Articles

What We're Playing - Dominion

Designed By: Donald X. Vaccarino

Published By: Rio Grande Games

In times of adversity the people who come through feeling confident and well prepared for a better future will be those who were able to demonstrate flexibility as well as determination and hard work.  The ability to spot opportunities and make the most of them whilst the external conditions are changing unpredictably will mark out those people and businesses which have the best chance of prospering.

We tried out the idea of flexible thinking by playing Dominion with a few small groups.  Dominion is a card driven game where the objective is to win by owning more territory than your opponents.  You can gain territory by buying it, gaining cash through a variety of actions, and you can take cash and territory from your opponents utilising attack actions. 

The game set up is simple enough and the rules can be quickly learned, however at the end of each game some of the actions you have grown to rely on will be removed from the game, replaced with others which will force you to adopt a different approach to playing the game.  That’s when it gets interesting from a management perspective.

Some players will adapt their tactics slightly, looking for actions which were similar to those used successfully in the past and maintaining a steady course, others will completely transform their strategy to take account of the changes, taking risks as they try out new ideas.  Some will continue playing as before without the actions they were used to but also without the ‘new’ actions that they feel less comfortable with, limiting their choices, but improving their ability to work within a known framework.

As the landscape changes again the players who adapt steadily increase their chances of winning, those who revolutionise either get frustrated at the new changes and lose interest, or look to change the rules to fit their approach.  Those who want to stick with the plan they first learned continue to limit their choices and gradually lose any advantages they gained from experience.

These are all approaches we see in the workplace, often with similar results.  Our test teams included a banker, a teacher, a sales person, a consultant, a politics student, a school child, a computer programmer and an accountant.  Who do you think would fare best?

To learn how you can improve your organisation’s ability to adapt to change and emerge stronger contact:

Claudine McClean
E: claudinem@predaptive.com
T: 01789 734333