Concepts and Lessons
Real World Data
The game integrates geophysical and socioeconomic data so that players work with real-world issues and problems. Empowered by tools and techniques in the game, individuals define, understand, and solve regional and global problems.
Leadership
Which is more important, wealth or resources? Should we form an economic alliance with Southeast Asia? In a Global Simulation Workshop, players constantly make tough decisions and follow them through. Their actions have a real impact on each other and on the world they create. Together, they experience the rewards and risks of realizing a vision.
Teamwork
Every team of 3-6 players must work together to build a coherent strategy. Each player develops an area of expertise and learns to cooperate with teammates. The success of the team depends on the ability of its members to pool their knowledge and skills.
Responsibility
The world is a complex system. Actions have consequences. Nowhere are these concepts more clearly demonstrated than in the Global Simulation Workshop. Players see the results of their actions reverberate throughout the world, and learn that they can make a real difference for themselves and for each other.
Strategies
Twenty teams compete with each other for global resources; yet they must also cooperate to receive the help they need to develop and advance. Participants learn to act and react to a unique set of circumstances and to balance self-interest and altruism, competition and cooperation, individual goals and the collective fate of the world.
Communication
Whether it is fashioning a strategy with one's own teammates, or negotiating with another team, players learn to articulate their goals, explain their perspectives, and win others over to their viewpoints. They learn the importance of effective communication in a world where everyone's interests are interconnected.
Problem Solving
In a Global Simulation Workshop, each team faces a unique set of challenges, economic, political, social, and environmental. Players decide which problems they want to tackle and negotiate with each other throughout the game to find sustainable solutions.
Complexity
No mathematical model can reflect the most important forces that shape the world – social interactions, personalities, ambitions, values. Players find their actions and ideas reflected in a world they create together, and these values make the outcome of each game unique.
The Big Picture
History. Economics. Geography. Political science. Ethics. Social studies. Technology. Culture. All of these elements that reflect the complexity of the real world are integrated into the Global Simulation Workshop. In a world so intricate and dynamic, it is easy for individuals to lose sight of the "big picture". The Global Simulation Workshop helps them reconnect with the global perspective by putting the world into their hands.
