The corporate retreat - the icebreaker

The useful part

In the opening session at a corporate retreat, 26 colleagues were directed into a conference room to play an icebreaker game. "Okay everyone, listen up!" hollered Quade and Ursula, thick as thieves as usual. "The task left for us here on the table says we need to line up in the correct order." "And what the heck's that?!" asked Wycliffe, Tommie and Felix as one.

How it works

• "It doesn't say," said Xanthe, showing the instruction card to Yvonne beside her.
• "I guess it's something unknown we need to work out…" A few suggestions went round the room – ascending height, age, length of service in the company… "How about seniority?" suggested Vinny and Percy.
• "That could work," agreed Beatrix, Amir, Clive, Kacie, Ivan, Nadia and Godiva.
• However, once in a line, a voice announced over the loudspeaker, "Incorrect – try again." In the ensuing hubbub, Samvit – backed up by Huxley – called for silence.
• Mckenna, Oliver, Roxie and Elvis put their heads together, and then announced to the group that they had another idea, suggesting that everyone should just line up in alphabetical order.

What to take from it

So that's what they did, while Dixon and Jemma jokily added some musical accompaniment as everybody wandered about. "I'm lost – are we just doing reverse alphabetical order?" Samvit shook his head.

Details worth keeping

"I actually think they almost cracked it," he said. "And, ha…!" – he pointed at the clock – "If they'd gone about things slightly differently, we might have been led to the solution a little sooner… See, I'm pretty sure there's another totally unique but more interesting order that applies here. Zephaniah, you need to come to the front." "Wait, what?" said Libby.