Over 450 bowtie analyses, exercises, training interventions and syllabi, created by SheRisk, were used to produce the format and challenges to this game. Only the best practices were selected to be the correct outcome of the game.
The game is part of an indispensable education programme, delivered by Enterprises at the University of Pretoria with a footprint in 65 countries. The main objective of the game is facilitating the process to understand the bowtie concepts from the educational material. The secondary outcome is the financial impact of decisions, positive and negative, within the budget contains. The game has 2 options: one a practical board game and secondly a software generated simulation of the board game.
Benefits of the game
The game will encourage players to challenge one’s own decisions with real-time indicators that impact effectiveness of critical controls. In other words, supervisors and managers will be in the same team during the game. Decision making strategies from the training material is applied and, in some instances, will challenge the normal day-to-day thinking process that goes around production meetings. It is those decisions that deviate which reflects negatively on the scorecard of the game. This immediate result provides the opportunity to revamp and redirect resources without testing it in the workplace.
The game encourages participants to follow the training material’s decision-making principles and not their ‘gut based decision’. On the other hand, the group think phenomenon is regarded as the biggest single threat to effective barrier analysis, where a group of people working for a substantial period of time in the same environment start to think alike, making decision in the same manner. Challenging such a group of decision makers in an educational environment will test any game, as well as the facilitator. Groups are stronger than individuals, even if the individual is the rule maker. However, with the selection and decision criteria established for the bowtie and build into the selection process of the cards, they have to break up and alter their own entrenched decision norm.
How it works
At least 7 players should take part in the Game, each will play a set of cards made available, enabling the bowtie to the best fit of the pre-loaded layout on the board. The Game is played in phases to ensure the scorecard is updated during advancement and entrenchment of principles. Below is an example of each phase. We will use Medieval jargon to increase the illustration of the game.
Group Allocation
Each group of players will use the set of Hazard (Acreage) cards containing five ‘Hazards’ to choose from. The group has to fit the chosen hazard card to the board. Utilize the cards already designated to the board and match it with a ‘Top Event’ (Maddening Event) Card. Follow through to the set of cards with a more detailed description of the top event scenario, which include the risk context, scope, boundaries, inclusions and exclusions where applicable. Place the card on the board to complete the appropriate story line of the energy flow.
Already in this phase some form of opinions will start to raise concerns in the group, synergy is now important and should be stimulated by the facilitator of the Game.
Individual Allocation
Confronted by the need of assistance, a group decision has to be taken at the costs provided by the barrier developers (Monetarist) from a pre-determined budget allocated on the Board. The Player calling for assistance will make the payment from his budget having a positive or negative affect on his as well as the total team Scorecard.
Once the Traitor has made a final decision about the applicable ‘threats’ the Guardian takes over with the set of Cards containing different ‘barriers’. The Knight shadows each of the barrier placements, formulate barrier effectiveness and which of the barriers are critical to prevent the ‘top event’. The Raider allocates ‘escalation factors’ to barriers. This is tracked by the Guardian allocating barriers to mitigate the impact of escalation factors. When a barrier requiring improvement, the assistance of an Archer is used to provide the detail action plan, responsibilities and provisional dates. At this point intervention by the Monetarist may be called upon and the set of Barrier Improvement Cards will be utilized, at cost.
During the bowtie most of the time is spend on the control framework, correspondingly the greatest number of cards were allocated for the selection of the appropriate act, object or system control during the game.
In practice the board game representing the ICMM approach open a new school of thoughts. Act, objects and systems each have supportive controls and each supportive control have dependency controls. One control cannot be effective without the other, interlinked they form a group of controls that govern overall effectiveness, clearly depicted when the set of controls are placed on the board.
