Kim’s Game
I spent a lot of time between 2000 and 2010 or so looking for drills and games to increase situational awareness…
of the experts on awareness were people who had spent long years and decades in environments where it mattered. They’d developed that awareness over time, and had little advice for civilians looking to up their awareness game in regular life.
Then, for some reason, it seems like a metric buttload of people added KIM’s game to books about personal safety, all in the last few years. It makes me wonder if something got declassified, but it’s as likely as not I just missed the boat until starting this project.
Whatever the reason, KIM’s game is a drill you can do yourself, a game you can play with your children, and a training exercise used by high-end operators throughout the world. I heard about it first during my interview with Jim Alsup, but later in books by Alain Burrese and Gary Quesenberry.
Kim’s Game: The History
Kim stands for Keep In Mind, but also draws its name from a story by Rudyard Kipling. Kim was an Irish Orphan in 19th century India who gets trained to be a spy. In the story, he plays a version of KIM’s game. (I’m gonna just spell it Kim from here on out even though it’s an acronym.
Kim’s Game: How to Play
The concept is simple, but you can scale it up basically infinitely. Start small, especially with little ones.
Step One: Gather Materials
You will need a blanket or towel, and six to twelve objects of whatever kind you like. The game from the book used stones of different kinds, types and colors. Military training often uses military equipment. You could use kitchen gadgets, kids toys, game pieces, or whatever you want.
Step Two: Lay the Materials Out
Set up the items you gather in a space about the size of a garbage can lid.
Step Three: The Player Looks at the Objects
Give them a minute or two minutes, timed, to view everything. If it helps them to touch, that’s allowed but they don’t get to move the objects.
Step Four: Cover the Objects
Pull the blanket or towel over the objects.
Step Five: Play
The play stage of Kim’s game takes lots of variations. In the book, the player had to then list the items they had seen. They win if they write them all correctly (or if you’re competing, the person with the most correct or the fastest time to get all correct wins).
Beyond that basic, you can escalate the difficulty by demanding a more detailed accounting:
Make sure they include the color (a “red toy car” not “a toy car”)
Use a group of similar objects so small details are what differentiates them
Have the player draw what they remember, including their relative position
Increase the time between covering the objects and asking for recall, or give a time limit for completion
Add more items to remember
Have the player remember only items that fit a certain category
Kim’s Game: What’s the Point?
Observation is a skill, which means you get better at it when you’ve practiced. By building an eye for detail and a framework for recalling what we’ve seen, we become better observers while out in the world.
Which brings us to a powerful upgrade. Play Kim’s game while out in the world, only using people you pass by. Ask your child to describe one of the people you pass at the grocery, and they get points for every detail they remember.
You get the idea.