Learn how to respond at the edge of your knowing.
Playing at the Edge is all about about learning to think and act anew. The collaborative games and activities in this offering are designed to exercise your capacity to respond to the unexpected and bounce back when things don’t go according to the script! In just a few hours, you will learn more about complexity and take away actionable-insights that can be applied the same day.
Why Play?
Research and experience tells us that games effectively simulate real world, complex situations. The games and activities used in Playing at the Edge have light constraints within which the complexity of human interaction, decision-making and joy emerges.
Game-relevance to the real-world comes from three characteristics they share with all complex, social challenges:
- Every game is unique, unpredictable and emergent – this emergence arises from the interactions between the players and constraints of the game itself;
- Players need to negotiate a constant flow of information – this information comes directly and indirectly from other players and from the mechanic of the game itself;
- Players display adaptive behaviour – this means that players in the game are constantly and autonomously adjusting their behaviours in response to new information.
What’s at the Edge?
There are many situations that bring us to the edge: falling in love, starting a new job, or learning to work with different people and cultures. Our comfort zone is tested in times of disruption, in crisis or when something fails when the stakes are high.
As humans we prefer certainty. Because we are neurologically hard-wired to avoid the unexpected, the edges we encounter in an uncertain, complex and volatile world can feel overwhelming. When we can’t find solutions, or even define the problem we face, we can feel stuck, incompetent, embarrassed or frustrated. Our default response is to cling to existing ways of thinking and acting.
Playing at the Edge provides a safe container to test and stretch our comfort zone. At this playful edge of knowing, players learn to notice more, improvise, engage spontaneously with each other and discover an exploratory mindset. They learn to expect the unexpected and let-go of the need for control.
What do you get?
A 3 hour interactive and fun learning session with a group of 16 to 100 people.
- Part 1: Intro’s then play
- Part 2: Facilitated debrief to illuminate learning
You also get access to:
- Actionable insights shared by the group during the debrief
- Other resources on complexity and examples of other games
When?
If you want to organise a Playing at the Edge session that is tailored to your needs, please contact Geoff directly:
Email: geoff@tangentconsulting.com.au
Mobile: +61 0403 763 660
A deeper dive into mindful leadership, complexity and systems change
Playing at Edge is a 1/2 day entree to a comprehensive leadership program called Leadership for Systems Change (L4SC).
Designed with Chad Foulkes, this multi-session program has already helped hundred of leaders across Victoria to discover how to respond and lead in times of high complexity and uncertainty. Past course participants have successfully applied course learning to tackle gnarly problems and make progress on a real work challenge that you bring to the course.
Contact Geoff to learn more.
PLAY IN-PERSON
There is nothing like being together, in a room with a group of people who are willing to learn!
The games and group activities that we offer in-person come from a diverse range of sources. The principles that underpin Improv theatre have shaped many of the activities. We also draw on games used in the international humanitarian sector, developed in collaboration with serious organisations like the World Bank and MIT.
PLAY ONLINE
The game we have adapted for the Playing at Edge ONLINE is called Werewolf. Created during the Cold War by Russian spy agencies, Werewolf was used in the 1960’s to train their spies to build trust, think on their feet and make decisions when faced with unexpected situations.
Werewolf is a collaboratory game and creates drama, intrigue and mystery. Players negotiate with each other, use their influencing skills, build trusted relationships and work together to solve a shared challenge.
Apart from being the most fun you will ever have on Zoom, playing Werewolf provides a jolt, revealing your cognitive biases and assumptions when dealing with uncertainty. The game will transport you to the very edge of your knowing, which in turn, offers new learning and actionable insights about how to respond when stretched beyond your comfort zone.
Your Facilitator
Playing at the Edge has been created by Geoff Brown (Tangent Consulting) and inspired by recent online workshops with Chad Foulkes (Liminal by Design).
Gameplay Credits
The game ‘Werewolf’ has been around since the 1960’s. Geoff first learned to play the game with Andrew Rixon (Babel Fish Group) and more recently the online version with Raymond Van Driel (F-act Training & Coaching). Geoff has since adapted the game of Werewolf to support his work in helping leaders and their teams to get a better handle on complexity, system change and leadership.
Games like Decisions for the Decade come from the great work by Pablo Surez with the Red Cross Red Climate Centre.