During our annual Board retreat in Genoa, Nevada this year we did something different. Board and staff participated in a communication exercise involving a monster, lots of whispering and a certain amount of fast walking.

The Set Up: Thirty-five participants were divided into six teams, each comprised of one LOOKER, one DRAWER, and four TRANSLATORS.

The DRAWER is at one end of the room with paper and markers, and never gets to see the picture.

The LOOKER is able to see the picture, but never speaks to the DRAWER.

The TRANSLATORS carry information from the LOOKER to the DRAWER and also never see the picture.

How It Works: The LOOKER looks at the picture and gives a description to the TRANSLATORS.

One TRANSLATOR at a time takes the information received by the LOOKER and relays it verbally to the DRAWER.

The TRANSLATORS make as many trips back and forth between the LOOKER and the DRAW-ER as necessary.

The teams were given 15 minutes to draw their monsters, and here are the results:

The original picture

The Results: If you compare the original picture to each of the team pictures, everyone did a pretty good job. It’s apparent that most of the teams knew they were drawing Frankenstein. They all have square heads, boots and buttons. There are small details that each team is missing. But which details are more important; which are less important?

What We Learned: The purpose of the exercise is similar to the telephone game, in which information relayed from one person to another, and another (and so on), often is completely different than the original message. This is how miscommunication, misunderstanding and rumors occur. If you think about it, problems in our work or family lives often boil down to communication. I’m reminded of a quote our Executive Director uses from the movie Cool Hand Luke, by the Warden “What we have here is a failure to communicate.”

If we all make an effort to be more clear and concise in our communications (whether it be face-to-face, email, texting, or written notes or letters), then we can be reasonably assured that this information is correct. Texting involves so many abbreviations and short cuts, it seems one must be a teenager to decipher it. “CYA” may mean “see you” in text language, but something else in the business world (cover your assets).