This activity is great for improving communication in diverse teams. More direct versus more indirect communication styles can be an issue in COIL/international virtual education as people with different cultural norms interact online. It might be helpful to talk explicitly about this difference in communication styles and help students practice "code-switching".  I would assign this in small groups or pairs with members of different cultural groups; they probably need to do the activity synchronously, especially if they include a role play. Some important points to emphasize: 1) there is no inherent hierarchy here, with one style always better than the other; 2) this is not a binary but a spectrum; 3) the same statement can be perceived as direct by some people and indirect by others - context matters!