Play and (re)build meaningful connections
Both Editions. Tap to expand.
Play it like a social game or ice breaker.
With a group, start by asking a question. Poll everyone for their immediate reaction, then discuss.
Start each business meeting (or class) with a single Socratic question for four weeks. Watch everyone grow more connected and engaged.
Or with friends, play through four or five questions at a gathering.
- Normalize asking real questions
- Normalize participation
- Normalize high energy
While seemingly simple, these questions are also hooks and calls to adventure.
Rules
- Before the gathering, the Host selects the cards to use and the order.
- At the gathering, Host reads the top Socratic question.
- Everyone declares a position (usually by show of hands).
- The Host probes, such as asking “why?”, “what are examples or experiences you have had?”,”how could someone test it?”—and the group asks questions of each other.
- [Optional] Each participant awards one point (or a character callout) to the participant who made the most insightful comment (the bon mot).
- Repeat for the agreed number of questions.
Grow through completing challenges, and make the world your playground
Leadership Edition. Tap to expand.
Play over days and weeks, using biweekly or weekly gatherings.
Take on challenges that speak to you, and encourage the people around you to make real world progress as well.
The middle "catalyst" question and optional bottom activity on each Leadership Edition card provide real ways to matter more at work and home. And even make workplaces a bit more like Ted Lasso's (or John Wooden's).
- Normalize making progress on the journeys that matter
- Normalize community strengthening
- Normalize running experiments to answer important questions
Easy challenges return more energy than they cost to complete, and harder challenges return even more energy.
Rules
- At the beginning of the gathering, anyone who completed a previous challenge shares their experience.
- Engage in a group discussion of the top Socratic question (from the card chosen by the host).
- Engage in a group discussion of the middle "catalyst" question.
- Present the optional challenge from the bottom of the card; do not request commitments at this time.
- Participants may choose to commit to the presented challenge or select a different one (or do nothing) after the meeting concludes.
Lead by taking the Mentor Path, and test-drive your inner hero
Leadership Edition. Tap to expand.
Play over weeks or months.
Imagine a culture that rigorously develops mentors and leaders, where people regularly take on greater challenges to become more powerful and improve their community.
The Socratic Cards Leadership Edition include a viral Mentor Path that any group can use to propagate a trackable transformation.
- Normalize asking for help
- Normalize mentoring others
- Normalize a culture that improves itself and its members
The Mentor Path lays out predicable and achievable steps to a total transformation, powered by fun and growth.
▶ Learn more about The Mentor Path
Socratic Cards Leadership Development Edition can be used for a viral “Mentor Path” for communities with members who want to lead and help others grow.
Participants follow a clear, four-step progression:
1. Complete two Level 1 challenges
2. Complete two Level 2 challenges, with mentor sign-off
3. Complete two Level 3 challenges, with mentor sign-off
4. As a mentor, sign off on six challenges for others
Participants choose their own challenges and ask mentors to validate real work—creating a trackable, community-driven development loop.
▶ Created by global leadership expert Clark Aldrich.
Clark Aldrich shares how Socratic Cards develop leaders.
Karl Kapp Interview: Karl Kapp interviews Clark Aldrich
Rob Alvarez Bucholska Interview: The Blueprint to Leading High-Performing Teams from Day 1
Jake Stahl Interview: Why Organizations Fail to Unlock Human Potential
About Clark Aldrich
Aldrich is a global expert on growing leaders, who has worked with C-level executives from scores of the world’s most influential organizations, including at the NSA where he served on the board and held Top Secret Clearance. The former Gartner analyst who founded their eLearning coverage – and Training Magazine columnist – Aldrich also has written six books on pedagogy (several of which are taught at the post-graduate level).
His published written work has been at the forefront of: eLearning (Gartner Research, starting 1997); simulation- and game-based learning (Simulation and the Future of Learning, 2003); microschools (Unschooling Rules, 2011); action-based learning through concise scenarios (Short Sims, 2020); and heroic tribes (tba, 2026).
And his products—award- and patent-winning pioneers of actionable and experiential learning, which have been covered extensively including by The New York Times, ABC, CBS, NPR, ESPN, and CNN—follow two branches:
• Aldrich has created over 100 educational simulations and computer-based serious games. This work culminated in the revolutionary, democratizing pedagogy of Short Sims, which makes simulation design accessible to any creator for any learner on any topic.
• Aldrich also creates real-world based experiential learning. His latest and most transformative is Socratic Cards, which role models and enables the next generation's vision for education and work.
Order now (US Only)
Conversations that Matter Edition shipping in May. Leadership Transformation Edition shipping now.
Socratic Cards — Conversations that Matter Edition
50 cards with Socratic questions.
$25 + free shipping
Socratic Cards — Leadership Transformation Edition
100 cards with Socratic questions and challenges for the Mentor Path.
$55 + free shipping