Delegation simulation: twelve tasks, four people, one week
Nine tasks are on the board at 8:30 on Monday and three more will land before Thursday. Decide who does what, and find out whether your picture of your team was right.
- Five choices per task: delegate, coach, do it yourself, drop it or wait
- Your read of each person is one number, and it may be wrong
- Someone is quietly overloaded; results are your only clue
- Scored on outcomes, team growth, delegation quality and your energy
Not sure yet? Try the free 3-round Price War first: no sign-up, about five minutes.
What is a good delegation exercise for managers that shows the consequences of their choices?
Delegation Dash, a Bodhih Arena micro-simulation, is a delegation exercise where you run a four-person team for a week with twelve tasks. For each task you delegate, coach, do it yourself, drop it or wait, and the scored debrief shows what each person could really do and how much spare time they had.
What is Delegation Dash?
Delegation Dash is a single-player online simulation of one working week as a team manager. Twelve tasks land over four days, each with a type, an importance, a skill level needed, an effort in hours and a deadline. You decide, task by task, whether to delegate, delegate and coach, do it yourself, drop it or leave it for later. Your read of each person's skill may be wrong, and their real workload is hidden until results reveal it.
Delegation Dash at a glance
| Format | Micro-sim, single player |
|---|---|
| Length | About 15 minutes per play |
| Players | One person; every play is a new seeded scenario |
| Devices | Any modern browser on a laptop, tablet or phone |
| Scoring | Scored on the server out of 100, with sub-scores and a debrief |
| Credential | Open Badges 3.0 micro-sim credential at a score of 80 or more, with a public verification page |
| Competencies | Delegation (SPN.3.1), Coaching and Feedback (SPN.3.2), Planning and Prioritisation (SPN.5.1), Time and Energy Management (SPN.5.4) |
| LMS | LTI 1.3 launch from Canvas, Moodle, Blackboard or D2L, with grade passback; usable as a Bodhih pathway stage |
| Price for one person | $12 |
| Price per seat | $12 per seat, volume pricing by seat count |
Why delegation goes wrong even for capable managers
You give the work to whoever feels safest
The same reliable person gets every important task, because handing it to someone less proven feels risky. They burn out, everyone else stalls, and you never learn what the rest of the team could do.
Coaching feels like a luxury you cannot afford this week
Explaining a task properly takes longer than doing it. So you do it, again, and next week the same task comes back to you. The arithmetic of coaching only shows up over time, which is exactly when you are not looking.
Nothing ever gets dropped, so everything gets late
Every request feels like it must happen. Low-value work crowds out the important tasks, your evenings disappear, and the team learns that you will catch whatever falls.
Here is the situation you walk into
You manage the Client Insights team at Haverly Group, a facilities services company. Odile is a precise senior analyst who prefers to work alone. Rafe talks to clients every day. Sunniva joined eight months ago and is quiet in meetings. Tomasz, the operations coordinator, is helpful to everyone, perhaps too helpful.
It is Monday, 8:30. Nine tasks are already on the board, drawn from work such as a renewal proposal to rewrite, a churn analysis for the leadership pack, a forecast model, 40 tagged support tickets, two candidate interviews and a shared drive to tidy before an audit. Your diary has eight free hours today. Your boss expects the important things to land by Thursday night.
Then the week moves. An angry key account needs calming. The CEO wants a one-page view on a new competitor. A client dashboard breaks before a board call. On one day your boss pulls you into a two-hour budget review. And someone on your team is carrying another department's project that they never mentioned.
6 decisions, one debrief
- STEP 1
Read the board and the team
Each task shows its type (client work, analysis, operations or people), its importance, the skill level it needs, its effort in hours and its due day. Each person shows your current read of their skill, and two of them have told you what they want to do more of.
- STEP 2
Monday: assign the first nine tasks
For every open task choose Later, Do it yourself (its full hours from your day), Delegate (half an hour to hand over), Delegate and coach (half the task's hours of your time, with much better odds and real growth), or Drop it and tell the requester. Then name who takes each delegated task.
- STEP 3
Tuesday: read the results and adjust
Tasks come back done, done with rough edges, or unfinished. Notes tell you who made it look easy, who struggled, who lit up on a type of work, and who sent their work at 10pm. A new task lands on the board.
- STEP 4
Wednesday: the squeeze
Another task arrives and deadlines bunch up. Anything due today and left for later is missed. Working past your free hours drains your energy, and tasks you do yourself on an overloaded day are more likely to come out rough.
- STEP 5
Thursday: land the week
The last task drops in. Decide what must land, what you will coach through, and what you will drop on purpose. At 7pm the week closes and anything still open counts as missed.
- STEP 6
The debrief
Your score, four sub-scores and the reveal: each person's real skill by type of work, what they wanted to grow into, their true spare hours, who you underrated and overrated, and which day the surprise meeting fell on.
Who Delegation Dash is for
- Managers who are always the last to leave. If your week ends with your own to-do list longer than anyone else's, this shows you, in hours, where the pattern starts and what changes when you coach instead.
- New team leads. Moving from doing the work to getting it done through others is the hardest shift in a first management job. Here you can practise it on an invented team before you practise it on colleagues.
- L&D teams teaching delegation. Delegation models are easy to explain and hard to apply. This puts a model to work against hidden skill and workload, and gives each participant a scored result to bring to the session.
- Students and graduates heading into team roles. A quick, concrete introduction to prioritisation, capacity and coaching, with a debrief that explains the reasoning rather than just the right answer.
Who should skip it
If you want a template for writing delegation briefs or a workload spreadsheet, this is practice, not paperwork: pair it with the Delegation and Workload Planner kit.
What changes after you have played your week
Most players find one blind spot: a person they misjudged, a task they should have dropped, or a day they spent doing work that was not theirs.
Delegate on evidence, not on comfort
You will start reading every finished task as information about a person's skill by type of work, and update your view of them each day.
Choose coaching on purpose
You will know when half an hour of handover is enough, when a task is a stretch worth coaching, and what that coaching costs from your day.
Drop low-value work without guilt
You will treat dropping a task as a decision you explain to the requester, not a failure you hide, and you will see the difference it makes to the work that matters.
Spot the quietly overloaded person
You will look for the late-night email and the rough edges that signal someone is carrying more than you know, and adjust before they break.
Prioritise a week, not just a day
Sorting by importance and deadline, and protecting your own hours for the few tasks only you can do, is strategic thinking at the scale of a team week. You will practise it against real constraints.
Learning goals
- Match work to people on evidence of skill and spare capacity
- Weigh coaching time now against outcomes and growth later
- Drop low-value work on purpose instead of burning out
Skills practised: Prioritisation under time pressure, Decision making with incomplete information about people, Capacity planning for a small team, Developing people through stretch work, Protecting your own energy.
Competencies scored
Sub-scores map to the open Bodhih Competency Spine, so results sit beside your other learning records.
What the debrief shows
- Your score out of 100 and four sub-scores: outcomes delivered, team growth, delegation quality and your energy, each mapped to a Competency Spine skill.
- What happened: the share of the week's value you delivered, high-importance tasks landed, hours you did yourself versus handed out, tasks coached and poor-fit assignments.
- Behind the curtain: each person's real skill by type of work, what they wanted to grow into, their true spare hours and how much they grew.
- What strong players do, and the key concept, delegation by skill and will.
Delegation by skill and will
Match how you delegate to the person and the task: hand over fully when they have the skill and the capacity, coach when the task stretches them, and keep it yourself only when neither works and it truly matters. Delegating builds the team; doing it yourself only gets today done.
Use Delegation Dash with a team
Seats are $12 each. Buy up to 25 seats online and assign them from your company admin; above that, or for a facilitated programme or an institution licence, request a quote and we activate your seats after payment.
Before a delegation workshop
Ask participants to play once beforehand. The session can start from their own numbers: how many hours they kept, who they misjudged, what they dropped.
A stage in a new-manager pathway
Place it after a module on delegation or coaching in a Bodhih learning pathway, so people apply the idea within the same week, and replay it later to see the habit change.
Assessment centre in-tray, with a scored result
It works like an in-tray exercise with consequences. Each candidate gets a newly seeded week, and the sub-scores give assessors a common starting point for the follow-up interview.
Team challenge through your LMS
Launch it from Canvas, Moodle, Blackboard or D2L via LTI 1.3 with grades passed back, or run a friendly contest on the company leaderboard in Arena points.
Volume pricing
| Seats | Per seat | How to buy |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $12 | Online |
| 2 to 10 | $10.80 | Online |
| 11 to 50 | $9.60 | Online up to 25, then quote |
| 51+ | $8.40 | Quote |
Delegation Dash compared with a case study or slide-based course
| Compared on | A case study or slide-based course | Delegation Dash |
|---|---|---|
| How delegation is taught | A model on a slide and a few examples of when to use each style. | Twelve real-looking tasks and four people; you apply the model, task by task, under a clock. |
| What you know about people | The case tells you who is capable. | Your read may be wrong and workloads are hidden; you learn only from what comes back. |
| Cost of your time | Not modelled. | Every choice uses your eight free hours; going over drains your energy and is scored. |
| Feedback | A group discussion or a short quiz. | A score out of 100, four competency sub-scores and a reveal of each person's real skill. |
| Repeat practice | Once read, the case is spent. | Each play deals a new week: different tasks, skills, workloads and meeting day. |
| Where it is weaker | Better for discussing culture, trust and context in depth. | Narrower: it focuses on one week's assignments, not the whole relationship with each person. |
What to pair with Delegation Dash
The Delegation and Workload Planner (Pro Kit)
The simulation shows you misjudged capacity; this kit's 13-sheet capacity workbook and 66 scripts help you map real workloads and hand over well.
See the kit →Pro KitThe One-to-One and Feedback System (Pro Kit)
Coaching scored as the lever for team growth; regular 1:1s are where you learn what each person wants to grow into before a task tells you.
See the kit →Online courseAI for Managers course
Covers planning, delegation and feedback with an AI assistant over 16 hours, with a graded portfolio built on your own team.
See the course →AssessAll assessmentDelegation and Empowerment assessment (AssessAll)
Measures whether you hand over real ownership or only tasks, a useful second view alongside your delegation-quality sub-score.
Take the assessment →JobularyIndividual development plans on Jobulary
Turn what the debrief taught you about each person's strengths and goals into a development plan they can follow.
Make a growth plan →Related simulations
How much does Delegation Dash cost for one person?
You can buy Delegation Dash for yourself online for $12. That includes unlimited replays, the debrief and the credential if you score 80 or more. Every simulation is sold separately.
What is the price for a team or company?
Seats are $12 each, with volume tiers as the number of seats rises. Up to 25 seats can be bought online. For more than that, for facilitated sessions or for a college licence, request a quote and we will activate the seats once it is agreed.
How many minutes does it take?
About 15 minutes: four short rounds (Monday to Thursday) and the debrief. Your progress is saved if you need to stop.
What do I get when I buy it?
The simulation, a score out of 100 with four sub-scores tied to the Bodhih Competency Spine, a debrief covering what happened, why, what strong players do and the key concept, a reveal of each team member's real skills, and a credential at 80 or more.
Can I replay it?
Yes, as often as you like. Each play deals a new week: which nine tasks start on the board, who is strong at what, who is overloaded, who you misjudge and when the surprise meeting falls all change.
Do I get a certificate?
At a score of 80 or more you earn a Delegation Dash micro-sim credential, issued as an Open Badges 3.0 badge with a public verification page and an Add to LinkedIn button.
Which devices can I use?
Any modern web browser on a laptop, tablet or phone; nothing to install. The task board has several columns, so a laptop or tablet is more comfortable.
Does it work with our LMS?
Yes. It launches through LTI 1.3 from Canvas, Moodle, Blackboard, D2L and similar platforms, with the score returned to the gradebook. It can also sit as a stage inside a Bodhih learning pathway.
Who should play it?
Team leads and managers of any level who struggle to let go of work, L&D teams teaching delegation and coaching, and students preparing for their first team role.
How is it different from a delegation case study or role play?
A case or role play shows one situation once. Here you make dozens of small assignment decisions, see results day by day, and get a reveal of what was hidden. It does not replace a real conversation with a team member; it sharpens the judgement you bring to it.
Is my data private?
Your decisions and scores are stored to run the simulation and show your debrief; the team and tasks are invented, so no real staff details are involved. Results stay within your organisation's account. See bodhih.org/privacy.
Can I try something before I buy, and what about refunds?
Try the free three-round Price War at /taste-arena, no sign-up needed, to see how Arena simulations work. Refund terms are at bodhih.org/refunds.
Find out who on your team you are underrating
In 15 minutes you will see how you really delegate when the board is full: who you trust by default, what you never drop and where your own hours go. Run the week once, read the reveal, then run it again and watch the numbers move.
Want a feel for Arena first? Play the free 3-round Price War.
- Play it as often as you like for 12 months: every play is a new scenario
- A debrief after each play: what happened, why, and what strong players do
- A verifiable credential when you score 80 or more
- Scored on the server, mapped to the Bodhih Competency Spine
Not sure yet? Try the free 3-round Price War first, no sign-up.
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