Which Way Is E
Draw a letter on your own forehead. Which way round did you draw it?
Everyone draws a letter on their own forehead and then discovers the room is split between people who drew it for themselves and people who drew it for the person opposite. It takes thirty seconds and produces a better conversation about perspective than an hour of theory.
With your finger, draw a capital E on your own forehead. Don't think about it, just do it. Now look at the person next to you and work out which way round they drew theirs.
Before anything about perspective, empathy or seeing things from the other side — it is thirty seconds and makes the point completely.
Props: None
Run this when…
If none of these is your room, pick another.Before a session on perspective or customer thinking
A leadership or empathy workshop
Any point where you need one vivid example fast
How to run it
Written to be glanced at mid-room, not memorised.
- Everyone stays seated. No preparation at all.
- Ask them to draw a capital E on their own forehead with a finger, quickly and without thinking.
- Now compare with a neighbour: was it drawn to be read by themselves, or by somebody facing them?
- Get a rough show of hands for each.
- Ask both groups why they did it that way. Neither is wrong and both will defend it.
- Use it as the reference point for whatever comes next.
Running it well
Only the host sees these. Participants never do.
- Insist on doing it without thinking. Anybody who deliberates will choose the outwards version and the split disappears, which is the entire activity.
- Neither answer is right. Say so plainly, because the outward-facing group will start claiming victory and that is not the point.
- The reason each group gives is the useful material — one is thinking about themselves and one about the observer, and both are appropriate in different situations.
Watch out for
Space, safety and the traps worth knowing before you start.
- Nobody moves and nothing is touched but their own forehead.
- It can be used to imply one group is less empathetic, which is unfair and untrue. Frame it as two defaults, not a test.
Already seated
Nobody has to stand for this one.
It is already entirely seated and needs nothing.
On a video call
The cards work as they are. This is what changes about how you call it.
Runs as written and the reveal is better. In a room people compare with a neighbour; on a call, ask everyone to hold their drawing hand still on their forehead and look at the grid — you can see the whole split at once, which is the point being made.
Run it yourself
Free for thirty days, no card. Put it on the projector and step through it — nobody in the room needs a phone.
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- Where
- Remote or in person
- Props
- None
- Big screen
- Required
- Teams
- Individual only