Games and Simulations Design

One of the most powerful ways to help groups work with social complexity is the use of games and interactive simulations. These immerse participants in a simulated world or environment for a few hours. They interact with each other and game artifacts in a rich learning experience, that captures relevant aspects of the real world in which they have to navigate complexity. Once the game or simulation has come to an end, a carefully crafted debriefing session is conducted to get participants to reflect cognitively, affectively and somatically on the experience. This is often one of the most powerful aspects of the learning as participants reconstruct and learn together collectively.

We have applied games and simulations in many different domains ranging from operations, production, agriculture, climate change, leadership, strategic management, health, economic development, social justice and public administration. In this piece we offer a design template for games and simulations below. Please feel free to adapt it to suit your practical needs.