Business games
– the ultimate tool for accelerating change www.wizerize.com
why business games work Put people in situations where their habitual way of thinking and acting is challenged
In a time when the pace of change seems to be accelerating, companies need to change faster than ever before. This means cascading new ways of thinking and behaving throughout the organization and making them work within a very short time span. And this is a task that should never be underestimated.
that allow us to make a lot of decisions in a very short space of time – with almost no real thinking involved.
It is relatively easy to teach bright people new insights; to make them understand how they should think and act under ideal circumstances.
But this – deeply human – way of acting also comes at a price: It makes it hard for us to change our “habitual behavior.”
The hard part is ensuring that the “academic understanding” is actually transformed into “changed behavior” when everyone returns to daily worklife the following Monday. The challenge with most Mondays – and other days for that matter – is that they are usually far removed from the ideal world. A real business day is filled with dilemmas and prioritizations. And time is always a critical factor. To be effective in a challenging business day we depend on tried-and-tested patterns
This method generally works fine as it allows us to process a large number of decisions and to focus our real thinking process on a few key issues.
When we have found a way of acting that generally gets us reasonably well through the day, we stop thinking about it as our habits become almost invisible to ourselves. This unconscious behavior is very hard to influence. It takes more than just sharing information or crafting powerful arguments to change behavior. Instead you need to put people into a simulated working environment that gives them a chance to stop and analyze their behaviors.
Good business games reach parts of the brain that other learning methods cannot reach.
In a business game we can create a realistic scenario where the situations we manage and the people we relate to are similiar to our own experiences. We put people in situations where their habitual way of thinking and acting is challenged. This allows them to experiment without any real risk.
The games help participants to reach a deeper level of understanding of the need to change. This is also why participants remember a powerful business game experience five or even ten years after – because it has challenged them on a much deeper level then can otherwise be achieved.
But the business game in itself is usually only a part of the experience. The key to learning and changing behavior comes during the debrief. Each participant is given individual feedback and a chance to relate the game experience to their own worklife. Having these discussions and reflections AFTER involvement in a game experience is much more effective. These games engage our habitual patterns. In this way they reach a much deeper level of understanding and acceptance of the need for change (if we have designed the games intelligently).
In a business game each participant becomes personally involved.
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deployment of business games With some exceptions, most business games are launched at Top Management conferences and later cascaded down in the organization, depending on target groups and purpose. At these conferences all reactions and feedback are collected, shared, weighed and documented with the use of the Wizer platform – which is closely integrated with all game environments. Throughout the cascading process we use the web as a distribution platform – offering global distribution and easy access in a cost effective way. Almost all our deployment scenarios are centred around a conference or a meeting – whether it is a presence meeting, a virtual meeting or a hybrid meeting. This ensures full value from the de-briefing.
Around these central sessions we work with pre- and post activities that increases the value of the central sessions. For example we often let the participants play the actual business game before they meet. We also supply some form of follow up opportunities – even lessons – that helps increase the after effect. The combinations are numerous – depending on objectives, possibilities and physical barriers. The result is a dramatically increased agility when it comes to transforming strategic goals into everyday actions. Instead of talking about change, people start doing things differently. Not because they have to but because they want to.
Wizer’s business games can be deployed so they can be played anywhere – at a conference, at the office, or even at home.
The debriefing is always the most important part of the game as this is what ensures the actual learning.
The Wizer platform provides the opportunity to give each participant personal feedback as a basis for targeting personal action plans toward the area that will create the maximum positive effect.
All input, results and actions can be shared with the participants via a personalized, access-controlled website.
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wizer business games At Wizer we work with many kinds of business games, but they all have one thing in common: We work with strong storytelling. Each game includes a few serious surprises, some quite challenging situations, and a relieving laugh from time to time.
3. Stimulate individual development Games where we give very specific and individual leadership behavior feedback – including a process that stimulates strong, individual self-insight and helps create a personal action plan.
All business games are produced in professional HD quality with a cast of professional actors.
4. Improve team skills Games where you practice team skills – creating a framework for groups to collaborate and compete in ways that stimulate better team dynamics, allowing them to practice innovation and other skills.
It is our experience that a very important part of getting people to identify with the situations is recognizing them and relating to the persons involved as they would to colleagues or customers.
5. Share a vision of an ideal future Games where you engage the participants in a near-perfect world and use this experience to trigger discussions and reflections about the present way of working.
We include tough choices – or dilemmas – that divide the audience. The real learning always comes when there is some element of uncertainty and doubt in the process.
Almost all our deployment scenarios are centered on a conference or meeting – whether it is a face-to-face meeting, a virtual meeting, or a hybrid meeting. This ensures that the full value is derived from the debriefing.
WE WORK IN FIVE MAIN CATEGORIES: 1. Change overall behavior Games where you practice changed behavior – for example, moving from product sales to strategic partnering or working according to a new value chain. 2. Improve specific leadership skills Games where you practice specific aspects of leadership – for example, becoming stronger at collaboration across silos or building a quality culture.
Around these central sessions we work with pre- and postactivities that increase the value of the central sessions. The combinations are numerous and depend on the objectives, possibilities and physical barriers. All our business games are built on our own Persuasive Technology Platform Wizer® – offering web-based global distribution and easy access in a cost-effective form.
Examples of our business games Page 9
Change overall behavior The Bid is an example of a game where the purpose is to practice specific new behavior. Page 10
Improve specific leadership skills Eagle Racing is a generic business game triggering reflections and learnings about a specific leadership aspect, namely “collaboration.� Page 12
Stimulate individual development What a Day helps leaders understand how they prioritize and spend their time making decisions and working on business challenges.
V O L D AV I A Page 14
V O L D AV I A
M I N I S T RY OF ENERGY
M I N I S T RY OF E N E R team G Y skills Improve
The Voldavian Challenge is a team game that simulates the real challenges of working in a project team. Page 16
Share a vision of an ideal future Envisionings are both en enriching experience and a fantastic platform for engaging people in a specific discussion about the need for change.
Business games: the ultimate tool for accelerating change 7
Only one route is truly successful
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CHANGE OVERALL BEHAVIOR
the bid The purpose of The Bid is to practice specific new behavior.
choose between two tough options – only one of which is right.
The format was originally developed in 2006 for a large multinational customer that changed its strategy from offering traditional service contracts on a market-by-market basis to becoming a strong outsourcing partner for large global corporations.
In this case we deliberately placed the top managers in situations where most of them did NOT find the perfect route. In fact, only 58 out of 410 participants won the game.
As you might imagine, this demanded quite a few changes in the Leadership Culture‌ The Bid was designed as a customized solution where all situations were created specifically for this challenge. It was launched at a top management conference where 410 top managers from 45 countries played the game. The Bid was designed with four key dilemmas. At each stage each manager has to
This way of working can be controversial and is not right for all leadership cultures. But it is very effective when used correctly in the right context. After the top management conference The Bid was developed into an interactive DVD version and became part of the management training program. Subsequently The Bid has been produced in many variants for other large companies faced with complex change agendas.
Premiere at a global top management conference in 2006. 58 winners celebrated (out of 410 participants).
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Improve specific leadership skills
eagle racing Eagle Racing is a generic business game that triggers reflections and learnings about a specific aspect of leadership, namely “collaboration.”
The pilot was originally part of an EU-funded research project, Learning to Collaborate (L2C). But after the pilot we funded and produced the full game.
The participants take the role of Gianluca, the manager of Eagle Racing, and help him make decisions.
Since then, Eagle Racing has been played both on site and online by more than 1,000 managers and students from a variety of organizations, including IKEA, Novartis, the Scottish government, Havas, INSEAD, Fiat, Merial, and the US National Defense University.
From time to time the game stops and participants must decide which choice they think Gianluca should make. Different choices lead to very different consequences, which means that Eagle Racing has one beginning but eight VERY different endings – from commercial success to total disaster. Eagle Racing was developed in 2008 in close collaboration with Professor Albert Angehrn, Director of the Centre of Advanced Learning Technologies at INSEAD. Eagle Racing was launched in Copenhagen in 2008.
Eagle Racing has also been used to experiment with very different deployment scenarios, demonstrating the very high deployment flexibility of simulations like Eagle Racing. It can be used for a half-day learning experience or the episodes and debriefing can be spread out over several weeks. It can be run on site, played online by distributed teams, or used with a combination of both. In higher education contexts, for instance, this type of simulation can be used to engage participants before a course starts on campus in order to help them get to know each other better through a collaboration experience that is debriefed on site during the course. Alternatively, it can be used to engage participants and keep them connected during the recess between two on-site course modules. For corporate conferences Eagle Racing can be used to stimulate a lively discussion about collaboration – after which the debriefing can be directed toward the specific collaboration issues of the company.
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Eagle Racing produces eight very different endings – from success to total disaster.
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STIMULATE INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPMENT
what a day What a Day is the most advanced and intensive business game that we have developed yet. The purpose of What a Day is to make conscious the ways that the participants lead people and make choices – and to stimulate deep reflection and willingness to change.
opportunity. But you have too little time and are forced to prioritize. What a Day is played in a PC interface that looks like a normal desktop – with access to e-mails, document files, company news, and more. But the main communication takes place via video meetings where colleagues call you (or you call them) – and where you are asked to make tough decisions again and again. Like Eagle Racing, What a Day was developed in close collaboration with Professor Albert Angehrn, Director of the Centre of Advanced Learning Technologies at INSEAD. What a Day has so many different choices and parameters that every game is different – it has literally millions of possible endings. Every second and every action is monitored and used in the extensive debriefing session that is part of the learning experience.
In What a Day you act as yourself in a fictitious situation where many colleagues and customers are fighting for your time and attention – and trying to influence your choices in different directions. You have three challenges of a very different character to manage: a project in crisis; an internal challenge; and a huge business
What a Day is a new game – developed through 2009 and released in 2010. What a Day was first used by 280 leaders during a top management conference in 2010. This first deployment was a big success and it was soon released as an online version as part of the leadership program for the same customer (a global company).
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In What a Day you interact with 21 characters – collegues and customers.
Major events are personally debriefed by Professor Albert Angehrn, INSEAD.
The key means of interaction are video meetings (about two hours of video are prerecorded).
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IMPROVE TEAM SKILLS
V O L D AV I A
M I N I S T RY OF ENERGY
the voldavian challenge The Voldavian Challenge provides a framework for an intense team experience in which groups compete over several hours (or a full day). The teams are invited to compete for a very attractive contract for the fictitious country of Voldavia. The game proceeds through three stages: qualification; the bid; and the grand finale. In each round the teams must create a short video presentation that is judged by a panel.
But The Voldavian Challenge also includes several distractions that challenge the work of the groups as well as numerous secondary competitive challenges such as physical meetings and subtasks. The learning objectives can be customized to the specific group with the debriefing taking different routes or with tailored subtasks. But the important elements of The Voldavian Challenge are always organizing and making decisions as a group, collaborating, and being highly innovative under difficult circumstances.
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SHARE A VISION OF AN IDEAL FUTURE
envisioning games, mayday, mayday Sometimes we meet top management groups that are so self-complacent that this has become an obstacle to change.
• They show how a very challenging situation is managed.
Other times the new reality that a company is trying to achieve is so different from the current reality that people simply cannot imagine how the new reality will be achieved. They are not therefore able to work effectively toward the goal.
• They show how numerous people in different roles work together to solve complex tasks (that it would NOT be possible to manage with today’s tools and organization).
In both cases, engaging people in an “ideal scenario” can be a solution.
And, of course, the scenarios include specific intervention points where the participants are involved in tackling challenges or responding to dilemmas that engage and involve the audience.
We have created a lot of envisioning games for many different customers. And obviously these scenarios have to be tailored to the given situation. However, although they are all quite different, the scenarios all follow some basic principles: • They take place in the future – for example five or ten years ahead. • They take place over a short period of time – for example a rainy Tuesday.
Envisionings are both an enriching experience and a fantastic platform for engaging people in a specific discussion about the need for change.
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Envisioning games trigger engaging discussions.
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Business Games – effective learning
Business games
– the ultimate tool for accelerating change
www.wizerize.com WIZER A/S COPENHAGEN: Amaliegade 41A, 3 · 1256 Copenhagen K · +45 27 22 04 05 Wizerize Inc. NEW YORK: 410 Park Avenue · Suite 1530 · NY 10022 · (212) 231-8125