A workshop that invites teams to make and play board games in order to teach about human systems, human system interactions, and how those systems effect the work we do.
This was developed in collaboration with Zach Bonaker while working for @Teradata.
This workshop requires 3 or more teams with 4 or more people per team. The atmosphere needs to be safe enough for people to play and approach this workshop with a bit of jest.
In the workshop, each team will be given a predefined environment that represents their company. Then a board game type to develop. They will then spend time developing a board game which will be delivered to another team to play. Each team will score points based of its environment's rules. The team with the highest points after playing games will win.
You will need the following items for each team:
| Needed | Item | Quantity |
|---|---|---|
| X | Environment Card | One for each participant |
| X | Game Type Card | At least 2 |
| X | Markers (Various Colors) | 1 set |
| X | 6 Sided Dice | 4 - 6 |
| X | Deck of playing cards | |
| X | Printer Paper | About 20 pieces |
| X | Tokens (4 Color) | 20 of each color |
| 20 Sided Die | 1 | |
| 12 Sided Die | 1 | |
| 10 Sided Die | 1 | |
| 8 Sided Die | 1 | |
| 4 Sided Die | 1 |
| Time in minutes | Activity |
|---|---|
| 5 | Brief introduction |
| 5 | Questions |
| 30 | Game design |
| 3 | Score points for group work |
| 5 | Team Personal Activity |
| 30 | Game play |
| 30 | Debrief |
All supplies except the Environment Cards and the Game Type Cards should be bundled together for easy access, but not yet given to the teams.
Environment Cards should be stacked into individual piles, but face down. Same with Game Type Cards.
We are about to start a workshop dealing with teams and the systems that effect those teams. To do that we needed to have you perform work that was both creative work and usable by someone else. To simulate those conditions we are going to create board games. Don't worry if you have never created a board game before, no one will be able to create a great game with restriction given.
The way this workshop is layed out, you will receive an environment card. This card will describe the company culture for which you now belong. It will describe how your team will score points throughout the exercise. You are encouraged to follow your environment as closely as you can.
Once you understand your environment, you will then get your Game Type card and supplies. This card will explain the type of game you are creating; which can include certain rule restrictions. If you develop a game that does not qualify as your game type you will score no points.
Before starting we will answer any questions.
You will act as the product owner(s) through this excersize and be called to answer questions about the game, game creation and environment. Give the asker the benefit of the doubt so they can have very liberal interpretations of the rules.
While the activity is going on, move through the room constantly examining what people are doing. When you see one team making progress shout it so everyone knows. Pretend to yell at them for not having product done soon enough or warn them about quality or whatever else you can think of that a "bad" product owner would say.
Warn them, when time has hit these key places:
- Half time has elapsed
- 7 Minutes remain
- 5 Minutes remain
- 3 Minutes remain
- 1 Minutes remain
- 30 Seconds remain
This exercise has a lot of debriefing points. A few are listed here to help you.
- What was it like working within your environment?
- Did this change your behavior at all?
- How was it delivering your game to another team?
- Did their culture clash with yours?
- How was it playing a game from the other term?
- Did their culture clash with yours?
Team Environment Workshop by Zach Bonaker, Jason Kerney, and Teradata is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
