The Snowflake Game

games Jun 14, 2021

Good afternoon readers,

For those of you in the UK at the moment, or perhaps England at least, I think you will agree that it is fairly warm! We're cooling things down a little bit today by talking about the Snowflake game. 

Communicating an idea isn’t just about providing all of the necessary information, it requires that the information is understood. Even if you have the greatest business model in the world, nothing can come of it if your employees and peers have no idea what you expect them to do. The snowflake game aims to show how difficult it can be to both give and understand instructions and the importance of clear communication.

The steps to play are as follows:

  1. Divide into groups composed on snowflake designers and snowflake manufacturers.
  2. The manufacturers will leave the room.
  3. Each group of snowflake designers design a paper snowflake by making cuts in a folded piece of paper.
  4. Designers will then write a set of instructions for their snowflake manufacturers.
  5. Manufacturers return to the room­.
  6. The manufacturers will, without input from the designers, attempt to re-create the original snowflake from the instructions given.
  7. The winning team will be selected based on the similarity of the manufactured snowflake to the original and the complexity of the snowflake design.

Once the game is completed, gather as a group to reflect upon the outcomes and discuss the key ideas and questions surrounding the game.

Questions to consider:

How did the complexity of the design effect the effectiveness of the written instructions? Did the design team underestimate the difficulty?

What were the different perspectives between the design team and manufacturer?

What could have been done to make the process more effective and leaner?

How might the lessons learned from this game apply to the workplace?

Effective communication is key to business success, so it is vital to understand the complexities and put oneself in other people’s shoes when providing instructions or discussion ideas.

Skills, tools and techniques the Snowflake Game may help you with include Communication, PDCA, Standard Work and Teamwork.

If you would like to find out more about how we can help, you can contact us at [email protected]