23rd June am 5pm. Goethe-Institut 812 Seventh Street, NW Washington, DC

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2 World is becoming more and more complex. Things change faster. The future is uncertain. Navigating uncharted territories becomes a necessary skill for all managers. Successful strategies can be created and implemented only through effective collaboration within organization and between different stakeholders. Strategy development, risk management and teamwork cannot be learned passively. They require engagement. With simulation games you can engage your audience, communicate complex realities and learn from mistakes without costs. The Lords of the Valley game combines challenges of solving complex problems with the fascinating dynamics of human relationships. This game engages, teaches and entertains perfectly, all at the same time. Great fun included! Lords of the Valley is a role-playing simulation board game that takes place in the valley of the river exposed to unexpected droughts and floods. Participants take roles of people living in this valley making decisions on behalf of different organizations. They try to achieve their goals, facing many challenges arising from the decisions of other players and the unpredictability of the environment. Game environment and the roles work as a metaphor of a complex organization or an organization working with multiple stakeholders. 2/7

3 Players emotional engagement is guaranteed by game mechanics. Lords of the Valley combines engaging simulation with a joy of social interactions. The game is a field laboratory of solving organizational problems in a complex environment. The players have the opportunity to experience the dynamic impacts of their decisions and to test various strategic assumptions related to sustainable business operations. Open and uncertain environment created in the game requires all participants to develop and implement strategies for their teams. In the course of the game these strategies need to adapt to changing conditions in the environments as well as other teams actions. Leadership becomes critical to reach important goals. All teams in the game are highly interdependent. They have to collaborate to achieve their goals. The game facilitates learning about both in-group and between-groups collaboration. Players experience the challenges of group decision making. All managers face complexity and uncertainty. Methods and solutions based on fragmented understanding no longer work. Systems thinking can greatly help with overcoming those obstacles and the game provides plenty of opportunities to practice this approach. The game creates a safe environment where it is possible to make mistakes without bearing the costs of these mistakes. Because game reality is experienced as something that feels real, more information is retained, learning is faster, and an intuition is gained about how to make real decisions. The experience is directly transferable to real life situations. 3/7

4 I participated in the game and found it to be engaging, fun, and surprisingly useful to understand, given a relatively brief period of time, some of the collaboration challenges that individuals and organizations confront in working together in policy contexts. The game was dynamic and innovative, and participants were effectively encouraged to engage more. The game stimulates its participants to think through their activities in a complex environment, not only during the game, but especially in their own life, and during strategic decision process in their institutions. We strongly recommend to launch the game in various institutions and for multidisciplinary target groups. The form is easy to understand and can bring enormous positive results in terms of sustainable development of any important case. As an economist you hardly get to see the real social interactions that take place, unless you are in experimental and/or behavioral economics. Playing this game gave me an opportunity to see various interactions and learn the human dimension side which is an important part. This game helps you learn how to negotiate without emotions. You really learn from the game just how important social interactions are to making decisions, small and big, and sometimes you learn that your preconceived notions are greatly misinformed. I ve learned that it s all about setting a common goal and thinking of long term benefits. You had to interact with other stakeholders to obtain a fuller view of the system because no one player knew everything, but you also had very little time each round. It was challenging and fun to play, and the debriefing afterward gave us all a chance to discuss what had occurred and relate the game to the real world. I am excited to try to find ways to incorporate what I learned into my own research endeavors. Now I understand that I should be looking at larger picture. The game could also be used in communication and business courses to illustrate how important information sharing is in group situations. Employers could use this as a team building and cooperation workshop for their business. In my opinion, the possibilities are endless for LOTV! I ve learned how to create risk management strategies in uncertain situations. When you communicate effectively, you can avoid mistakes during the decision-making process. I have learned that when it comes to complex problems solving, looking beyond your profit really pays back. Game lets you learn from your mistakes without bearing real consequences. The game has been successfully applied many times in Hungary, Poland, Belgium, Spain, Netherlands, Germany and Austria. It has been used for business improving the quality of communication and collaboration in many organizations: public and private. 4/7

5 23rd June am 5pm Goethe-Institut 812 Seventh Street, NW Washington, DC Please register at: 5/7

6 We link theory and practice by applying diverse range of systems methods. Our goal is to develop new flexible and innovative tools to foster practice which respects both scientific analysis and public discourse. We use systems science as well as knowledge management tools and methods to functionally integrate the diversity of perspectives from business, government, NGOs and concerned citizens. We present our experiences in the workshops and trainings that we organize. Often these courses provide the impulse for the participants to undertake action in their own environment. The Goethe-Institut Washington organizes and supports cultural events that present German culture abroad and that further intercultural exchange. The Goethe-Institut Washington is responsible for providing cultural programs and pedagogical and language services to the District of Columbia and to the states of Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and Delaware. A special, wider-ranging focus of our work involves projects using the electronic media (internet, radio, and television) for audiences in the USA, Canada, Mexico, and Cuba. We organize and provide advice about electronic media projects in the areas of cultural programming, language services, and information on behalf of the Goethe-Institut locations in these countries. 6/7

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