Board Games in the Boardroom

GAME THEORY Learning from games is significantly more effective than just sitting passively in a room during a lecture hearing about various theories. “Similar to the way a personal trainer will train his client to work specific muscles for optimal strength corporate games ‘work’ the mental muscles so they perform well in the business world of 2017” explains FreshBiz cofounder Simcha Gluck (Photos: Simcha Gluck Tani Prero)

R oll the die shuffle the cards move that playing piece… sounds like a leisurely Shabbos afternoon in the playroom? Actually it’s a team of executives employees and business students at a polished table in the conference room.

In many businesses around the world the modern workday may include a playing board Legos gaming software even spaghetti and marshmallows. Although they seem to be mere children’s toys these become building blocks for important corporate skills tools for getting the job done.

How does playing games fit into the boardroom? What do games accomplish? Joseph Sherman learned what games bring to the workplace when he was first exposed to them as an eMBA exchange student at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China.