A system and method is disclosed for improving intra- and inter-cultural communications by having people of one or more cultures develop and build a symbolic vocabulary of what is salient in their work and their lives. Through successive stages of formations that select and arrange building elements into models having one or more symbols of the visual vocabulary. The symbolic vocabulary is developed by a method that includes the step of creating a collective model by a plurality of participants, the collective model having a collective symbol responsive to an assignment. The model creating step further includes, in the preferred embodiment, the steps of: (a) selecting and arranging a plurality of building elements into a model having a symbol responsive to the assignment; and (b) describing the symbol, discussing symbols and developing a vocabulary. Wherein the steps are performed successively by one or more formations of units of the plurality of participants. Each unit performs the steps and each unit's model symbol using one or more symbols from any preceding formation's symbol, or modifications of them, produces transcendent symbols through successive distillation of resonant symbols from the units of formation.