Meddlers
Meddlers is a tabletop game from Jurgen Appelo's Management 3.0 in which small groups build an organisational structure out of hexagonal tiles and tokens and discuss the trade-offs as they go. A tile stands for a team or unit, face tokens for people and hat tokens for the roles they hold; tiles that touch represent teams that work together. There are no points and no winner: the value lies in seeing the organisation as a network of collaborating teams and in talking through how it should change as conditions change.
Facilitation script
- 1
Form tables of three to six, hand out the sets and explain the notation: tiles as teams, faces as people, hats as roles, touching tiles as collaboration.
10 min - 2
State the single rule that the table must agree on what its design represents, then give out the scenario.
5 min - 3
Tables build their first structure. Walk around and ask why a team is placed where it is and what that placement costs.
20 min - 4
Announce a change in conditions, such as growth or a new product. Tables adapt their design.
15 min - 5
Each table presents its structure and the main trade-off it accepted. Photograph the designs.
15 min - 6
Debrief in plenary: what patterns appeared across tables, where specialists and generalists ended up, and what this says about the group's own organisation.
15 min
Tips
Start with a fictional scenario before touching the group's own organisation; people argue more freely about a made-up web agency than about their own reporting lines.
Keep asking what a placement costs, because every structure trades one kind of coordination for another and groups tend to defend their first layout.
The source gives no timings or table sizes; three to six people per table and 60 to 90 minutes overall are working estimates, so adjust them to your group.
Common pitfalls
Tables rebuild the existing org chart tile by tile, so the game confirms the status quo instead of testing alternatives
One senior person arranges the tiles while the others watch, and the agreement rule turns into silent consent
The facilitator skips the change of conditions, so groups never experience that a structure which suits one situation fails in the next
The debrief stays inside the fictional scenario and nobody draws the link to the real organisation, leaving a pleasant hour with no consequence
Face tokens are quietly matched to real colleagues, and the discussion shifts from design principles to who would lose their place
Variations
Real-organisation round: after one fictional scenario, have tables model the current structure, then a version that fixes its most painful handover. Single-table version for a leadership team of up to six, with one person tasked to argue for the opposite design. Remote: rebuild the tiles and tokens as shapes on an online whiteboard, one frame per breakout group. Short version: skip the changing conditions and run one scenario with a debrief in about 45 minutes.
Where it fits
When to use it
A team or department is about to be restructured and the people affected should think through the options before a chart is drawn for them
A growing organisation has to split one team into several and nobody agrees on where the cut should go
Managers talk about structure only in terms of reporting lines and need a way to see collaboration between teams
A leadership programme needs a hands-on exercise on functional versus cross-functional teams
Handover problems between departments keep recurring and you want people to see them as a design question
When not to use it
The new structure has already been decided: playing through alternatives then reads as fake participation; explain the decision and run a session on how to make it work instead
The unclear part is who does what inside an existing team, not how teams are cut; use Roles and Responsibilities or a RACI Matrix
The question is how much decision authority teams have, not how they are composed; Delegation Poker addresses that directly
Jobs are at risk and participants know it: moving face tokens around a table becomes a painful proxy for real people, so hold a direct, well-prepared conversation instead
You have under 45 minutes; without the round of changed conditions and a proper debrief the game stays a puzzle
Related methods
Frequently asked questions
What is Meddlers?▾
Meddlers is a tabletop game from Management 3.0, the management approach developed by Jurgen Appelo, for discussing how an organisation is structured. Small groups lay out hexagonal tiles as teams, add tokens for people and their roles, and adapt the layout as a scenario changes. It has no scoring and no winner; the discussion at the table is the outcome.
What do the tiles and tokens mean in Meddlers?▾
Each hexagonal tile is a team or organisational unit. Face tokens placed on a tile are the people in that team, and hat tokens show which role each person holds. Identical hats on one tile indicate a specialist team, mixed hats a cross-functional one, and tiles that touch are teams that collaborate directly.
How many people can play Meddlers?▾
The source does not specify a number. In practice three to six people per table works, because everyone can reach the tiles and the rule that all must agree on the design stays manageable. Larger groups play at several tables in parallel and compare designs at the end.
Do I need the original game set?▾
The game is designed around its tiles and tokens, which Management 3.0 makes available for use in your own sessions. Check their terms before reproducing the materials; they are proprietary and not for resale. For a remote session, simple hexagons and icons on an online whiteboard do the same job.
Is Meddlers a tool for deciding a reorganisation?▾
It is a thinking and discussion aid, not a decision procedure. It helps people see options and trade-offs and gives leaders a view of how those affected reason about structure. Any actual redesign needs its own decision process, with clear information about what is open and what is fixed.
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Try it freeMethod descriptions on Workshop Weaver are original content written by our team, based on established facilitation practices. This method was inspired by work from Jurgen Appelo / Management 3.0.