Flow Game
The flow game is a way to find clarity together
The Flow Game is a powerful tool for creating an interactive reflection, dialogue and action space for groups, teams and individuals. Working through a game is a simple way to ground, strengthen and bring clarity and flow to human beings, their life, leadership and actions.
The Flow Game is deceptively simple. Groups are always surprised at how it creates a supportive, challenging, and unique opportunity to explore the present or future in an intuitive and insightful way.
The concept behind the Flow Game consists of different known methods and processes, which have their own universal nature. It is the combination of dialogue, good questions, quotes, coaching,reflection, the Medicine Wheel structure, the Flow Game board / cloth, the dice and the flow host – that makes the concept unique.
What is Flow Game best used for?
There are 3 versions of the Flow Game
Flow Game for individuals
- Suitable to help explore deep questions before making key decisions.
- Will help build connections with people participating with you in a Flow Game.
- Will help you to build your reflective practice and the work with powerful questions.
Flow game for teams
- Great as a starter of strategic planning processes.
- Great for team building
- Great as a way to generate more listening, empathy, trust and relationship building
Flow Game for families
- Build up connections, improve relationships and make better decisions together.
- Build up your family's ability to reflect, enter into deep dialogue and listen to each other.
How does the Flow Game work?
To play the Flow Game you need to have a question that matters to you. It might be something about work or life, home or community. Perhaps you want to think more deeply about your career or how you can make a contribution in the world. Maybe your question is about being in a better relationship with your family or your colleagues. Maybe your team needs to redefine its strategy and explore openly before choosing a new direction or making decisions about the future. Or you want to ask about a community issue or how you might exercise your leadership in a new and more potent way.
Almost any question can be brought to the Flow Game, however we are not intending to be in therapeutic practice. The focus of the game is to enable each of the players to ask a question that matters to them and gain good counsel from the other players. For this reason, the Flow Game is hosted by a trained Flow Host and the host supports players to craft an appropriate question to bring to the game.
What does a Flow Game look like?
During a Flow Game each player states their question, rolls the dice and then picks up a card from the deck indicated. The cards contain questions, actions and pictures. Players support each other to think more deeply about what the game has offered in response to the question each player brings to the table.
A Flow Game most often is played for 4 – 6 players, though there are creative ways to play larger Flow Games.
Often a Flow Game is played for three to four hours or a full day or more. Sometimes we play shorter games as part of a longer event, like a conference or team building. We also support strategy sessions, teams working on vision, mission and values and people in a wide variety of situations who want to gain a new perspective through taking a new look at the question they hold.
With individuals
Individuals who play the game together bring a wide variety of questions to the table. Working together as an informal “Wisdom Council” players support each other to gain a new perspective on their issues. Through working together, everyone learns and often deep connections are formed.
"The Flow Game is a good tool to facilitate a deeper conversation. Several months after participating in the Flow Game, I find that I am still challenged by some of the questions that came up… they seem to stay relevant beyond the game itself."
"If you ever get a chance to play the Flow Game, clear your schedule and take advantage of the opportunity by doing whatever it takes to make it happen. It’s one of those rare chances to stop for a moment, be present and learn what you need really need to know.”
“Flow game is a wonderful way of really connecting with people and talking about some important issues in your life. (It) creates a wonderful atmosphere of togetherness and mutual growth in an inoffensive and non pressured way. I can’t wait for the next time to play the Flow Game!”
Teams in organisations and communities
The Team cards have been created to support teams of people to work with common questions, issues or challenges in a new and innovative way. The Flow Game can be extremely useful for team integration, strategic planning and setting common ways of working. Teams that want to work on vision, mission, values, principles or longstanding challenges will find the game a great way to gain a fresh perspective. Teams can play with a group focus or overall “umbrella intent” as well as with individual questions.
Where else is the Flow Game being used?
Flow Hosts have been invited into some interesting places to play. One of our hosts plays with prison guards in Denmark. Another takes the game into the women’s prison in Zimbabwe, and another into a men’s prison in India. Two hosts offered the game during the 2009 Climate Conference to people working with climate change. In each of these situations — and many more — the Flow Game offered the space for new perspectives and people working together in service of questions that matter to them.
