Value Network Game

The Insight

You can't understand a network by looking at it.
You have to be in it.

Strategy discussions about ecosystems and value networks often stay abstract. Boxes and arrows on slides. Stakeholder maps that flatten complexity into two dimensions.

The Value Network Game is different. It's a full-body, multi-hour simulation where participants embody different actors in your ecosystem. The dynamics that emerge reveal truths that no amount of analysis could surface—because the intelligence is distributed across the system, not located in any single node.

Participants working with network visualization tools during Value Network Game session

The Experience

What happens in a game

Each game is custom-designed around your specific ecosystem. But the structure follows a proven arc that maximizes learning and insight.

Phase 1

Role Assignment

Participants are assigned roles representing different actors in your ecosystem—customers, suppliers, regulators, competitors, internal departments. Each receives a briefing with their actor's goals, constraints, and resources.

Phase 2

Network Formation

Through structured negotiations and exchanges, participants establish relationships. Value begins to flow—but never exactly as anyone expected. The emergent network often surprises even those who designed it.

Phase 3

Disruption Events

We introduce scenario events—market shifts, technological disruptions, regulatory changes, competitive moves. The network adapts (or doesn't). Participants experience firsthand how their ecosystem responds to stress.

Phase 4

Debrief & Harvest

The richest learning comes from structured reflection. We facilitate dialogue about what emerged, what surprised, what the simulation revealed about real-world dynamics. Insights are captured and translated into strategic implications.

Outcomes

What emerges from a game

Embodied Understanding

Participants gain intuitive grasp of network dynamics that no presentation could convey. They've felt the bottlenecks, experienced the dependencies, sensed the fragilities.

Shared Reference

The game creates a common experience your team can reference in future strategic discussions. "Remember when X happened in the game?" becomes a powerful shorthand for complex dynamics.

Strategic Hypotheses

The debrief generates concrete hypotheses about your real ecosystem—potential leverage points, hidden vulnerabilities, unexpected opportunities. Testable ideas for strategic action.

Formats

Scaled to your needs

Leadership Team

Executive Game

8-15 participants. Half-day format. Focused on strategic questions at the executive level. Ideal for leadership offsites or board-level engagement.

Cross-Functional

Department Game

20-40 participants. Full-day format. Brings together diverse perspectives across organizational boundaries. Surfaces internal dynamics and collaboration opportunities.

Multi-Stakeholder

Ecosystem Game

40-100+ participants. Multi-day format. Includes external stakeholders—customers, partners, even competitors. The most immersive and insight-rich experience.

The Loop Continues

Games generate signals

The dynamics that emerge in a Value Network Game often reveal patterns worth investigating further. Many clients follow a game with a JediSignals scan—using the hypotheses generated to focus their organizational sensing.

Explore JediSignals

You can't understand a network by looking at it.You have to be in it.