Template for Practices SOLSTICE

 

 

Babel Tower (Mission Impossible – Intercultural Communication Exercise)

 
 
 
 
1.    Summary
The Babel Tower focuses on intercultural communication, collaboration, and meaning-making under linguistic constraints. Participants work in subgroups to complete creative and practical tasks while communicating exclusively in their mother tongues.
 
2.    Introduction
The Babel Tower exercise is a popular team-building game. The objective is to raise awareness of communication barriers in culturally and linguistically diverse teams and to explore alternative strategies for cooperation beyond a shared dominant language.
 
The exercise highlights how cultural backgrounds, implicit assumptions, and communication strategies influence group dynamics and collective problem-solving.
 
The most well-known variation consists of groups being required to build a tower collaboratively with limited materials (like spaghetti & marshmallows or blocks) under communication restrictions, often involving secret instructions or "different languages", to highlight collaboration, planning, and overcoming barriers, mirroring the well-known story's theme of misunderstood communication and scattered efforts. Teams must strategise non-verbally or with coded language to meet specific, sometimes conflicting, goals, emphasising problem-solving, adaptability, and shared vision to succeed. 
 
Common Variations:
●        Marshmallow & Spaghetti Towers: Teams use dry spaghetti and marshmallows (or toothpicks) to build the tallest freestanding structure, often with limited talking.
●        LEGO/Block Towers: Teams use blocks with secret individual instructions (KPIs) or design constraints (e.g., specific colours in certain layers) to build a tower, forcing negotiation and shared understanding.
●        Foreman & Builder: A pair where the "Foreman" can only use non-verbal cues (gestures and eyes) to guide the "Builder" in constructing a shape.
 
The theme emerged in the field of experiential training and group learning in the mid-20th century, influenced by trends such as the following:
●        group dynamics (Kurt Lewin),
●        experiential learning,
●        and the first team-building programmes.
 
It draws inspiration from a well-known metaphor: people trying to build something together but facing problems with communication, coordination, and mutual understanding. Building on this, it was designed as a practical activity in which teams must construct a structure using limited resources, under rules that hinder communication or create information asymmetries.
 
3.    Why is the exercise relevant for preventing, managing and resolving conflicts in international research teams.
 
International research teams often rely on English as a dominant working language, which can mask power asymmetries, implicit biases, and unequal participation. Babel Tower helps make these dynamics visible by removing the shared language and forcing participants to confront misunderstandings, frustration, and ambiguity.
The Tower of Babel exercise helps prevent conflicts because it allows the group to experience common problems related to communication, leadership, and coordination in a safe environment before they arise in real-life situations. By highlighting misunderstandings, unequal roles, and snap judgements, people become aware of how their behaviour can create tension.
Through subsequent reflection, the group improves its communication style, learns to interpret differences more effectively and establishes clearer working agreements, which reduces the likelihood of conflicts escalating and facilitates more mindful management when they do arise.
 
4.    Related scaffolds & units
●        Scaffold: Scaffold 1 – Introduction to Cultural Awareness and Solution-Focused Approach
The practice introduces participants to cultural self-awareness, mutual understanding, and constructive coping strategies when facing diversity-related challenges.
●        Unit: Topic 1 – The intersection of Dominant Narratives, Implicit Biases, and Cultural Backgrounds in R&D Babel Tower directly addresses how dominant linguistic narratives shape participation, decision-making, and inclusion in international research teams.
 
5.    How to do the practise?
This practice is designed for the team/group perspective, as learning emerges from collective interaction, negotiation, and shared reflection (1-1.5 hours).
    Step 1 – Preparation (10 minutes)The facilitator explains the objective of the exercise and establishes the key rule: participants may only communicate in their mother tongues and are not allowed to use any other language.
 
The challenge is presented to the group by inviting them to build either a) the highest tower using the provided materials or b) a structure that must fulfil a specific function (e.g., stability, height, or transportability). They must negotiate the design without a shared language, without anticipating difficulties, and without mentioning conflict.
Teams of three to five people are formed, and the materials are distributed.
 
The facilitator should foster an atmosphere of curiosity and trust, explain the instructions clearly but without adding their interpretations, and ensure that everyone understands the task without giving any clues as to what will happen next.
 
Subgroups are also encouraged to interact, for example, to share materials or offer suggestions for improving construction. Participants must rely on non-verbal cues, visual aids, and creative strategies.
    Step 2 – Construction of the structure (30 minutes) The teams work on the construction project while tensions, deadlocks, or misunderstandings arise. The facilitator observes closely without intervening, noting behaviours, moments of conflict, power dynamics, or exclusion, and refrains from helping or resolving the issue so as not to interfere with the experience. 
    Step 4 – Reflection and discussion (20 minutes) First, each person reflects individually on what they have felt and thought and how they have interpreted the behaviour of others. 
●        What feelings/thoughts/ideas/emotions did I experience during the activity?
●        What frustrated me the most?
●        What did I think of the others?
Next, they share their experiences with the group. 
The facilitator helps subgroups interact by applying solution-focused-inspired questions that focus on how they managed to solve the tasks together. Questions might be:
-          "Can you identify three issues you found in developing this task?" 
-          "Can you describe three strategies you applied to solve those issues?"
-          "Can you identify three skills/competencies your subgroup applied to develop these strategies?"
-          etc. ...
Final step – Debrief and reflection. (20 minutes)The group reflects on the parallels with their day-to-day work in an international research collaboration context and identifies underlying factors that cause difficulties.
Several agreements are reached to improve conflict management within the team.
The facilitator helps translate the experience into practical lessons, summarises key ideas, and guides the group in formulating clear and realistic commitments. 
The facilitator guides the process with open-ended questions, helps participants explore issues more deeply without passing judgement, links emotions to behaviours, and ensures that everyone’s voice is heard, paying particular attention to how judgements and interpretations are formed.
The facilitator may use the following guiding questions:
 
Cultural Awareness and Solution-Focused Approach:
●        What thoughts/ideas/feelings/emotions did you have when you realised you could not rely on a shared working language?
●        What personal assumptions about communication or collaboration became visible during the activity?
●        Which strategies helped you cope with confusion, frustration, or uncertainty?
●        How did empathy, flexibility, or creativity support the group in moving forward?
●        What solution-focused behaviours emerged when communication broke down?

 

Intersection of Dominant Narratives, Implicit Biases, and Cultural Backgrounds in R&D:
●        How did the absence of a dominant language affect participation and influence within the group?
●        Did any implicit hierarchies or power dynamics become visible during the exercise? If so, how?
●        Whose ideas were easier or harder to express, and why?
●        How do similar dynamics appear in real international research or innovation projects?
●        What alternative communication practices could make I+D+i teams more inclusive and effective?
 
The facilitator should close the discussion by inviting participants to identify concrete lessons learnt and consider how these insights can be transferred to their own international research and innovation contexts.
 
6.    Specific materials: In general, the exercise does not require complex or specialised materials. Simple, low-cost resources or everyday objects are sufficient to support communication, visualisation, and collaborative work. Some examples:
-        Spaghetti, marshmallows, blocks or Lego bricks
-        Paper
-        Pens and coloured markers
-        Cardboard
-        Tape
-        Scissors
-        Ruler
-        Toilet paper
 
7. Bibliography - Sitography
Coigach & Assynt Living Landscape. (2020). Building the Tower of…: Team-building exercise activity sheet.
It provides a practical activity sheet for a Tower of Babel team-building exercise, focusing on cooperation, problem-solving, and the role of non-verbal communication in achieving shared goals.
Gerosa, S. (2008). The Tower of Babel: when communicating becomes a nightmare. Paper presented at PMI® Global Congress 2008—EMEA, St. Julian's, Malta. Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute.
Paper that uses the Tower of Babel metaphor to analyse communication failures in complex projects, highlighting how misunderstandings, lack of shared meaning, and poor coordination can undermine performance. It is particularly relevant for project-based and R&D environments, as it links communication challenges to risk management, leadership, and project success.
Green, E. M. (2014). Building the Tower of Babel: International Sign, linguistic commensuration, and moral orientation. Language in Society, 43(4), 445–465. Cambridge University Press.
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404514000396 
Academic paper that analyses how shared meaning is constructed across linguistic boundaries, focusing on strategies of linguistic adaptation and moral orientation when no common language exists. The study provides a strong theoretical foundation for understanding communication, power relations, and coordination in multilingual and intercultural group settings).
LarksLearning Pvt. Ltd. (2019). Powerful team building activity for corporate training: Tower of Babel.
Resource that presents the Tower of Babel as a structured team-building activity for corporate training, emphasising experiential learning, collaboration under communication constraints, and reflection on group dynamics and leadership.
SALTO-YOUTH. (2018). Intercultural Communication Resource Pack. SALTO-YOUTH (Council of Europe / ERASMUS+).
Kit from an former EU project that offers a practice-oriented framework for intercultural learning, presenting experiential activities and facilitation guidance aimed at developing intercultural awareness, empathy, and effective communication in diverse groups. It provides the methodological grounding for activities such as Babel Tower in non-formal education and international cooperation contexts.
University of Leeds Staff and Educational Development Unit. (2016). PassPal Session Plan: Tower of Babel group work exercise. University of Leeds. 
It documents an adapted Tower of Babel exercise used in higher education to support group work skills, highlighting issues of coordination, inclusion, and communication in diverse student teams.