If you haven’t steered your team from what I call the “sitting around the table” phase to the “doing stuff” phase, it’s time to hurry things up a bit. I hate to panic anyone, but the regional tournament is not “next year” anymore. It is not interference to encourage the team to stop deciding/planning and start doing. It is amazing how little needs to be decided before the team starts looking for materials, trying technical ideas and writing scripts.

Writers often get the worst writer’s block looking at that first blank page. Many will just start writing the middle of the story just to get something going. Once things are moving, it is easy to keep them moving.

Sitting around the table can feel pretty safe because ideas are cheap and easy to generate – doing stuff is hard and often frustrating. So go ahead and tell them that they have fifteen minutes to decide what three things need to be done first and then figure out who is going to do those things. Tell them it is an Instant Challenge.