Simulation Australasia SimCafe 03/22/2022 - Derek W. Wade - Fostering Adaptive Organizations
Channel: Derek W. Wade
Date: 2023-12-27

Derek’s professional practice is typically spent discovering and correcting imbalances between structure and chaos within professional organizations. As a result he has amassed an eclectic workbench of tools related to learning, leadership, process, community, and creativity. He has quietly borrowed some of those tools from the simulation/gaming garage and reckons he should give something back before the neighbors get upset.

When the only tool you have is an organizational improvement workbench, every problem looks like a team performance study. In 2017 when Derek had the opportunity to embed with several hundred independent contestants in a massively-multiplayer online (MMO) video game scenario, he realized its relevance to how large-scale organizational leadership responds to volatile business conditions.

Derek created a case study of the scenario as examined through the same lenses of structural, social, cognitive, and affective factors that he applies in organizational performance consulting.

Here he shares the case study as a fable in four chapters with intermissions to discuss each chapter. The lessons learned from the scenario raise more questions, and he hopes @simulationaustralasia SimCafe participants can share their perspectives on answers. (Yes, he’s after your tools again.)