August 18, 2026
Cones, confusion, and connection : What this one game taught us about Respect and Inclusion
Picture this : you’re standing in a circle with 36 people you barely know. Someone shouts ‘’gnomes’’ you freeze, and ask yourself “was that meant for me”? What does it even mean? Welcome to 30 of the most chaotic, joyful minutes of our exchange in Hungary.
In May 2026, our team travelled to Szigetszentmarton, Hungary, to take part in Erasmus+ Youth Exchange ‘’ Sport for All, Breaking Barriers Together’’ hosted by the Budapest Association for International Sports.
Together with 44 young people from Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Portugal, Romania and Spain, we spent nine days exploring adaptive sports as part of an initiative to promote diversity and inclusion through team activities.
One afternoon, three participants, Renato, Andre, and Sydney, designed a game using nothing but cones, sticky notes, and the words for ‘’head, shoulders, knees, and toes’’ in six different languages.
The Game
How it works :
- Everybody stands in a circle around a ring of cones and walks slowly to the right.
- A facilitator calls out a body part but in a language most people don’t speak. ‘’Fej!’’( Hungarian for head), ‘’Ombros!’’( Portuguese for shoulders).
You had to guess, touch the spot, and hope you got it right.
- The twist happens when the facilitator shouts ‘’cone’’ and everyone scrambles to grab one. Miss out, and you get a challenge, like doing three squats.
- The second round raised the stakes. Some cones come with sticky notes attached with instructions (: walk slowly, grab with only your left arm, or walk fast…)
Suddenly, the game isn’t fair and inclusive anymore as some people have an advantage, while others felt slower, more confused or even left out.
That in fact was the whole point.
Here you can find a more detailed version of this diversity team building game.
As a warm-up, the group also played ‘’Giants and Gnomes’’. Two rows had to face each other, standing tall on ‘’giant’’, touching toes on ‘’gnomes’’, out if you got it wrong. It seemed simple, but it built the same tension and fear of getting it wrong in front of everyone.
Afterwards, sit down to reflect and let everyone describe the game in one word. Some will say it was frustrating, others said it was funny, while a few said it was confusing.
The next question you should ask is why everybody thought the way they thought, and that’s where the real learning happens. Feeling behind, unsure, or excluded is exactly what it can feel like to navigate a new country, a new language, or a body that moves differently than everyone else’s.
No special equipment, no language barrier couldn’t be turned into the lesson itself. Just cones, sticky notes, and thirty minutes to briefly feel what inclusion actually requires from all of us.
This project was funded by the European Union through the Erasmus+ programme.
Linda Nandawula