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Zoom

This engaging group activity helps develop communication skills, adopting a different perspective, and problem solving. A group tries to create a unified story from a set of sequential pictures. The pictures are randomly ordered and handed out. Each person has a picture but cannot show it to others. Requires patience, communication, and perspective to recreate the story's sequence.

This game is based on the intriguing, wordless, picture books "Zoom" and "Re-Zoom" by Istvan Banyai which consist of 30 sequential "pictures within pictures". The Zoom narrative moves from a rooster to a ship to a city street to a desert island and outer space. Zoom has been published in 18 countries. The Re-Zoom narrative moves from an Egyptian hieroglyphic to a film set to an elephant ride to a billboard to a train.

You need a copy of either or both books for this exercise.

Set Up

  • To create the game from the book, separate the picture pages of the book into one page sheets and laminate or place in clear plastic sleeves to protect them and prolong usage.

  • Hand out one picture per person (make sure a continuous sequence is used).

  • Explain that participants may only look at their own pictures and must keep their pictures hidden from others.

  • Encourage participants to study their picture, since it contains important information to help solve a problem.

  • The challenge is for the group to sequence the pictures in the correct order without looking at one another's pictures.

  • Participants will generally mill around talking to others to see whether their pictures have anything in common. Sometimes leadership efforts will emerge to try to understand the overall story.

  • When the group believes they have all the pictures in order (usually after ~15 minutes), the pictures can be turned over for everyone to see.

Time

Total time~20-30 minutes

  • ~5 minute briefing and set up
  • ~15 minutes of active problem-solving (until success)
  • ~10 minutes discussion

Equipment

  • The book Zoom by Istvan Banyai
  • The book Re Zoom by Istvan Banyai (optional)
  • Scissors to trim the pictures
  • Clear plastic sleeves or a lamination machine to protect the pictures
  • Opaque sleeves, folders, or envelopes for the participants to hide their pictures
  • Answer sheets describing the pictures in their original order

Group Size

20 to 30 is ideal however the exercise can be adapted for smaller groups (see variations)

Facilitation Notes

Once the challenge is finished, allow everyone to see the pictures and encourage participants to sort out any mistakes, then let everyone walk around view the pictures in sequence so they understand the full story.

Variations

  • Use as a novel icebreaker by handing each participant a picture on arrival. When everyone has arrived, explain that each person is holding part of a story and that the group task is to find out what the story is by putting their pictures in sequence.

  • Use a time limit to increase difficulty and enhance focus on teamwork.

  • Team performance can be made competitive by timing the exercise and giving penalties for pictures that are out of sequence.

  • If there are a few more people than cards, then pair people up.

  • For larger numbers, divide the people into 2 or more groups. Make sure the groups are separated for the exercise otherwise things may become very confusing.

  • In general, allow large groups to talk because there is enough complexity sorting out all the pictures.

  • For smaller groups, select a sequence of pictures to suit the group size.

  • For smaller groups, try disallowing talking. This increases the difficulty and creates the need for expressive sign language.

  • Another way to increase complexity with small groups is to give each person more than one picture.

Debriefing Ideas

  • Why was it hard to get the story together?
  • What type of communication was used in attempting to solve the problem?
  • What communication methods might have worked better?

  • Imagine if, at the outset, the group had taken the time to let each person describe his/her picture to the rest of the group. What would have happened then? Would the solution have been found faster?

  • What prevented such strategies from being considered?
  • Did anyone try to switch perspectives to understand how their communication was being perceived?
  • What kind of leadership was used to tackle the problem?
  • Who were the leaders? Why?
  • What style of leadership might have worked best?
  • If you were to tackle a similar activity again, what do you think this group could do differently?
  • What real life activities are similar to this activity?

Reverences

Banyai, I. (1995).Zoom New York: Viking / Penguin.
Banyai, I. (1998). Re-Zoom New York: Viking / Penguin.

Acknowledgement

Adapted from material at http://wilderdom.com/games/InitiativeGames.html