A Simulation Tool for Team Learning

The Friday Night at the ER team-learning game is a simulation tool for gaining powerful insight in an engaging group experience. It's a board game played at one or more tables of four players and led by a facilitator. The game teaches people to:

• consider the effects of their decisions on the larger system,
• to collaborate with an openness to redesign, and
• to develop sound data on which to base decisions.

Who is it For?

• Work Teams, Retreats, Classes....for Improvement Work, Restructuring, Planning, Team Building
• Any group whose members have to work together
• Minimum group size is 4; maximum is 200

How Does it Work?

The game simulates the challenge of managing a hospital during a typical 24-hour period. Players perform distinct functions, but they come to realize that they also depend on each other. The game play (2 hours) is followed by an interactive debriefing (1 hour or more).

What Can it Teach?

• Systems Thinking: managing interdependence, complexity, delay
• Collaboration: shared accountability, coordinated action across functions
• Innovation: working with mental models, openness to redesign
• Use of Data: system performance data, measurement
• Structural Thinking: designing for performance