Purpose

To explore how stakeholder groups could influence positive or negative outcomes.

Outcomes

Analysis and understanding of factors that influence specific positive and negative consequences.

Flow of the game

In this role play game, players participate in a time-travel scenario and are projected into the future via a wormhole to explore an issue relevant to their context – (eg, How an E-Business strategy turned out in the year 2007).

Round 1: Players are randomly assigned either a utopian or a dystopian version of the role play and given a stakeholder role from which to view the issue on question. eg business development manager, teacher, managing director, IT consultant, customer.

They are then asked to submit a 150 word story to a facilitator which outlines how their designated stakeholder contributed to either this utopian or dystopian future. In this round, players don’t know there is another scenario or a range of stakeholder roles.

Round 2 : The facilitator collates the role play stories under the stakeholder roles and posts them on a web site or sends them back via email to the whole group.

After reviewing all optimistic and pessimistic postings, players submit their five top ideas for ensuring a utopian future for the issue in question.

Round 3: The list of ideas are collated by the facilitator and sent back to the whole group.

Players then vote on the top five ideas which can be used as a basis for planning the next step in ensuring a utopian outcome.

Debrief: Players then join in a facilitated discussion using a bulletin board or chat.