We are often asked why we need a research base for simulations? Or from the opposite perspective: why are simulations not more tightly linked to their research base? Thank you for your good questions, they make us reflect and justify even more deeply why we have made certain choices.
The aim of the SmoothTeam simulation is to lead the team to the issues that really matter, and thus help solve the challenges identified. The key question is, what should the team discuss in order to address a particular challenge? In search of an answer, we could sit down in a restaurant for an evening, come up with themes to get our heads around and test how our ideas work in practice, but there is a much more sensible, effective and efficient way.
The world is full of researchers and experts who have already thought about these things, put theories together and tested their ideas in practice. Some of the answers we need can be found in these research articles. For me, as a PhD researcher, this is a familiar way of approaching things, but it does not yet lead to ready-made answers from our simulation perspective. Real life has always proven to be more amazing than theory, so we also need several test games with clients. During these games, the themes and texts will be refined based on our own assessment and feedback from clients.
The birth story of the management team simulation
The creation of a simulation has always started with the needs and wishes of the customers - that's how the idea of a simulation for the management team was born. We defined the goal: we wanted to create a simulation that would help management teams develop their own operations to be more efficient and at the same time more enjoyable.
What issues should the group discuss to achieve this? We searched for research articles on the factors behind a successful management team. We browsed through the studies and simultaneously tabulated the results presented in the different articles. We grouped the results under broad headings such as feedback culture, psychological safety and managing challenging situations. Under the main themes, we found more detailed factors from the studies, such as empathy and the ability to listen to differing opinions.
We quickly found that some of the factors were related to the heterogeneity of the group in terms of age, gender, cultural background, skills and education. However, these were of no interest to us - they were beyond our control. Another recurring theme was issues related to the internal interaction within the management group. We were pleased to see that we could have an impact! We concentrated on the interaction studies and as no new themes emerged, the main categories started to look good. Based on this work, we implemented the first version of the simulation.
The first game with your team is always an exciting experience: what conversations do you have and is the story moving smoothly? It is remarkable how in each simulation I learn something new from my own colleagues, although as you can imagine, we have played quite a few simulations... After our own experience, we always play with several real client groups, make observations on how the simulation worked and ask for feedback. At this stage, we remove questions and fine-tune the claims and the story. Once we are confident that the simulation works, based on the experience of the client groups, we open it up for public use.
Balance between research background and practical gaming experience
Now it is time to return to your questions. Why do we need a research base for simulations? It helps us to identify the relevant topics for discussion for a given challenge. It acts as a kind of guarantee that the issues are relevant, relevant. Why are simulations not more strictly linked to research? If we find that an issue doesn't lead people to relevant conversations, it won't work no matter what the theories say. Then we listen sensitively to feedback, adjust and tweak until we find that the questions and wording work. Ultimately, even the little scientist in me has to admit: real life and interaction are phenomena of unimaginable complexity.
