 3) — cut, one per observer |
| 1 × timing card | blind-portrait-prop-cards.pdf (card 4) — for you, the facilitator |
| 1 × mystery image | any line drawing: a bicycle, a lamp, a floor plan. Prepare 2 per pair (round A / round B) |
| Paper + marker per drawer | thick marker, not pencil — mistakes should be visible |
Grouping rule: pair people who work together daily for round A; randomize pairs for round B. The contrast is the lesson.
Roles: describer (holds image, may not show it), drawer (holds marker, may not ask questions in round A), observer (if you have an odd number — otherwise you float).
Minute-by-minute script
| Time | Phase | Facilitator does | Participants do |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0–2 | Frame | "One of you will describe, one will draw. You may not turn around. The describer may not say what the image is — only what it looks like." | Take cards, split roles |
| 2–5 | Round A (3 min) | Start timer on the timing card. Say nothing else — silence is part of the design | Describer describes; drawer draws; no questions allowed |
| 5–7 | Reveal | "Turn around. Compare." | Pairs laugh / wince; observers note gaps on judge card |
| 7–10 | Round B (3 min) | Swap roles, new image. Rule change: "the drawer may ask three questions total" | Second round runs with checked understanding |
| 10–13 | Reveal + compare | Prompt: "what changed between round A and round B?" | Pairs self-score both rounds on the judge card |
| 13–15 | Bridge to debrief | "Keep both drawings — they are your data for the debrief." | Lay drawings side by side |
Then run the debrief — see blind-portrait-debrief.md.
Known failure modes & rescues
- The describer narrates the whole story instead of the shapes. ("It's like a farm…") Rescue: stop the round for 10 seconds, repeat the rule — "describe what you see, not what it means."
- The drawer goes abstract to avoid being wrong. Rescue: the debrief question "what did you do when you weren't sure?" is built for this. Do not fix it live.
- Pairs finish early and disengage. Rescue: hand them the judge card — score round A vs round B while others finish.
Variations
- Online: describer on camera only, drawer on shared whiteboard. Keep the no-questions rule — the constraint is the activity.
- Large groups (20+): run in trios (describer / drawer / observer), 2 rounds of 4 minutes, gallery-wall the drawings before debriefing in plenary.
- Assessment-type: run the pre-measure before pairing up, and the post-measure right after the debrief — see
blind-portrait-assessment.json. The interesting number is not the score, it's the delta.
the debrief sheet
// the debrief questions, in full — the .md version prints on one page for the room.
8 questions, 3 failure modes, one rule: the drawings are the data.
Use with
blind-portrait-guide.md. Debrief runs 10–20 min after the two rounds.
How to run this debrief
- Keep both drawings on the table, side by side, for the whole debrief. Every question points back at them.
- Ask questions to the pair first, then to the room. The pair has the freshest evidence.
- Write answers on this sheet or on the back of the drawings — participants keep them.
The 8 questions
1. Shapes, not stories.
"Describer: when did you catch yourself explaining what the image means instead of what it looks like?"
→ Targets: instruction clarity. Most describers do this in the first 30 seconds.
2. The silent guess.
"Drawer: what did you do in the moments you weren't sure?"
→ Targets: assumption behavior. Watch for "I just drew something plausible" — that is the finding, not a fault.
3. The cost of the rule.
"Round A, no questions allowed: how much of the gap between your two pictures came from the rule, and how much from the description?"
→ Separates constraint effects from skill effects. Don't let them blame the rule entirely.
4. The three questions.
"Round B, you could ask three questions. Which question helped most? Which would you ask first if you could restart?"
→ Surfaces the repair move: check understanding before starting.
5. Same pair, different result.
"When you swapped roles, what did you do differently as describer — knowing what it felt like to draw blind?"
→ Perspective-taking evidence. This is the strongest single indicator in the debrief.
6. The daily version.
"Where does this exact pattern — sending instructions into silence — show up in your week?"
→ Transfer question. Expect: email specs, handovers, ticket comments, stand-up updates.
7. The one repair.
"If you could install one habit from this exercise into your team's communication, which one?"
→ Commitment question. Make it singular — one habit survives Monday.
8. The drawing you'd frame.
"Which of the two drawings is the honest portrait of how your pair communicates today?"
→ Closing question. It ends the debrief on the evidence, not on a platitude.
3 known failure modes of the debrief itself
- Laughter eats the lesson. Round A drawings are funny; the room will want to stay in the laughter.
Rescue: laugh with them once, then place the two drawings side by side and ask question 3. The contrast quiets the room.
- Blame lands on the describer. The gap feels like one person's fault.
Rescue: reframe — "the describer described alone; the drawer drew alone; the pair produced the gap." Question 5 is the pivot.
- Meta-talk replaces examples. Participants start speaking in abstractions ("communication is important").
Rescue: point at the drawings. "Show me where on the paper that happened."
Scoring cues (assessment-type sessions)
If you are running the pre/post measure (blind-portrait-assessment.json), note these observables during the rounds — they justify the delta in the report:
| Observable | Points to |
|---|---|
| Describer checks in before starting (round B) | Repair habit forming |
| Drawer asks a question in the first 30 s | Uncertainty tolerance |
| Pair scores round B higher without a "better artist" | Understanding, not skill, improved |
The report your participants receive is a pair-level comparison, never an individual ranking — keep it that way when you present it.
who it's for · what it leaves behind
Who is the Blind Portrait activity for?
Facilitators, trainers and coaches who need a short communication exercise that fits inside a longer session. It runs on pairs — any group from 6 to 40 people can run several pairs in parallel — and it works from new-team formation to leadership programs. No acting skills required: if participants can hold a marker, they can run it.
What results does it produce?
Two things stay on the table after the debrief: the paired drawings — visible evidence of how each pair's instructions actually landed — and a pre/post pair-level delta from the assessment preset. It measures communication quality, not drawing skill, and pairs see their own improvement rather than a ranking against other pairs.
Can my AI agent use this folder?
Yes. Every folder ships a SKILL.md skill file: frontmatter for matching, plus runnable prep commands — fetch the props, pull the debrief, build the live pre/post measure with formlm-cli. The three-step workflow (discover, install, run) lives on the skills page, every folder ships a one-command zip bundle, and the machine index is skills.json.
Is it really free?
Yes — CC BY 4.0, no account, no email wall inside a folder. Download it, run it, copy it, rebrand it for your own workshop. Attribution keeps everything free.
make it live
The folder's paper pre/post measure is built for rooms with nothing but markers. If you want the digital version — the same 6 items as a live form, each participant's before/after delta computed automatically — two ways:
for AI agents
$ formlm-cli smart generate --input "Pre/post measure for the Blind Portrait pairs exercise: 6 Likert items on instruction clarity, assumption-checking, perspective-taking and repair — the same 6 items before and after the activity, so each participant's delta is computed automatically"
Step 4 of the agent workflow: npm install -g @formlm/cli, log in once, and the prep above runs itself. The form and its data live in your own workspace.
— or, with a mouse —
Open the free pre/post training quiz template on FormLM
and paste the 6 items from blind-portrait-assessment.json — the template already runs the before/after comparison and scores it.
// optional, not required — the paper version in this folder is complete on its own. free account on their side.
put it on the wall
The folder ships a single-file HTML deck that presents full-screen from one laptop. To run the activity on the room's big screen — submissions land on the wall in real time, the countdown and the spotlight stay in your hands, and the whole room joins with one scan — the scan-and-project companion is QRCard-AI:
See the trainer live-screen mode on QRCard-AI — one QR code on the wall, participants join and follow from their own seats.
// optional, not required — the deck in this folder already runs full-screen on a single laptop.
take this folder with you
// every file downloads as a plain file. no account, no email wall inside a folder.