Motiv8 Board Game

Description of the tool

Motiv8 is a board game exploring motivation, participation and influencing factors of Youth in Action – Action 1. 4 teams play it: Youth Exchange, Youth Initiative, Transnational Youth Initiative and Youth Democracy Project. Each of the team has one person who want to try the role of a coach. Each team is represented on the bar graph on flipchart paper and each time their team pass the start they receive an extra bar. The winning team is the one with has the most bars on the graph.

The teams roll two dice...and have to throw a six to start.

The board is transferred to the floor with different coloured paper to make it a larger more engaging activity (see Annex for possible layout).

As each team move around the board and lands on a square they pick up a card from the corresponding box in the middle. There are for different types of squares: Youth in Action, Participation level, Mitiv8 and Meet the Coach.

On the square with ‘Youth in Action’ team is faced with different conditions of the programme and depending on them they either move forward or backward on the game board. See the final report from the Coach 2 Coach in Hungary for the ideas of Youth in Action cards

By landing on the ‘Participation level’ the team gets a description of the participation situation in the project. All teams take part in the decision about the level of participation and if they a right they move forward to the next ‘Participation level’ in the game. See the final report from the Coach 2 Coach in Hungary for ideas of the participation situation cards.

Each time a team lads on the square of ‘Mitiv8’ they pick up get to know the situation where motivation of a group is challenged or is encouraged. The team has a chance to raise ideas on how they would respond to the situation. If they manage in 1 minute to have 2 ideas they move 1 square forward, if 3 ideas they move 2 squares forward and if 5 ideas they move 3 squares forward. Before the ideas are accepted they should be confronted in the discussion with other teams. See the final reports from the Coach 2 Coach in Hungary for ideas of the motivation challenges and encouragements.

‘Meet the coach’ squares invites team to discuss with their coach what motivates him/her to get involved in coaching youth groups. If a team collects 2 ideas, they move 1 square forward, if 3 ideas they move 2 squares forwards if 5 ideas they move 3 squares forward. The ideas should not repeat what is already said by then.

The game is played for about 45 min. Before the game begins teams receive information on rules and are given 15 min. to prepare their figure and define their game strategy. The debriefing of 30 min. close the activity including the reflection on the game experience and conclusions on motivating element in coaching. Special logos, sounds and animation may add the special atmosphere to the game.