Papua New Guinea: String Figure Team Coaching Circle

String Figure Team Coaching Circle, Papua New Guinea

Context

Papua New Guinea is the most linguistically diverse country on earth, with around 840 living languages, a social reality that shapes how people learn, coordinate, and build trust across difference. It also means that embodied, non-verbal practices carry unusual weight in everyday life. One such practice is string-figure making: creating intricate, named designs with a loop of cord using the hands (historically sometimes the mouth or feet), while the workplace adaptation uses hands only for hygiene and accessibility. In PNG it is documented across regions and generations and remains part of social play, instruction, and memory. * *

Anthropologists recorded string figures in the country as early as 1914, when Papuan Constabulary at Government House in Port Moresby taught cat’s‑cradle variants to visiting researchers, and this occurred within a colonial research context that warrants careful crediting and compensation for contemporary culture‑bearers. The image of policemen coaching a newcomer offers one early documented instance rather than the essence of a diverse practice, and it can be balanced with examples from other regions and periods. *

Later fieldwork in the Trobriand Islands and the Sepik region showed why the practice endures, while schooling, missionary influence, urbanization, and media have also shaped when and how figures are learned, with some communities seeing declines and others active revivals. It’s cognitively demanding, algorithmic, and collaborative: bystanders routinely “coach” a performer through named moves, and the finished figure often encodes a local story, creature, or landscape. In Awiakay communities, teenage girls actively practice and teach a repertoire that, in 2018, numbered 70+ designs, evidence of living know‑how rather than museum lore. * * *

Meet the Company/Cultural Tradition

The PNG practice has local names—such as kaninikula (Kilivila/Kiriwina) and suaim epla (Awiakay)—and blends precision with play, using community‑preferred spellings and pronunciations where possible. Researchers note how practitioners use named “elementary operations” and sometimes enlist the mouth or feet, transforming a simple loop into sequences that resemble algorithms performed with the body. The practice is frequently taught slow and stepwise so learners can repeat moves until they “click,” a pedagogy that many PNG teams recognize from home, church, and village life, while familiarity varies by region, age, and upbringing and low‑dexterity participants can take coach or observer roles or use larger loops. *

While some historical contexts paired figures with sung recitations (vinavina), modern everyday use is often informal—friends gather, one demonstrates, others encourage—yet facilitators should consult local advisors, avoid figures tied to rites or restricted knowledge, and use documented public‑domain designs for corporate sessions. Crucially, the act is widely distributed across the country and not tied to a holiday, festival, or religious rite. The International String Figure Association’s bibliography lists decades of PNG collections, from the Papuan Gulf to the Highlands, underscoring breadth and continuity. * *

For workplaces in Port Moresby, Lae, and beyond, the tradition adapts cleanly into a short, repeatable team ritual. PNG already has established providers of corporate team‑building and management training, making it easy to slot a culturally grounded “string session” into off‑sites or staff days. *

The Ritual

Minute	Scene	Purpose
0–3	Distribute cotton loops; everyone stands in a loose circle	Level status; signal playful focus
3–8	Demonstration: a documented PNG figure with its local name and source community (e.g., a Kilivila kaninikula variant or an Awiakay suaim epla design) is shown slowly	Shared attention; model procedural steps
8–15	Teach & swap: pairs coach each other through the same figure, then switch roles	Peer teaching; empathy through coaching
15–20	Remix: pairs choose a second, simpler figure and try two‑person cooperative moves	Coordination; light problem‑solving
20–25	Gallery hold: brief, silent display—everyone raises their figure on a 3‑count	Collective achievement without speeches
25–30	Reset: cords coiled; one volunteer names next session’s figure; close with thanks in Tok Pisin or a local language	Continuity; language pride; clear closure

Notes

Keep it focus‑first and voice‑light; let actions lead and offer device breaks only if appropriate to the work context.
Use soft cotton loops to include all ability levels; provide seated and one‑handed options, prohibit mouth/foot techniques, and ensure paid participation options for all shifts with prayer and holiday calendars respected.

Why It Works

String‑figure making is a portable form of “procedural dialogue,” and for pilots we will test the chain Pair coaching → higher psychological safety/voice → smoother handoffs, proxied by a +0.3/5 shift on a short safety scale and a −15% change in handoff defects per sprint. Even with minimal words, pairs negotiate steps, correct gently, and celebrate micro‑wins, which can be well‑suited to PNG’s multilingual offices where multiple first languages may be present at once. Scholars have shown the practice relies on sequencing, spatial reasoning, and collaborative correction, with learners and bystanders supplying vernacular terms for fingers and moves. The effect can be a low‑stakes workout for working memory and team empathy, and we will measure this with short pre/post items and simple behavioral indicators. * *

Cognitively, the activity is demanding enough to be absorbing but simple enough to be inclusive, a balance linked to improved engagement in cross‑cultural analyses of string figures. Broader craft research likewise finds that hand‑based, creative tasks can reduce stress and support social wellbeing, useful counterweights in high‑pressure project cycles. *

Outcomes & Impact

Anecdotally, teams report a subtle but valuable shift: people who rarely interact become “coaches,” quiet contributors get visible wins, and language pride surfaces when colleagues teach a fingertip name or a counting cue in their mother tongue. This mirrors ethnographic observations from the Awiakay and Trobriands, where string‑figure practice blends technique with memory and gentle instruction by onlookers. Over time, the circle aims to support cross‑team collaboration and smoother handoffs by creating brief, predictable practice of pair coaching, with impact tied to existing metrics such as handoff defects per sprint and cross‑team response rates. * *

Because PNG already hosts corporate training providers and venues, the ritual can scale from a two‑team pilot to a company‑wide rhythm when conditions allow, avoiding safety‑critical windows, providing remote or seated variants with mailed kits where needed, and observing union and scheduling constraints. That practicality is key in a security‑conscious, logistics‑heavy market like Port Moresby. *

Lessons for Global Team Leaders

Principle	Why It Matters	How to Translate
Embodied learning	Bypasses language barriers while building trust	Use hand‑based micro‑making (strings, origami, knots) suited to local culture
Pair‑coaching	Rotates expertise; spotlights quiet talent	Alternate “maker” and “coach” roles each round
Short and frequent	Ritual beats off‑sites for culture change	15–30 minutes weekly or mid‑sprint
Local vocabulary pride	Honors identity without big speeches	Invite finger/move names in Tok Pisin or a local language
Zero special kit	Inclusive by design	Provide soft loops; avoid tools, paints, or drums

Implementation Playbook

Source soft cotton loops and a one‑page guide with two beginner figures credited to PNG origins, budget approximately USD $1–2 per participant for materials plus 15–30 minutes of paid time, and assign named owners for facilitation, communications, and data.
Identify a culture bearer—by consent—such as a colleague from Milne Bay, Sepik, or elsewhere who knows figures, and agree fair compensation, credit by name and community (if permitted), and whether brief quotes or review notes may be included in program materials. Guided tours and contacts can be arranged through the National Museum. *
Schedule a 15–30 minute session on paid time just before or after a shift change to avoid peak workload, cap each circle at 8–12 participants, and state clearly that participation is voluntary with socially safe opt‑outs such as observer, timekeeper, or string‑prep roles, with no manager tracking for performance, and provide a remote variant with mailed kits and an optional hands‑only asynchronous gallery.
Set etiquette with a one‑page note shared in advance: voluntary participation and opt‑outs, gentle coaching, “let actions lead” where possible, privacy and photo rules, a simple safety/incident reporting path, simple pre‑brief/debrief prompts, three must‑keep elements (slow pace, no competition, credit origin) and three safe adaptations (seated or one‑handed variants, larger loops, shorter runs), and how anonymous feedback will be used.
Run a 6–8 week pilot with two to four teams, rotating the “lead” each time; make any photo capture optional, avoid faces and personally identifiable information, obtain opt‑in consent with a stated purpose, store images securely with a named data owner, retain them for no more than 90 days, and seek HR and Legal review before starting.
Fold it into existing training or retreats with local providers (PNGIM, Sabre) only if pilot thresholds are met (e.g., ≥70% opt‑in, +0.3 on a short belonging or psychological safety scale, and −15% handoff defects), and stop or redesign if opt‑in falls below 40% or any safety incident occurs. *
Refresh the repertoire quarterly using PNG‑documented figures; cite the source community where known, seek permission where figures are community‑attributed, and direct an honorarium or program fee to a PNG partner when designs are used outside PNG. *

Common Pitfalls

Over‑talking the session; the power is in doing, not discussing.
Turning it into a competition; speed undermines inclusion and learning.
Treating designs as generic; always credit PNG sources to avoid cultural flattening.
Adding drums or dance elements; keep it distinct from sing‑sing performance.

Reflection & Call to Action

In a country where a single office may hold speakers of Enga, Kilivila, Huli, Motu, and Tok Pisin, a loop of string can be the shortest bridge. Adopt the circle for a month and watch who shines when titles fall away and hands take over. If your team is outside PNG, borrow the principle—short, embodied, proudly local—while crediting PNG origins, avoiding restricted figures, hiring and paying local facilitators or partners, and sharing benefits with named source communities when their designs are used. The best rituals are humble, frequent, and unmistakably “ours.”