Polle de Maagt 
Polle de Maagt
Story.
I try to teach my children to treat people with kindness. So in 2019, a description of a classroom game caught my attention.
One child was the secret “mole”. Their task was not to sabotage anything, but to give compliments and be nice without revealing their role.
At the end of the day, the class guessed who the mole had been.
The person sharing the example reported that other children started acting like the mole too. They gave compliments and joined in with the kindness.
What they did.
The game borrowed the idea of a hidden player from The Mole. In the television format, the hidden player works against the group. In this classroom version, the hidden player quietly helps it.
The role was secret. The behaviour was visible. Anyone could copy it.
The guessing game made a compliment something to notice, not just something a teacher instructed children to give.
Why it works.
The interesting design choice is that copying the hidden player does not spoil the aim of the game. It helps fulfil it.
The more people act kindly, the harder it becomes to identify the mole. That is a useful kind of confusion.
It also gives children something specific to do: give a compliment or make a kind gesture. “Be nicer” becomes an action someone else can see.
This is a reported classroom example, not evidence that the game improves behaviour in every group. The original post did not identify the school or provide an evaluation.
Try it yourself.
A teacher or facilitator could adapt the idea by quietly inviting one willing participant to make kind gestures during the day. At the end, ask the group which helpful actions they noticed before asking who they think had the secret role.
Keep participation voluntary. Do not rank children by how kind they were or insist that everyone produce a compliment. Keep the attention on genuine actions, not forced praise.
For a team at work, the safer starting point may be simpler: notice and describe useful things colleagues did, without a hidden role at all.
At the end of a group activity, ask everyone to name one specific helpful thing they noticed. Make the behaviour visible before making it a competition.
Source: my “Best practice: Secret ‘Mole’ making compliments”, 25 February 2019. The classroom example came from a public post by @MiesMies85, 22 February 2019. This credits the person sharing the example, not a confirmed inventor. The suggested adaptations above are not claims about how the original class ran it. Toy mole made with Midjourney.
