Client Profile
- Industry: International pharmaceutical company
- Target Group: 77 employees from various departments and across different organizational roles within the Polish division
Objectives
In light of a rapidly shifting market landscape and internal organizational restructuring, the client wanted employees to develop and sharpen the following critical skills:
- Agile adaptation to fast-changing conditions
- Scenario-based thinking and planning
- Efficiently acquiring and interpreting complex data through critical thinking
- Making high-impact decisions based on incomplete information
- Fostering creative and innovative problem-solving
Additionally, it was vital to cultivate a growth mindset—specifically, a continuous “hunger for knowledge” and a proactive desire to explore, experiment, and embrace new opportunities.
The Solution
The client was seeking a high-engagement development tool that would allow employees to personally experience change, uncertainty, and its associated risks. More importantly, they needed a framework where teams could test various strategies for navigating an unpredictable environment. The Red Cloud Alliance corporate simulation game was the perfect fit.
- Format: In-person (conference room setting)
- Structure: Group divided into 18 teams
- Duration: 4 hours (including a comprehensive debrief)
- Language: Polish
In the simulation, each team represented a different North American clan. Every clan started with a unique pool of resources—charms, utility goods, and cash—that differed from all the others. Success depended on strategically accumulating the right resources and executing the best path to get them.
At the launch, none of the teams knew what resources other clans possessed, nor were they familiar with others’ goals or strategies. In fact, teams were initially unsure where to even begin because critical data was missing, and the available information was highly ambiguous. To heighten the challenge, unexpected, unpredicted changes were introduced during gameplay to test their resilience.
Results & Key Takeaways
The experiential learning simulation successfully met all its objectives. When asked, “What did this game make you realize? What did it inspire you to do, and what conclusions do you draw in the context of your daily work?”, the participants shared:
- “The game perfectly reflected the massive shifts happening right before our eyes in our daily work.”
- “This simulation was a mirror image of what we experience on the job every day: pure uncertainty and constant change.”
- “You cannot ignore change or just wait for it to blow over. You have to confront it head-on.”
- “It is critical to have multiple contingencies in place. Relying on just one approach is dangerous because it can become ineffective in an instant.”
- “Gathering information is only half the battle. You have to truly understand it and extract the right takeaways to move forward.”
- “We will never have 100% of the data. We must learn to trust what we have and make the best possible decisions regardless.”
- “The Red Cloud Alliance made me realize how vital creativity and out-of-the-box thinking are, especially when the situation is highly volatile and complex.”
