In an ever more complex world, large organisations rely on their ability to react or proactively change through large scale strategic initiatives, or as they are sometimes called, Must Win Battles. These could be initiatives such as implementing LEAN, changing production methods or finding new ways to engage customers. Unfortunately, many of these initiatives will, regardless of how great they look on paper, fail due to poor execution or a lack of stakeholder buy-in. Multiple studies¹ show that strategic initiatives often fail, because the people who run them have not prioritized the ‘softer side’ of change management such as timely involvement of the necessary stakeholders.

To be better at execution strategic transformations and lead major changes we need to get serious about stakeholder engagement and how we create the necessary support, commitment and empowerment. To be specific, we need a more refined and nuances approach that goes beyond conventual stakeholders mappings, and where we have an professional approach to organizational diplomacy and ‘office politics’. In short, we must expand our change leadership toolbox with inspiration and tools from both negotiation tactics, conflict resolution and influencing.

PLAYING TO WIN

On way to train and refine the critical skills of organization diplomacy and stakeholder engagement is to use game-based training and leadership simulations.

One example is Gamechangers, a board-game based leadership simulation, which focuses on the softer side of managing large strategy initiatives. In a fictive setting, the game lets the participants drive a large scale strategic transformation, and it shows how a large part of the initiative’s success depends on their ability to build coalitions and alignment. It zooms in on the crucial start-up phase, where stakeholder must come together and align expectations, and on the anchoring phase where they need to keep momentum and make the change part of the new reality of the organisation. In order to push through, they must be firm, but they also need to show flexibility in order to secure the right buy-in from key stakeholders.

The leadership simulation provides a safe training environment where the participant can learn from mistakes without jeopardizing real projects, budgets or colleagues. This helps the players to be much better prepared when they have to deliver when it really counts in real life.

TIME TO GO ANALOGUE

Digital tools for training are great for many things but when it comes to the training of refined leadership skills we need to put down the screens and engage face-to-face. IMD, one of the world’s best business schools, are among an increasing number of institutions and companies who use board-game based tools to train leaders and executives. In the words of Robert Hooijberg, Professor of Organizational Behavior: ”The leadership simulations stimulate, as we like to say at IMD, real learning with real impact for our executives.”

Every year new studies confirm that approximately two-thirds of all change projects fail. If your organization can accept these dire odds fine, but if you like to win and deliver, than you need to get serious about the softer side of change management, and in particular the aspect of stakeholder engagement. And for this, game-based training can be an invaluable training tool.

1. https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/how-to-beat-the-transformation-odds

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