Werewolves, Critical Thinking and Sustainability

I'm taking a break from the "normal" programming of my newsletter this week. We're in the depth of August, there's barely anyone around who wants to read something work-related, so I'll save serious topics for September. Instead, here's a short update and teaser about stuff on the horizon:

??Werewolves and making good decisions

Lately, I’ve been spending a lot of time—some might say too much—playing social deduction games: Werewolf, Blood on the Clocktower, The Spawn (brilliant new game designed by a friend). If you've ever played Mafia, these games follow the same core concepts: everyone has hidden roles, and the goal is to figure out who the bad guys are. The 'evil' players try to eliminate the 'good' folks while keeping their true roles hidden. It’s all about deception and making smart guesses using a mix of logic and reading people.

Why is that relevant to this newsletter?

1. This has made me reflect on the quality of our decisions in life and at work, the logical shortcuts we take, our biases, etc... If you watch a game of Werewolf knowing everyone's role, you easily notice how flawed players' logic can be, whether they mean well or not. You see in action how groups can make the wrong decisions with strong conviction. It's fascinating! But so tricky to navigate: it's easy to poorly assess a situation based on limited knowledge while you're in a (real or simulated) pressured environment.
2. I believe that social deduction games would be super beneficial for teams to develop critical thinking and decision-making skills while reinforcing team cohesion and mutual respect. So I'm working on adapting Werewolf to be playable at work: making it faster and easier to play and facilitate while keeping it fun

?? Talking about critical thinking...

Next month, I'm speaking at Agile Reading (Sep 18th, online), about cultivating critical-thinking in teams. We'll talk about cognitive biases and traps in decision-making and problem-solving and how we can avoid them or at least limit their impact to make smarter choices as individuals and teams.

Hope to see you there!

?? Our future, our business

I've been learning about sustainability, circular economies, and how to develop business models that preserve our future on this planet. How do we evolve the way we create, deliver and capture value to align short-term business results with the long-term interests of stakeholders beyond shareholders? Making a profit doesn't need to come at the expense of our natural and social capital.

Such a thrilling problem to work on! Beyond the fact that it just makes sense for the good of our world, I enjoy the creativity and strategy involved in developing sustainable business models and products and I hope I'll have the chance to solve this kind of problems in my next role. ?? If you're looking for a T-shaped, adaptable and pragmatic get-stuff-done product or delivery leader to help your purpose-driven business move forward, give me a shout!

I'll probably be writing about sustainable business models, and the challenge for leaders and teams in aligning profitability with various stakeholders' interests.

If any that sounds interesting, keep an eye out for future editions of this newsletter.

And enjoy the end of the Summer!