Snowflake

Resources

Props

Sheets of paper

Environment

Indoor
Outdoor

Step-by-Step Instructions

Ask your group to sit comfortably on the floor or in chairs.
Distribute a sheet of paper to each person.
Holding the paper in their hands, invite each person to close their eyes until you ask them to open them again.
Announce a set of very clear instructions, which you want everyone to follow.
No one is permitted to ask any questions.
Announce the following instructions, with short pauses between each one:
– FOLD YOUR PAPER IN HALF & KEEP IT FOLDED.
– TEAR OFF THE BOTTOM RIGHT-HAND CORNER.
– DISCARD THE TORN SECTION TO YOUR SIDE.
– FOLD YOUR PAPER IN HALF AGAIN & KEEP IT FOLDED.
– TEAR OFF THE TOP LEFT-HAND CORNER.
– DISCARD THE TORN SECTION.
– FOLD YOUR PAPER INTO HALF AGAIN & KEEP IT FOLDED.
– TEAR OFF THE BOTTOM LEFT-HAND CORNER.
– DISCARD THE TORN SECTION.
– FOLD YOUR PAPER INTO HALF AGAIN & KEEP IT FOLDED.
– USING YOUR TEETH IF NECESSARY, TEAR OFF THE TOP RIGHT-HAND CORNER.
– DISCARD THE TORN SECTION.
– FINALLY, FOLD YOUR PAPER IN HALF DIAGONALLY & PRESS ON FOLD AS BEST YOU CAN.
– YOU MAY NOW OPEN YOUR EYES.”
Invite your group to share with one another what they now observe.
Take a few minutes to debrief the exercise, exploring why every ‘snowflake’ looks different, and what this exercise says about communication, teamwork and valuing diversity.

Video Tutorial

Video Transcript for Snowflake
presented by Mark Collard

This next exercise is going to involve a sheet of paper. Do not concern yourself with what is written on it because I have more of these than I need. So for now just grab yourself a sheet of paper. You don’t even have to look at it, you can put it to the other side, because you’re going to end up using this sheet of paper very shortly.

It’s possible you may have had an experience of this nature before, and if so it’s going to be unique because you won’t have done it in this context with this group.

But in a moment I’m going to ask you to use this sheet of paper by following my verbal instructions. I’ll be very clear, I’ll be very sure everyone is able to hear me, and all I ask you to do is to follow those instructions.

And I will be able to tell when everyone has completed the instruction and I’ll give you the next instruction. There’s literally half a dozen or so instructions. It won’t take very long.

But the kicker to this is two things. One, you cannot ask me any questions. You will no doubt have a question in your mind. You need to resist the temptation to ask me the question.

So if a question comes up, please do not ask it. Later on I might invite you to share what one or more of those questions were, but right now I simply ask that you hold it and just follow the instructions as best as you can.

And finally, and this will not be new to anyone who has done the experience before, your eyes are closed throughout the whole experience. Some people find it difficult to have their eyes closed while they’re doing something, that is they are tempted to open their eyes to check what they’re doing. Work hard to resist that temptation.

If for any reasons, and who knows why, you might need to actually open your eyes to refocus or something, there’s no risk of looking into the sun inside, so just look up, refocus, do whatever you need to do before you close your eyes to come back down into the experience.

So resist the temptation to look at what you or anyone else is doing. You will all have ample time shortly to discover what’s occurred.

Okay, got the basics?

Alright, please close your eyes, remembering that you cannot ask any questions. My instruction to you is to simply follow my instructions as best you can, one step at a time.

Your first instruction is to fold the sheet of paper you’re holding in your hand into half, keeping our eyes closed at all times.

Using your fingers down the edge of the fold, press it down very hard if you have not already done that.

Holding your sheet of paper in your hand, I want you to tear the bottom right-hand corner completely away from the sheet, roughly an inch wide. So the piece that you’re about to tear off will be about an inch wide.

You can discard the excess in front of you. You do not need to hold it any longer.

With your eyes continuing to be closed, I ask you now to fold the paper into half again. And once again score firmly down the fold.

I would now like you to tear the top-right corner away from the paper, again roughly an inch wide, and discard the excess.

We have only a few instructions left. Fold the paper into half again. Firmly run down the fold of the paper, taking the top left-hand corner and tear it away, half an inch. There’s only one final instruction. Any excess you have you may discard.

Imagining what you’re holding has four sides, I want you to take the bottom-right corner and fold it over diagonally so that it meets the top-left corner. So basically create a triangle fold in what you’re holding, effectively still in half but triangularly, and press firmly down the fold.

Okay, you may now open your eyes.

Apart from the trash that appears at your feet, now comes the big unveiling. I invite you now to unfold your piece of paper, and hold it in a way that you can actually show it, writing towards you but just the blank towards everybody else.

(people unfold their Snowflake)

Alright, immediately what do you notice?

(They’re all different.)

They’re all different. Indeed in nature there is one thing that is created at wintertime that we talk about how there is never, never two the same. What is that thing?

(Snowflake.)

A snowflake. So if you could imagine, these look like snowflakes. And in fact, that is the name of the exercise. So alright, that’s one thing you’ve noticed. What else do you notice?

This is an extraordinarily dynamic and rich activity and just in a medley I’m going to pick up a few key things but I do want to also value the experience that you’ve just had.

So first of all, deliberately you weren’t able to ask any questions, but now what were the questions you would’ve loved to have asked and what would have been the first one?

(Hamburger or hot dog fold?)

What’s a hamburger fold?

(Hamburger fold is this, hot dog is long…)

I’ve never heard of that before.

(Half like how?)

So hamburger or hot dog fold, or lengthways or widthways, got it. Fantastic.

That was your first question. What other questions would you have if you could’ve asked?

(For the first rip, was it lower-right?)

I think it was lower-right, yes.

(I would’ve asked on the folded end or…)

So lower-right, lower-right… You had at least four lower-rights, depending on how you hold it.

Again, deliberately ambiguous for that purpose. Good.

How To Play Narrative

Gather your group, and ask them to sit comfortably on the floor or in chairs.

Distribute a sheet of paper to each person.

Holding the paper in their hands, invite each person to close their eyes until you ask them to open them again. Sometimes, for the benefit of those sneaky folk who just can’t resist looking, it’s useful to explain that the exercise will take no longer than a minute or so.

Next, explain that you will soon announce a set of very clear instructions, one by one, which you want everyone to follow. However, no one is permitted to ask any questions. None. Encourage people, that if a question comes up, to solve the problem without speaking. This is very important – you’ll see why soon.

You’re now ready to make snow.

Checking that everyone’s eyes are closed (you may keep yours open,) clearly say the following instructions, one at a time, with appropriate pauses in between:

“FOLD YOUR PAPER IN HALF & KEEP IT FOLDED.
TEAR OFF THE BOTTOM RIGHT-HAND CORNER.
DISCARD THE TORN SECTION TO YOUR SIDE.
FOLD YOUR PAPER IN HALF AGAIN & KEEP IT FOLDED.
TEAR OFF THE TOP LEFT-HAND CORNER.
DISCARD THE TORN SECTION.
FOLD YOUR PAPER INTO HALF AGAIN & KEEP IT FOLDED.
TEAR OFF THE BOTTOM LEFT-HAND CORNER.
DISCARD THE TORN SECTION.
FOLD YOUR PAPER INTO HALF AGAIN & KEEP IT FOLDED.
USING YOUR TEETH IF NECESSARY, TEAR OFF THE TOP RIGHT-HAND CORNER.
DISCARD THE TORN SECTION.
FINALLY, FOLD YOUR PAPER IN HALF DIAGONALLY & PRESS ON THE FOLD AS BEST YOU CAN.
YOU MAY NOW OPEN YOUR EYES.”

Now, with your group’s eyes opened, sit back and absorb the full range of reactions you will have generated. “Yours is different to mine,” “I’ve screwed it up,” “Mine looks so pretty,” “Hey?,” etc, the whole gamut.

As a fun little exercise, you could leave it here, but I would strongly recommend taking a few minutes to debrief or process the outcome (take a look at the Reflection Tips tab.) Focus on why every person’s paper looks different, and what this exercise can teach your group about communication, teamwork and valuing diversity.

Clearly, the analogy is that, like a snowflake, we are all different. We all see and hear things differently, often from diverse perspectives.

Also, from the perspective of teamwork, a snowball (all the flakes bunched tightly together) is much more powerful than a single snowflake. Tie these powerful metaphors into your conversation, and you will likely squeeze a lot more value from the exercise than just having fun.

Practical Leadership Tips

You may need to remind people, very quickly to stunt any chatter, that no questions can be asked, ever.

Do not give too much away at the beginning. It is critical that if you are to achieve the desired impact at the end, you must preserve the adventure (ie un-anticipated outcomes) as much as possible.

I recommend completing at least four folds, preferably five, to give the best results. Though, I will admit, that the final tear is a doozy. That’s why teeth sometimes come in handy.

Not familiar with the symbolism of a snowflake? Click here to learn why it’s so special.

Social-Emotional Learning

You could integrate Snowflake as part of a well-designed SEL program to develop your group’s ability to understand the perspectives of and empathise with others including those from diverse backgrounds and cultures.

Specifically, this activity offers ample opportunities to explore and practice the following social & interpersonal skills:

Self-Awareness

Recognising Strengths, Prejudices & Biases
Demonstrating Self-Confidence, Honesty & Integrity

Self-Management

Demonstrating Self-Discipline & Self-Motivation
Setting Personal & Group Goals
Taking Initiative
Use Planning & Organisational Skills

Social Awareness

Taking Other’s Perspectives
Demonstrating Empathy & Compassion
Understanding & Expressing Gratitude
Appreciating Diversity
Recognising Strengths In Others
Respecting Others

Relationship Skills

Communicate & Listen Effectively
Build Positive Relationships
Demonstrate Cultural Competency
Work Collaboratively
Showing Leadership
Resolving Conflict Constructively

Responsible Decision-Making

Demonstrating Curiosity & Open-Mindedness
Identifying Problems
Making Reasoned Judgements
Identifying Solutions
Anticipating & Evaluating the Consequences of One’s Actions
Promoting Personal & Collective Well-Being

You can learn more about SEL and how it can support character education here.

Health & Wellness Programming

Goal-Setting

Snowflake is a wonderful exercise to conduct as part of a formal goal-setting or vision-setting program. When a group can respect and embrace all of the different perspectives of its members, it is more likely that any goal or vision that they set will be more inclusive and rewarding when achieved. To this end, frame the activity as an opportunity to help your group understand what makes a goal achievable, more than just the typical SMART goal setting guidelines. This exercise would be an ideal precursor to dedicated goal-setting activities such as Vision Board and Reflection Board.

Leadership

Use this activity to prepare your group to explore what effective leadership looks like. As described elsewhere, if we consider that the verbal instructions of the leader will likely create a wide variety of solutions, what does this say about their leadership? What was missing to make it more effective, eg clarity of communication. Also, as with all snowflakes, there is no one type of effective leadership – everyone has their own style.

Behavioural Norms

Leverage the powerful conversations from this gentle exercise to help your group understand that what the presence of so many (different) snowflakes means for the healthy development of your group. For example, help them to acknowledge that reaching a consensus may not always be easy, or that strength is often discovered when a group adds curiosity to their different perspectives.

Popular Variations

Scissor Action: Involve the use of scissors and create extraordinarily intricate snowflake designs. Just ask people to be careful as they do the cutting.
Diversity Matters: Take a look at Pick & Choose, Negotiation and Poker Face to explore more powerful group exercises that highlight the value of diversity.
Open the Virtual Adaptation tab to learn how to present this activity online.

Virtual Adaptation

Ask each person to grab a sheet of paper and return to the online meeting. It’s great if the sheets are the same size (eg A4 or US Letter) but it really doesn’t matter. If you have a choice, go big. Conduct the exercise as per normal and, when ready, invite your participants to unfurl their snowflake in front of the camera. Process as usual.
Tip: ask everyone to hold their snowflakes in front of the camera at the same time and take a screenshot – it’s always an impressive result and can be used as a constant reminder of your team’s diversity.

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Useful Framing Ideas

Note: often the best way to frame this experience is within the context of a team-building program. If you say too much up front in regards ‘snowflakes’ and valuing diversity, you are bound to telegraph the result, and possibly spoil the adventure.

Reflection Tips & Strategies

Coupled with one or more reflection strategies, here are some sample questions you could use to process your group’s experience after playing this simple, yet very powerful group exercise:

Why does everyone’s creation look different?
What was the first question you wanted to ask, if you could have? What was the second, etc?
Whose design is the right one?
What might this result suggest in terms of how this group may work together?
What are the strengths and limitations of everyone being different?
What impact does this knowledge have on your performance as a group?

Program Templates

Large Group ‘Team-Building’ Session

What You Need:
10+ people, 60 mins, sheets of paper, 1+ hula-hoops

Mirror Stretch – active partner exercise which sharpens observation skills
Everybody Up – series of partner & small group challenges
Snowflake – intriguing blindfold exercise to focus on diversity
Through The Wringer – excellent multi-group challenge that will inspire creativity

Source

The inspiration for Snowflake, and many more powerful team-building activities, was sourced from the following publication:

Front cover of Count Me In Large Group Games That Work book, by Mark Collard

COUNT ME IN - $39.00 USD

Contributor Mark

Add your Comments...

Have you played this activity? What worked, what didn't work? What type of group? Do you have useful advice for other users? Do you know a fun variation?

Comments (1)

SCEC November 8, 2017
I recently used this activity to talk about applied learning. I gave them Paper folding and tearing “theory” and then they needed to learn from that and apply it to a real world (repeat the activity with 2-way dialogue) scenario. Worked like a charm.

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Snowflake

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Resources

Props

Environment

Step-by-Step Instructions

Video Tutorial

How To Play Narrative

Practical Leadership Tips

Social-Emotional Learning

Health & Wellness Programming

Popular Variations

Virtual Adaptation

You Might Also Like...

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Paper Golf

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Mystery Aeroplane

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Album Cover

Useful Framing Ideas

Reflection Tips & Strategies

Program Templates

Large Group ‘Team-Building’ Session

Source

Add your Comments...

Comments (1)

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