Organisational Behaviour · Hidden-role communication game

🕵️ How to play Silo Signals

You sit on a crisis team for an overheating power bank, and you must get the right facts onto the table before the team votes on a recall.

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Your goal

Win by reaching the recall scope and disclosure that fit your case, especially in Meeting 3, which counts double. You also earn points for every decisive fact your team pools. Teams that only discuss what everyone already knows usually miss the right call.

You play one of six department heads on a crisis team that sells the PowerPal across the Gulf. Each department holds private evidence, and some hold a private reason to prefer silence. Other crisis teams face their own case in parallel.

Join in 30 seconds

Scan the QR code on the big screen with your phone camera, or open the game page and type the 4-letter code.
Type your first name. No app, no account.
Join a team or create one and name it. Your teammates get a role each. In individual mode you run your own crisis team.
If your phone locks or the page reloads, open it again: you return to the same seat.

Team roles

Lead: Chairs the team and submits the final decision. If the Lead's phone dies, any teammate can take over. In this game: Ask each department what it knows that nobody else does before anyone argues.
Analyst: Owns the numbers and the team's prediction for the round. In this game: Track which facts are shared and which come from one department only.
Treasurer: Watches the budget and costs before the team commits. In this game: Price the options, but ask who benefits from the cheapest one.
Risk and ethics officer: Flags harms and pushes back before the team commits. In this game: Name the worst case and check whether the evidence rules it out.
Voice: Talks to other teams and presents the team's story at the debrief. In this game: Draft the public line and test it against the facts on the table.

Who controls what

Each crisis team has 6 desks. In team mode, each teammate takes a desk; in individual mode you play one desk and the computer plays the others.

Quality: You hold product testing and lab results. When the team's votes tie, your vote decides, and your public statement is the one used in Meeting 3.
Marketing: You hold evidence about the brand, launches and social media. Decide what the team needs to hear from your files.
Legal: You hold evidence about regulation, liability and contracts. Help the team test each option against the rules.
Finance: You hold evidence about costs, insurance and the quarterly numbers. Put prices on the options, and share what changes them.
Operations: You hold evidence about factory lines, suppliers and serial numbers. If the supplier event is drawn, the new information reaches you first.
Customer Service: You hold evidence from complaints, calls and returns. You hear what customers actually experience.

The three rounds

Each round you predict your own result, make your decisions within about 7 minutes, and then the model reveals what happened. An event card lands between rounds.

1
Meeting 1 · First reactions
Each department sees only the common facts and its own private evidence. Share up to two items and give a first recommendation. This meeting's score counts half.
Watch for: Read the Key facts pooled line and your position score out of 100. A low pooled count means most decisive facts still sit in silos.
2
Meeting 2 · Open the files
Items shared in Meeting 1 now appear on every screen, with last meeting's votes. Sharing is open: share as much as you like. This meeting counts at full weight.
Watch for: Compare the vote table with the shared evidence. Did anyone change their vote, and did the pooled count rise?
3
Meeting 3 · The public decision
Sharing is closed. Cast your final votes and write the public statement. This meeting counts double, and the results reveal the truth of your case.
Watch for: See which case you had and what fitted it. Note any department that voted for no recall while holding a private incentive.

Your decisions

What each control on your phone does, and how to think about it.

Evidence to share with the team (max 2)	Meeting 1 only	Pick up to two of your private items. They count as pooled at once, and they appear on every teammate's screen in Meeting 2. Ask which of your items nobody else could know. Those are the ones that can change the team's view.
Evidence to share with the team	Meeting 2 only	Share as many of your private items as you like. Items shared now count as pooled this meeting and appear on teammates' screens in Meeting 3. This is the last chance to share. Anything you keep back now stays with you for the final vote.
Your recommendation: recall scope	Meetings 1–2	Your department's vote: No recall, Targeted batch recall or Full recall. The team's position is the majority of six votes; a tie goes to Quality. Vote on the evidence you hold so far. It is fine to change your vote when new facts arrive.
Your recommendation: disclosure	Meetings 1–2	Your vote on what to tell people: Quiet fix, Customer notice, or Public statement plus regulator report. Majority wins; a tie goes to Quality. Check what the legal and public situation requires before you weigh cost or image.
Your final vote: recall scope	Meeting 3 only	The final recall vote. The team result is scored against your case and the meeting counts double. Before voting, list which facts point each way and which department each came from.
Your final vote: disclosure	Meeting 3 only	The final disclosure vote, scored against your case at double weight. A quiet fix is penalised if a viral video or regulator call is in force. Ask whether anyone's vote is driven by a private incentive rather than the evidence.
One-line public statement	Meeting 3 only	Up to 120 characters. Quality's line is used if written, otherwise the first one written. Any statement adds a little trust and is shown on the projector. Make the line match the decision your team actually took. Do not promise more than the evidence supports.

What you see on your phone

What everyone knows: The common facts every department sees. They are the same for the whole team, so they rarely tell the whole story.
Private to your department: Your own evidence cards. Each card says Only you know this until you share it, then Already shared.
Shared by your teammates: From Meeting 2, the items other departments shared. Below it, a table shows how every department voted last meeting.
Private incentive and pressure: Some departments see a private incentive that nobody else sees. Pressure in the room lists any event cards in force, such as a viral video or a regulator call.

How you are scored

Every game in the library uses the same scoreboard. Your round result is your Decision quality (points); the leaderboard adds resilience and trust.

Score = 100 × (0.5 × performance + 0.25 × resilience + 0.25 × trust) + prediction points

Performance: Decision qualityDecision quality, in points. The team's position scores out of 100: 50 for recall scope and 50 for disclosure, or 15 each if one step off. That is multiplied by 0.5, 1 or 2 by meeting, plus 10 times the share of key facts pooled so far.

Resilience (0–100)Resilience moves halfway towards a target each meeting. The target is highest when your recall matches what the case needs, a little lower if wider than needed, and much lower if narrower.

Trust (0–100)Trust moves halfway towards a target. It is highest when disclosure fits the case, lower if too open, and much lower if too quiet. A quiet fix after a viral video or regulator call costs more. A Meeting 3 statement adds a little.

Performance is your total Decision quality over the rounds, scaled from the lowest to the highest in the room. Before each round you also predict “Your team's decision score this meeting”: land close and earn up to 10 bonus points; miss by the whole amount and earn none. The facilitator may change the weights before the game starts.

Tips

Open each meeting by asking every department what it knows that nobody else does. Argue only after that.
The common facts are the same for everyone. Treat them as a starting point, not the answer.
Pool evidence early. Shared facts count towards your score in the meeting you share them.
Listen for votes that do not match the evidence a person has shared. Ask them what else they are weighing.
Plan for Meeting 3 in Meeting 2. Nothing new can be shared once sharing closes.
Read each event card for what it changes in the facts, not just the mood in the room.

Common mistakes

Debating the common facts for the whole meeting. The team feels aligned but never hears the facts that change the answer.
Sharing items that sound dramatic but do not change the decision. Ask what each item implies before you pick it.
Letting one loud voice or the CEO card settle the vote. Pressure does not change the facts your case is scored against.

A worked example

In Meeting 2 your team has pooled 3 of 6 key facts. Four departments vote Targeted batch recall and four vote Customer notice. Suppose the recall is one step off your case and the disclosure fits. The position scores 15 + 50 = 65, times 1 for Meeting 2, plus 10 × 0.5 for pooling: 70 points.

Shocks that can hit

The facilitator draws one event card before rounds 2 and 3. It changes the market from that round on.

A customer video goes viral. A clip of a hot PowerPal is trending across the Gulf. Saying nothing now looks like a cover-up, and a quiet fix will cost trust.
Legal warns about liability. Outside counsel warns that any admission could be used against the firm. Pressure grows to stay silent.
The regulator calls. The consumer safety authority asks for your incident log by Thursday. Silence will now be punished heavily.
A supplier comes forward. The cell supplier calls Operations with new information about its cells. Only Operations hears it first.
The CEO weighs in. The CEO tells the team: 'No recall before the launch. I trust you to handle this.' Disagreeing now feels risky.

The model behind the game

Hidden profile decision task. Teams tend to discuss what everyone already knows. The facts that change the answer sit with single departments, so the team only finds the right call if those facts are shared.

Common facts point the wrong way; the right decision needs ≥ 4 of 6 private key facts pooled ; team decision = majority vote (tie → Quality) ; score = recall fit (50) + disclosure fit (50), × 0.5 / 1 / 2 by meeting, + 10 × share of key facts pooled

Hidden profile: A task where the facts that decide the answer are spread across people, while the shared facts point elsewhere.
Information pooling: Getting each person's private facts onto the table so the whole group can use them.
Common knowledge effect: Groups spend most of their time on facts everyone already knows and neglect unique ones.
Groupthink: A team chasing agreement so hard that it stops testing ideas and silences doubts.
Agency problem: When a person's private incentive, such as a bonus, pulls against what is best for the firm.
Psychological safety: Team members feel safe to raise bad news or disagree without being punished.
Recall scope: How many units the firm takes back: none, a suspect batch, or every unit sold.
Disclosure: What the firm tells customers, the public and the regulator about a safety issue.

For facilitators 3 rounds · about 50 minutes

Set-up

Team mode works best, with team size set to 6 so every department has its own person.
Allow 7 minutes per meeting. Bots fill up to 3 crisis teams.
Seat each team together. Say they may talk freely, but the phone only shows evidence that has been shared.
Before Meeting 1, explain that Meeting 3 counts double and that sharing closes after Meeting 2.

Modes

Team: Members take departments in join order: Quality (the Lead), Marketing, Legal, Finance, Operations, Customer Service. With fewer than six members, the Lead also runs the leftover departments.
Individual: Each player runs one department of their own crisis team, assigned by join order; bots run the other five. You only learn what the bots choose to share.
Hybrid: Phones work as in individual mode, and team scores are the average of members. Teammates run separate crisis teams, often on different cases, so they can compare process but not pool facts.

Run sheet

Before class	Open the facilitator console on the projector laptop, choose the mode in Setup, and check the QR shows.
0–5 min	Students scan and join. Read the situation aloud while teams form. Point out the roles on their phones.
5–14 min	Round 1: 7 minutes to decide and predict, then Reveal. Read the headline and one surprising line from a team.
Between rounds	Draw or choose the event card. Give teams 30 seconds to read it before opening the next round.
14–23 min	Round 2, then Reveal.
25–34 min	Round 3, then Final results: podium, awards and the score chart.
Last 12 min	Debrief with the questions below, then open reflections (4 minutes). Download the CSV.

What usually happens

Teams often spend Meeting 1 on the common facts. Point out the Key facts pooled line on the reveal screen.
Departments with a private incentive may hold back or vote against their own evidence. Meeting 3 results name them when it mattered.
The legal warning and CEO cards add pressure but do not change how decisions are scored. Use that to discuss pressure versus evidence.
If the supplier card is drawn before Meeting 3, Operations cannot share the new item, because sharing is closed.
Different teams may have different cases, so do not let teams copy each other's answers.

Debrief questions

What did each person know that nobody else did? Which single fact changed your decision?
When did the group stop asking questions? Who went quiet, and why?
Did anyone hold back evidence because of a private incentive? How would you have spotted it?

Follow-up probes

Which shared item made someone change their vote? Who shared it, and when?
Was there an item you chose not to share? What did you expect would happen if you did?
How did the tie-break rule give Quality extra power? Did your team notice?
Did the CEO or legal card change any votes? Should it have?
What would you change in your first five minutes if you played again?

Reflection and evidence

Describe one meeting rule that would have surfaced the hidden information sooner. Use a moment from your team's meetings as evidence for why it would work.

Students write 80–120 words on their phones. The Data tab exports every decision, result, prediction and reflection as one CSV for grading.

Console controls

Pause, extend or set the timer; step back a round
Draw, choose or write the event card
Move players, make a Lead, add computer players
Award or fine with a reason that appears on phones
Message every screen; hide names; spotlight a team
Keys: P projector mode, Q join QR