More face-to-face meetings or remote working? Luxury company cars for managers or public transport tickets for everyone? Diversity management or health programmes? Trust-based working hours or the right to finish work on time? This is just a selection of the roughly 100 measures available to choose from in our strategy game “New Work”. The budget and time are limited, not everything can be implemented, and employees and business units do not always pursue the same goals. Sounds like real working life? That is precisely the idea.

In the simulation game, participants take on the roles of employees at a fictional company, spread across various departments and locations. Over several rounds of negotiation, they grapple with the question: How do we want to work in the future? Via our Senaryon platform, they select measures, vote, exchange messages and see immediately what effects their decisions have.

The added value arises through discussion: in day-to-day work, many employees and departments focus primarily on their own tasks, and the bigger picture is easily lost sight of. The simulation game turns this perspective on its head: those who suddenly find themselves representing the interests of another department or being confronted with its demands learn a great deal about their own role, about that of others, and about how the entire company functions. At the end, there is therefore always a detailed evaluation including a reality check: how satisfied is the whole team with the result, and which aspects of the simulation experience can be applied to everyday business life?

The content and game tools are provided digitally (browser-based) via Senaryon. planpolitik’s trainers guide the players through all phases of the simulation game: introduction, simulation game and evaluation. Participants require a tablet or a laptop and a stable internet connection.

We originally developed “New Work” for a housing construction company in Hesse that was looking for a fully digital solution for a retreat involving over 100 managers during the pandemic. Since then, we have run the game on several occasions and adapted it to various organisational contexts.

Most recently, it formed part of an internal professional development programme for an internationally active company in the agricultural sector with locations worldwide. Fifteen employees joined in from all over the world, from Canada to Germany to Malaysia. For this session, we translated the simulation game into English and adapted and simplified the content to suit the group and the purely online format. This is precisely where one of the strengths of the digital format comes to the fore: it brings teams together who would otherwise never be able to meet in one place.

However, it is also worth noting that in their feedback, the participants expressed a wish for a digitally supported in-person session next time. This is a view we share. When everyone is sitting in the same room, each equipped with a tablet or laptop, more simply happens through direct exchange: more genuine interaction, more spontaneous side discussions, and more of the social atmosphere that makes simulation games such an experience. The digital platform then delivers what it does best: structure, materials and the immediately visible effects of all decisions.

“New Work” is suitable for companies, associations and organisations facing change and wishing to discuss this as a team. The content can be adapted to the specific organisational context. The total duration is 6 to 8 hours and can be flexibly arranged either in a single day or across several modular blocks.

Are you interested in running this for your organisation? Then get in touch at hello@planpolitik.de!