The Flow Game offers a unique way to work with questions that matter and our hosts have taken it into some very interesting settings!
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.
Campfire Co-op members turned the game on ourselves as a way of gaining clarity on future direction of our organisation. Our question was What is the work that is needed right now – that is Campfire’s to do? We gained clarity of our purpose, who we might work with, and who could support us. We also had powerful insights on our contribution to the world, measuring our impact, making wiser decisions, keeping a clear focus and practising authentic leadership. We will continue to play the Flow Game, and consider it our wise council.
— The Campfire Co-op team, Australia and Europe
Going through the Flow Game with the members of Evolution at Work at our Purpose Agent Retreat brought a very special depth to our gathering. With the game we were able to take a deep dive into the question ‘What does the world need from Evolution at Work NOW?’, which took us on a playful, yet deeply meaningful journey to rich and transformative answers.
— Christiane Seuhs-Schoeller, Evolution at Work, Vienna
As manager of a disability service I am always looking for novel ways to bring our team together and invite their input into collaborative planning that keeps us relevant and moving forward. We were grappling with how we could hold the essence and deep values-driven work we had built in a new funding environment that challenges the core of our relational practice framework. We inquired using the question: What form do we need to take to ensure we maintain our core values and approach to support? This was over 18 months ago now and we are still using what we learned as a mechanism for inducting new people into the management team.
— Ann Greer, then Manager, Community Connections Disability Service, Townsville
Playing the Flow Game with teams is a way of addressing what is hard. It allows for difficult conversations to be more accessible.
— Jan Hein Neilson – Flow Game co-founder and steward
Where else?
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.
We were invited to bring the Flow Game to the mothers at Chikurubi Female Prison, Zimbabwe, so they could openly discuss their personal challenges and questions. Some of the questions that the mothers tackle are: Will my family and community accept me once I leave prison? How will I provide for my children? How can I let go of anger and bitterness? How can I forgive? and many more.
There are many insights that have come from the Flow Game at Chikurubi. One thing is for sure it has provided a safe place where women in very difficult circumstances are able to share openly ‘person to person’ forgetting – for a moment – the barriers that keep them apart.
An interesting future possibility would be playing a monthly game with newly released mothers. Many of the women leaving Chikurubi arrive in situations where they are not welcomed or supported by their communities, find their homes taken over by other women or relatives, are unable to find employment and thus cannot provide for their family. They are in desperate need for support in order to be reintegrated into society and not become repeat offenders who end up back at Chikurubi.
— Mutheu Bomba, Harare, Zimbabwe