Playing outside our sandbox

At Archetypical , we are big fans of expanding horizons – whether yours or ours. As we close the year, it is a good time to open our eyes to new ideas.? Here are some of the things we’ve been exploring in the last month.

The creative writing game

Our Director, Stephen Welch , recently attending a creative writing workshop, involving gamification, playing cards, a curated library and the power of randomness. He’s not a super creative person but, as we know, gamification creates the conditions (and the permission) to think differently. In this game, you shuffle the deck of cards and then your selection guides you to a particular book from the library. People, places, things, events. Repeat a few times for different characters and then use those books as inspiration to create a story. Brainstorming, with an element of randomness thrown in. Stephen ended up with a book of Russian enstancias (in Cyrllic), The History of Board Games, South African gay icons, and Oulipo. What to make of that?

Stephen was outside his comfort zone. But that is the power of randomness and gamification. A fantastic learning experience, delivering the unexpected. And fun! We’re going to borrow some of these ideas for a future workshop.

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The campaign game

Next year we’re launching a new game on project management and finance skills.? Participants will work in teams to deliver a project on time, and in budget. But various things might happen to help or hinder them. How will you react? Each team will have to choose which project to work on, and then collect cards to deliver that project: but which cards will you choose to ensure success? How will you balance budget and client satisfaction?

We are still developing this new game – designed for both agency and in-house project managers who want to play outside their sandbox and learn about project finance. At the moment, we have 6 scenarios, 12 wild cards, 20 budget cards and lots of further ideas.? Watch this space for a launch in 2025.

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The influence game

Last month we were at Royal Holloway, University of London, with our regular lecture on influencing skills, as part of the Psychology Department. This year we tried something different: the influencing game. We taught students the RECIPE for influence (ie the six styles that make a difference in the world of work), and then played the influence game – the goal is to persuade a senior leader to your course of action. But s/he will only be influenced by one style and the team needs to develop a strategy to find that style and deliver success. People need to work as a team to identify the right influencing strategy and pick up on the clues from the ‘senior leader’.

Sometimes the game is challenging. Sometimes it is easy: one team got the right style first time! Others struggled. It’s all about helping people play outside their sandbox and try new ideas.

One key lesson: listen and ask questions. Several teams just ploughed straight in, without taking time to listen and pick up on the clients from the ‘senior leader’. To you need to listen first, then talk.

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