Strategize. Influence. Win.
Compete to come out on top by tackling widespread resistance and internal politics.
STEP UP!™ is a facilitated learning board game (“serious game”) for organizations faced with uncertainty, fast-paced change and digital disruption.
The simulation challenges competing teams to take on a tricky digital transformation. The objective is to successfully pivot a major business of Korbus Global – an international B2B company. There are plenty of obstacles, internal politics and twists that simulate the real world. How will the players pull it off?
The characters and dynamics in STEP UP!™ are based on a real-life workplace scenario. Players learn how to apply the ORCHANGO Method (including the Six Change Personas™) while drawing parallels with their own real-world challenges.
The result is a learning experience that threads nimble change leadership into the players’ “DNA” and the organization’s culture.
STEP UP!™ powers our flagship Nimble Change Leadership program with the following learning outcomes:
- Gain a deeper understanding of what it really takes to successfully execute change in today’s unprecedented business environment
- Adopt 5 critical mindsets for nimble change leadership in the age of digital disruption
- Boost your effectiveness as a transformational leader with nimble tools, techniques and “game plans” that are highly practical and unique
- Become a Co-Disruptor who advances the company’s agenda by working through the politics of change with integrity (i.e. “light-side politics” vs. “dark-side politics”)
- Invest your limited time, energy, and influence more strategically when driving change
- Maximize your organizational impact and propel your career for the next normal
In the words of client executives
This learning game has made a tremendous contribution to building our organization’s change capabilities. In team sports (for example soccer) it is hard to learn how to play if you never watched a game before.
The same is true in change management. With STEP UP!™, the participants had a great opportunity to simultaneously watch and play the ‘change management game’. This built a strong foundation for the rest of our action-learning journey as an organization.
STEP UP!™ vividly presented the reality of being in the fog during the early phases of a change project. This was a key message which otherwise would have been very difficult to teach and learn. Furthermore, the game equipped the learners with effective strategies, methods and tools to clear the fog and build momentum towards change.
With its story-line and characters, STEP UP!™ brought to life the tools especially the Ladder of Commitment-Resistance and its six rungs. The game immersed the participants in a simulation that felt all too real: they could immediately think of real people who personify the various rungs of the Ladder; they could relate to the events and challenges.
Also, the characters provided us with neutral labels for people’s attitudes towards change. For example, a leader can now capture someone’s lack of commitment by saying: ‘We have a Nick Duran here’. The people working on the change will know exactly what that leader means – and, more importantly, what to do about it.
Thanks to the common language and the tools we acquired through the STEP UP!™ game, we work better together and drive change more effectively throughout the organization.
— Senior executive responsible for strategy & change at a mid-size client organization
When I first participated in the STEP UP!™ Game at a Board of Directors retreat, I knew this would be something that the leadership team of my company could benefit from.
I had explained to my [co-owner] while he was working with you to set this up that the game would set the table and open everyone’s mind to the idea of “nimble change management”. It’s something that is not on their radar.
The game is so effective as a starting point because people’s minds are open. It’s a theoretical company and there is no reason to get defensive or prickly about questions around the existing situation and change.
It was very effective, as expected. You have a very disarming way of communicating while getting a very powerful message across. It’s excellent! I look forward to us really diving into our change problem.
— Founding CEO of a company in the technology & tourism industry