Comments on: People Polling

By: Ellen Grove

Ellen Grove — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 01:35:48 +0000

I’ve done this activity a couple of times asking the group to estimate the number of pages in a book. In one instance, the average of the group estimate (over 13 people) turned out to be exactly the number of pages in the book, which was impressive almost to the point of undermining the activity because of the perceived improbability of this happening. Lots of fun!

By: GBL for Agile Coaching: Experiential Learning « Game-Based Learning Dev

GBL for Agile Coaching: Experiential Learning « Game-Based Learning Dev — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 14:07:00 +0000

[...] People Polling by Don McGreal, an estimating exercise used widely in training and [...]

By: Mick Maguire

Mick Maguire — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 19:22:14 +0000

First attempt for me didn’t work so well. I put 375 dots on a small whiteboard then showed it to my audience. Estimates ranged from 150 – 400 dots with an average of 252. The average fell only just within the top 50th percentile of averages from the group and was not clearly more reliable than asking an individual. As you say “there is always a chance that the results could be off”, and it did lead to a good discussion about the exercise itself.

By: Peter Borsella

Peter Borsella — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:15:28 +0000

I decided to give this exercise a try during a large group presentation. There were 14 tables of 5 – 7 people each. I had a handout for their reference, and late in the presentation I asked them to first take a minute to come up with an estimate of the number of words on the handout and write down that number. Then, as a variant of the exercise, I asked them to take a minute to work with their table-mates and come up with a consensus number. I then collected the team consensus numbers rather than the individual numbers. Here were the results:
The average across all tables: 737
The actual number of words: 635
Not bad! They were quite impressed that the average was only about 100 words away from the actual, and they were able to come up with this in just two minutes!
I then gave a prize to the individual with the closest number.
Great exercise, and thanks!

By: Joe Krebs

Joe Krebs — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 16:06:45 +0000

Thanks for making this recipe available and sharing. I have used this tasty cupcake in the past, especially polling my weight. You are right, students were ususally flattering