EXAMPLES TOP MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE Global corporation used Eagle Racing as a team-building exercise and to improve cross-company collaboration. 150 players in teams of five or six.
Learning objective:
Improving cross-cultural collaboration and conscious decision-making THE SIMULATION Participants follow the key decision-makers for Eagle Racing (a fictitious Racing Company) as they try to sign up a new main sponsor. The story develops the way the participants choose. The story is established through short videos which, from time to time, stop in the middle of a disagreement, prompting participants to help commercial director Gianluca Paranelli make a tough decision. All participants (seated in groups) share their intuitive choices regarding each decision point, and must then agree as a team. The story continues according to how the majority votes. Each decision is combined with specific learning points concerning collaboration and collective decision-making (with examples from behavioural economics/psychology). The story has eight possible endings, depending on what decisions are taken along the way, resulting in different overall learning points.
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Players are divided into teams of 5-7 sharing a laptop. In larger groups, each player also gets an individual voting device.
The first episode is shown on the main screen: the cast and situation are established, ending with the first dilemma…
MBA PROGRAMME Eagle Racing is regularly played at Business Schools as part of MBA and other leadership programmes.
LEARNING OUTCOME For individuals: Improved understanding of own tendencies and shortcomings in collaborative decisionmaking and tools to improve. For teams: A fun and engaging team experience, giving deeper insights into how different people experience identical situations in very different ways. For full group: Feedback on overall decision behaviour and inspiration to improve collaboration by using simple decision tools.
BUILDING CULTURE UNDERSTANDING Although this was not the intended purpose of the game, a large US organisation uses Eagle Racing to stimulate discussions about cultural aspects of leadership EPISODICAL GAME… A business school professor uses Eagle Racing as a “virtual training tool”. Each week, players receive a new episode and they can only use digital media to reach a consensus.
PRACTICAL INFORMATION Can be played in teams with between 12 and 1,000 people (interactive technology ensures that each person/ team has an intense experience). Minimum time for Eagle Racing is 2 hours, but 3 hours is recommended, plus time for company-specific reflections and actions.
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Players make their call. First as individuals, then as a group.
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Results and learning points from the round are shared. The next dilemma video reflecting the vote is then shown.
Development partner Professor Albert Angehrn, Director of CALT (Centre of Advanced Learning Technologies) & INSEAD Business School (Paris, France)
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Step 2-4 repeated for the second and third dilemma – but with new dilemmas and learning points.
Sharing of the overall results for the group – and for teams (Eagle Racing has eight possible endings).
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Reflection across the experience – and learning points about building collaborative cultures.
Company-specific reflections: What to do differently, starting tomorrow.
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