Dutchman is a great way for teams to experience issues of communication, resource management and team dynamics common to the workplace. During debriefing, team behaviors are linked to opportunities to improve collaboration, leadership, teamwork and communications critical to optimizing results. Participative, visual and interactive, it produces an excellent learning environment in a high-impact and memorable way.
Benefits include:
- Plays in 2 hours, allowing debriefing in a morning or afternoon session
- Played with groups from 9 to 1000 (some extra resource cards needed for sessions of more than 60 people). Ideal size probably 36. Works exceptionally well as a learning exercise with 150 to 250! There is no practical upper limit to the number of players.
- Clearly shows the value of cross-functional / interdepartmental team work and process improvement
- Provides simple metaphors about how things really work, including a series of Square Wheels cartoons directly linked to the simulation and metaphors
- Allows for powerful debriefings and interactive discussions focused on leading organizations, motivating people, risk-taking, communications and systems thinking
Applications include:
- Team building, innovation and creativity
- Realigning missions and visions / how to motivate people and organizations
- Leadership training and supervisory skills development
- Communications skills training (direct links to personality styles, NLP, etc.)
- Continuous quality and service quality improvement
- Energizing of existing quality programs and SPC training
- Executive Development Retreats
The simulation is high-powered and fast-paced with visual and kinesthetic aspects making it an ideal tool for learning and organizational development. Our Professional Edition comes complete with its own set of Square Wheels illustrations, debriefings are very flexible and easily linked with desired learning outcomes.
Extraordinarily useful for multiple day retreats and for week-long management development programs, it presents an assortment of metaphors that can be easily linked to critical organizational objectives of team work, quality, leadership, missions and alignment and many other issues facing organizations today.
People play a game and then learn through a facilitated discussion about motivation, leadership, collaboration, communications, systems, resource management, problem analysis, competition and other factors that relate closely to their behavior. Many of our users are directly linking the simulation to the personality inventories and decision-making models.
It is an action learning paradigm that is engaging, entertaining and practical. It is also interesting and fun to deliver and observe.
Many have found The Search for The Lost Dutchman's Gold Mine to be a truly excellent event for your organization. It is really fun and challenging while being a powerful learning tool that can link to a wide variety of real-world organizational issues and opportunities.
Behaviors generated in the game easily link to a wide variety of performance management and leadership improvement opportunities within most organizations. It can be used to teach motivational skills to supervisors or leadership skills to top management. And it is great for generating action-oriented discussions about interorganizational collaboration and teamwork.
The game is fast-paced and engaging, designed with a number of metaphors that can be readily linked to issues of interest. Debriefings can focus on a number of issues and the behaviors generated by the experience often illustrate behaviors in the organization.
The Western / Modern theme can be easily accessorized with a variety of inexpensive items, including straw cowboy hats, bandannas, coffee cups, t-shirts, and many other items - a catalog of one of our suppliers is included and you can purchase the accessories directly from them without any mark-up or commissions, minimizing your delivery costs.
Purchase the very complete set of materials in our Professional Edition for $6,995 or a cd version (for up to 6 teams of up to 6 people for $2,895 (US dollars) plus shipping costs. We have smaller, size-limited game available for 18 people ($995) and 24 people ($1695), also. See information here
This is a one-time cost.
With the exception of colored game board / posters for $3.00 each, everything in the simulation is photocopy reproducible - you do not have to purchase any additional materials to run thousands of people through your simulation!
We can also facilitate a large game or retreat for your organization and even rent you the exercise, with a variety of pricing options based on preparation time, location and schedule. Contact us for a discussion of possibilities (email)
A very practical delivery option is to bundle a train-the-trainer with the delivery of the game. Thus, your training department can learn the game, be involved in the delivery, and have the game for uses within the organization on a long-term basis. And one of our global network of consultants can support you.
A few of our 100s of testimonials about Dutchman's effectiveness:
"It's easy to facilitate and the insights gained are significant. This is the perfect retreat exercise that stimulates self insight and broader thinking while helping to break down the barriers to collaboration."
Denise Voncannon, University Medical Center
"When you need to discover what needs to be done for improvement, I suggest people start with The Dutchman. An outstanding exercise."
Karl Closs, RCTaylor, Chad's Ford, PA
"The Lost Dutchman exercise is a proven, consistent winner with my clients. I've used it in dozens of organizations, from community colleges to Fortune 50's, and it has always been a huge success. Thank you, Dr. Simmerman."
Mike Robinson, Triad Training, Greensboro, NC
"The lessons Lost Dutchman taught about the value of cooperation will be of tremendous benefit to our participants... I thank you for the excellent quality of your presentation and for the worthwhile results."
Ann Yancey, Director, Leadership South Carolina
"Best of all, the learnings from (the exercise) are easily transferred to the workplace – in short, the simulation is value-added to the bottom line."
Robert Staub, Staub - Peterson
"... A goldmine of team development and training ideas. With just a few hours of preparation, you helped me look like an old pro at leading the game."
James McCammon, Isothermal College
"Several people saw the mistakes coming but still made them. A marvelous learning and bonding for a new company formed out of 3 old ones."
Robin Restall, J. Walter Thompson
"Dutchman has provided a wonderful platform to build learning experiences for my various clients, who range in age from 10 to 75. It is an affordable game that requires no additional site licensing, which frees me up to modify and adapt the game each time based on client needs. Its message of collaboration is a timeless reminder of the opportunities that are available to us each day as we interact with the people in our lives."
Rick Anderson, Vice President, OUM & Associates
"The Lost Dutchman game is dynamite. The game is eloquently designed -- simple and quick to play yet packed with explosive power. The Lost Dutchman is unquestionably the best training game I have ever seen for teaching teamwork. In the written evaluations, over 80% of participants stated we should use it with other groups in the hospital. This is quite an endorsement of your creation."
Sam Tolbert, Director of Planning, Self Memorial Hospital
"This is not just a game. Our opening to Applebee University proved to be an enlightening experience, more than we expected from a game. Your astute guidance and keen insight made our Sunday evening opening a true hit. Best of luck with The Lost Dutchman and my unqualified recommendation goes out to any organization."
Matt Carpenter, Executive Director of Training, Applebee's
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GO to MAIN materials about Lost Dutchman
Main Graphics Home Page - contains other resources and articles
Contact Scott Simmerman for a question or more information at Scott@squarewheels.com