Maximize Business Results through ‘The Search For The Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine’ Collaborative Business Simulation
The Search For The Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine is a powerful business simulation that has developed the values, behaviors, and mindsets of over 500,000 corporate professionals across 40 countries. It is designed around the true story of Jacob Waltz, a Dutchman who, in his expeditions, came across a gold mine in the Superstition Mountains of Arizona. Years later, he scribbled something on a piece of paper to mark the location of the mine, moments before he died.
And now, you have the opportunity to take your teams on an expedition to the mountains of Arizona, work together, mine as much gold as they can, and return back – alive. An activity that can be done for 18 to over 500 participants, it has proved to transform the way people plan, strategize, and execute. It builds collaborative leadership, productivity, risk-taking, and organizational alignment.
How Does It Work?
The entire session essentially consists of four constructs – briefing, strategy, gameplay, and debriefing. The atmosphere of the room is incredibly energetic and inspiring with cowboy-themed props and music. On each table of 5-7 participants, there are resources, a map, and information about the expedition.
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Program Construct:
Briefing: The lead facilitator will brief the teams on the premise, rules, and the goal of the game.
Strategy: The teams decide on the route to take to the mine, the amount of gold they wish to mine, the route they wish to take back, and the resources they will need.
Gameplay: A highly engaging, inspiring, immersive, and action-packed 45 minutes. The real values, behaviors, and mindsets come into the picture along with the execution skills.
Debriefing: Based on the gameplay, the lead facilitators will delve deeper into each learning objective, as requested by the organization, and make participants reflect and learn from their own and their colleagues’ behaviors and mindsets.
Teams must work together if they wish to make the most out of it. They have 20 days to go to the mine from Apache Junction and get back. There are three routes with unforeseen risks in each of them. The weather changes every day, thereby affecting resource consumption.
And thus begins an unnecessary competition amongst teams to outdo one another by not sharing the best practices, insights, and resources. Teams make their own plans, take their own decisions, and work in silo mindsets. The moment they are put at different tables, they adopt the mentality of “my team vs. their team” which leads to their inevitable loss of productivity.
Features:
- Can be deployed for 20 to 500+ people in one go.
- Creates a strong impact and makes people learn by reflecting on their own actions.
- Makes people explore what is possible, thereby unlocking new potential.
- Fosters collaboration and breaks the silo competitive mindset.
- Learning objectives can be tailored-fit to the organizational vision and values.
Explore how you can take your teams to the next level of awesomeness. Let’s talk and discuss the immense possibilities that await you.
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What our Clients have to say
“Motivating and leaves a lasting impression”
For several years I have used large-scale games and found them to be high impact, motivating, and leaving a lasting impression. The latest example and one of the better ones is “The Search for The Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine.” We used it for an international sales meeting to reinforce the importance of planning and strategy in successful sales activities. The game allows a serious debrief that exposes the learning points and decisions taken by the groups and why some groups outperform others. It provides for lots of fun and interaction along the way and the instructions include guidelines on how to align the game to your organizational goals and event themes, and to align your debrief as well. This event had the highest rating of the conference and people still refer to it 18 months later when holding meetings / coaching on sales efficiency and productivity.
“Getting people to act in alignment”
The key learning points about Dutchman relate to the issues involved in creating and sharing a vision and getting people to act in alignment. It is far easier to talk about working together and collaborating for shared goals and outcomes than it is to actually do that, and Dutchman demonstrates that really well. The beauty of the Dutchman game is not so much in the play but in the actual debrief and what “nuggets of gold” can actually be mined within the discussion and its application to your organization. Senior Leaders are not always the most open to training simulations but since we have done the activity, we are still talking about “aha’s” that we have uncovered and plan to apply in our strategy for the upcoming year. I can recommend this game to anyone dealing with senior managers or large groups of people. It is fun, but it is also very effective.