Objective: The students will learn that tall organizational structures take a great deal of work to ensure proper communication happens at all levels, and they learn that email is not always the best method to communicate. 

• Students will be organized into a pyramid which signifies a typical tall organizational structure. 
• The students are arranged so that one student is in the front, one student sits directly behind the first and 3 - 5 students are in a line forming the back row. 
• The front student is the CEO, the second student is the middle manager and the back row of students are the workers. 
• This hierarchy must be followed and students are only allowed to talk through email (in which we simulate using paper - text messages can be used as well). 
• Each student receives their individual instruction sheet. 
• The basic objective is to solve the problem, however only the CEO knows the problem and the objective.
• Each student's instructions contain a set of symbols. 
• The CEO's instructions contain all the symbols with one extra. 
• The CEO's instructions tell them the objective of the game and the purpose to find the one symbol on their sheet that does not appear on any of the other student's instruction sheets. 
• They have to pass paper (email) with questions through the middle manager to get the answers they need. 
• The middle manager will retype the message (write) and send it in their own words to the "workers" behind them. 
• In almost every instance, the CEOs fail to share the "purpose" of the activity as they assume all participants have the same information they have. This causes the 'workers' to feel left out and a little lost. 
• This game may run with two or three teams at once, making it a competition to see who can figure it out first. 
• Then discussion will take place on how the teams differed in their communication style. The importance of the "why" in business delegation and communication. As the middle manager, many times they are more in the dark than the workers. We talk about how this role helps in the communication process (if at all).  The handouts for each student are attached with this topic.