Candle Transport Challenge
Used For 💡
Demonstrating — through direct experience — the power of rapid iteration, experimentation, and learning-by-doing in innovation and leadership contexts.
Group Size 👫
Minimum: 6 participants (2 teams of 3)
Maximum: Depends significantly on number of facilitators; could go up to 100+ participants
Total Time ⏳
Structural set-up: ~45 minutes (details in video above)
Execution: ~30 minutes
Debrief: ~20 minutes
What This Is 🤔
The Candle Transport Challenge is a hands-on innovation exercise that makes iteration unavoidable. Teams must design, test, fail, and adapt under time pressure — revealing how real learning happens when plans meet reality.
It’s been used with executives, engineers, and students alike because it turns abstract ideas like prototyping and learning from failure into lived experience.
(Note: A special shoutout to Alex Utne, my former colleague at the University of Tromsø’s Lab for Design Thinkers, for coming up with this absolute classic exercise!)
The Challenge 🎯
Each team must transport a lit candle across a 2–3 meter water-filled canal, using:
A self-built contraption
A fan as the only propulsion method
Fastest successful crossing wins.
Materials 🧰
Each team receives an identical kit:
1 × A4 sheet of paper
1 × meter of metal foil
2 × candles
1 × piece of cardboard
Electrical tape
Knife cutter
Glue gun (optional)
Lighter
Wire
2 × wooden rods
Materials can vary — standardization across teams is what matters.
How It Works 🔩
1. Brief the Challenge
You have 25 minutes to build a contraption that gets one burning candle across the canal
You can use only the material in the kit provided
No touching the solution after releasing it
You can test your solution as many times as you want
We will be keeping track of your times on the board – fastest time wins!
Facilitation Slides 🖥️
What You’re Practicing 🎯
Rapid prototyping
Iteration under uncertainty
Learning from failure
Team coordination and leadership
Decision-making with incomplete information
Facilitation Roles 🙆
Recommended: at least 2 facilitators
Timer & Lighter
Lights candles
Times each attempt
Scorekeeper
Tracks results: registering number of attempts with a check mark (not an “x”), and successes by writing down the time
Makes learning visible (unsuccessful attempts vs. times)
Why It Works 🏗️
The canal represents uncertainty. The contraption represents a solution hypothesis. Testing reveals reality.
Teams that iterate early and usually outperform teams that over-plan. This mirrors real innovation dynamics: learning speed matters more than initial brilliance.
What the Research Says 🔬
Stanford scholars show that teams who prototype early and often consistently outperform teams that focus on perfecting a single idea before testing. Under time pressure, rapid iteration leads not only to better solutions, but also to higher creativity and confidence — even among complete beginners. The study reinforces a core innovation principle: learning speed matters more than initial brilliance, and progress beats perfection every time.
Pro Tips 🥠
Encourage teams to test before they feel ready.
Visibly celebrate failed tests as learning moments.
Resist giving hints — struggle is instructional.
Common Pitfalls ⚠️
Teams spending too long designing without testing.
Facilitators rescuing teams too early or making it too obvious that lots of testing is the goal.
Focusing only on winning instead of learning.
Optional Debrief (15–25 min) 💬
When did real learning start for your team?
What assumptions did you test — and which surprised you?
Who led, and how did leadership shift over time?
Where do you see this pattern in your organization?
The Takeaway 🥡
The Candle Transport Challenge makes one thing unmistakably clear: learning happens faster through action, not only analysis. Teams that test early, adapt quickly, and embrace failure don’t just win the game — they build better solutions.
Innovation isn’t neat. It’s iterative, social, and a little wet.