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Projects information pages

Stedin – Digital Operating Model

stedin DigITAL oPERATING MODEL

Our challenge

​​“How can we successfully activate employees regarding our new Digital Operating Model?”

The approach

  • We developed a blended multiplayer Serious Game to tackle this challenge. In the game, players take on the role of product owner, lead developer, business analyst or SME in the Hydrogen Connection chain team. Spread out over multiple phases, the team is charged with defining the first hydrogen connection.
  • Each role view matters through its own, personal lens and has individual targets that need to be achieved without losing sight of the shared goal. The team can only arrive at the right process definition by sharing information and making the right choices. 
  • After every round, the team pitches its status to a facilitator (the product manager). He or she asks critical questions and reflects on decisions made.
  • After the game has ended, the team reflects on its in-game experiences and shares the practical learnings gained.

The result

The game is being deployed per wave to support the implementation of Stedin’s Digital Operating Model.

More about digital transformation?

Eneco – Blend in Safety

Eneco Blend in Safety

Our challenge

“How to get Eneco’s employees talking about safety and their management’s role in this?” 

For organizations like Eneco, safety is and always should be one of the most important topics of conversation. Although the (technical) operational side of their organization already pays a lot of attention to safety, the puzzle remains incomplete if managers, more physically removed from the workplace, fail to give it the same level of attention. Their choices directly or indirectly have a significant impact on the level of working safety experienced by their mechanics.

The approach

Ever heard of a digital escape room? We’ve built several in our Fresh Game Studio! We decided to also create an escape room for Eneco. 

During the game, a team is instructed to safely connect three windmills. They are given one hour to complete the task. But failure comes at a price! Before starting the game, each participant is asked to give up his or her mobile phone. (The phone represents something personal players would prefer not to lose.) It just so happens to also be the biggest attention and concentration disruptor, both of which are incredibly relevant to working safely.

All team members’ phones are subsequently placed in one of the three blenders present. Security incidents during the game trigger one of the blenders to switch on (suddenly making working safely feel a lot more relevant). 

The result

The escape room we created was launched during Eneco’s leadership day and was played by 25 groups simultaneously! The game was an amazingly effective kick-off to restart the conversation about the role managers play in working safety at Eneco.

Below is a video to give you an impression of the escape room and player experiences.

More about corporate compliance?

Alliander – Ohmniversum

ALLIANDERoHMNIVERSe

Our challenge

“How can we involve our employees in Alliander’s new chains and let them experience how their behavior and leadership impact the results of Alliander?”

The approach

Active in the provinces of North Holland, Friesland, Groningen, and Gelderland, Alliander is the Netherlands’ largest network operator. The energy transition is requiring network operators to become smart, customer-oriented organizations, which is why in 2017 Alliander reorganized its organizations into chains in which operating areas are central. For Alliander’s new organizational structure to become a success, it was vital for new chains to be properly introduced to its management and other employees.

Omniverse is Alliander’s chain simulation. Developed in co-creation with Fresh Forces, it is an educational, interactive, and inspiring intervention. The simulation takes around 5.5 hours to complete and is played by between 20 and 25 players per game. During the game, employees experience the organization’s new context and what the impact of their behavior on the organization is in a simulated setting.

The result

The chain simulation was developed as part of the “Simply Valuable” program, in which Alliander employees experience the organization’s core values and leadership within the context of its chains, processes, and a constantly changing external world. During the first four days, the game was rolled out among the organization’s top-400 employees. It was subsequently shared with a significant portion of the rest of the organization (around 1,500 players).

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Arcadis – Quality of life

Arcadis Quality of life

The challenge

Arcadis grew a lot in recent years, partly by subsuming other companies. To safeguard the quality of its service and the continued satisfaction of its customers, the organization rolled out one set of best practices, which, supported by an IT system, were to be employed globally. They asked Fresh Forces to develop a game to introduce its managers and employees to this set of best practices, known as The Arcadis Way.

The approach

The game combines a central IT system that records all processes and a set of best practices concerning Arcadis’ preferred way of working and the expectations it has regarding employees’ behavior. The emphasis in the game was on the latter.

In the game, Quality of Life, players are asked to blow new life into fictional city, Rila. For this, we developed a representation of the primary process, with its associated roles, such as account leader, project manager, engineer, and so on. Players are also able to take on the role of one of the customers. Everyone must work together to realize important projects for the city, thereby helping it to flourish in the 21st century.

In the process, players encounter the company most significant challenges and experience dynamics related to working at such a sale to delivery company , the efficient managing of projects and co-creation with customers. During and after the game, players reflect on their way of working, what behavior they displayed, and how their behavior measures up in relation to the best practices set out in The Arcadis Way.

The result

The game was launched at the 2016 edition of the Global Leadership Forum in Berlin. Supervised by their own facilitators, who were trained by Fresh Forces, 150 of the top managers played the game in 15 parallel game runs. The 15 game kits were subsequently used to roll the game out globally within the organization as part of the implementation of The Arcadis Way.

 

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Ministry of Defense – De Kirmeense Kwestie

Ministry of Defense De kirmeense kwestie

Our challenge

“How can we help employees of the Netherlands’ Ministry of Defense and their colleagues in other departments act sooner and more preventatively concerning developing, international conflict situations?”

The approach

The Ministry of Defense their role is changing. Conflicts are becoming increasingly complex. In our globalizing world, they affect Dutch interests in a variety of ways. Conflict prevention is about responding to signals early, thereby creating a more accurate view of conflict situations while maintaining the broadest possible trading perspectives.

Our collaborative partners in Defense’s Conflict Prevention Team wanted to acquaint their colleagues with this new way of looking at conflicts. Several interventions were developed to achieve this. One such intervention was a game called The Kirmenian Issue. In this game, players are challenged to act preventatively to a developing conflict situation. The game’s goal was to create an interactive, first encounter with conflict prevention. After playing the game, players eager to learn more were given the option of experiencing other interventions created by the Conflict Prevention Team.

n co-creation with the Netherlands’ Ministry of Defense and Utrecht University, we developed a substantive game with a game time of around twenty minutes. A fictional conflict, brought to life using audio, video, and images, unfolds during the game. Players can act to enhance or diminish their influence. Influence gained empowers them to act proactively to prevent the conflict’s escalation.

The game was developed as a Progressive Web App (PWA) for smartphones. We used a React frontend for this. The game was equipped with a CMS, allowing the easy modification of its content.The

The Result

The Kirmenian Issue is being rolled out in the Netherlands’ Ministry of Defense and is also being used in education.

More about learning and development?

Zuivel NL – Sustainable deployment

Zuivel NL Sustainable deployment

The challenge

Zuivel NL asked us: “Can you help us to raise awareness of sustainable deployability among our employees in the dairy sector?”

The approach

  • Our Fresh Game Studio developed a short game in which players are challenged to achieve their “retirement goal” in good health and with enough reserves to retire well.
  • Players were asked to select their own ambition level and retirement goal. The higher the goal or the more challenging their work is, the more crucial paying attention to vitality, skillsets, and flexibility becomes.
  • The game helped to charge the concepts of vitality, skillsets, and flexibility. Each of these concepts plays an important role in the allocation of the sustainable deployability budget in the dairy sector’s new collective labor agreement.

The result

A new CLA was introduced in the dairy sector in 2018, giving employees access to their own sustainable deployability budget. The game we created was used to raise employee awareness around the key concepts of vitality, flexibility, and versatility related to this topic.

You can find a video impression below:

Fresh Game Studio – Analysis Paralysis

Fresh gaME sTUDIO Analysis PARALYSIS

Our challenge

With Analysis Paralysis we answer the question: “Can we use a surprising way to enhance the knowledge and expertise of our HR professionals regarding fact-based decision-making?”

Our approach

Analysis Paralysis is a Serious Game that is exceptionally suitable as a tool to kickstart a conversation about fact-based decision-making. The game is played by small groups of between four and six players. We recommend playing the game with multiple groups at the same time. Including the time spent on its introduction and a post-game debriefing, it lasts between 75 and 90 minutes.

BrightBase, a large, international organization, has come under fire from the media following an anonymous interview with a resentful, former manager. The current team is charged with helping BrightBase’s CEO to prepare an adequate, fact-based explanation of the situation to quench the media’s thirst for blood.

During the game, players experience the most prevalent pitfalls and challenges of adopting a data-driven mindset, illustrating the importance of always thinking critically when working with business models.

The result

  • Players were acquainted with HR Analytics
  • Players learned to think critically and apply a data-driven mindset
  • Players experienced the most prevalent pitfalls and challenges of working with fact-based decision-making
  • Players experienced a true sense of togetherness, while at the same time having a lot of fun

More serious Gaming about digital transformation?

Red Bull – Virtual Escaperoom

Red Bull Wings for lIFE

The Challenge

Red Bull asked us: “Can you help us create a unique, online solution to evaluate applicants for our traineeship?”

The approach

Working in co-creation with Red Bull’s project team, we created an online, multiplayer escape room that can be deployed during applicants’ assessment procedure.

  • By working with a specialized Fresh Game Studio team and customizing a game we had already created, we were able to move from the first brainstorming session to final delivery within just eight weeks. 
  • During these eight weeks, we tested the game among the target audience several times. Intermediate testing helps us to assess whether the concept aligns with the target audience. We also tested whether the game was primed to achieve Red Bull’s intended goals. By testing games as they are being developed, we can easily modify them where needed, ensuring that they meet their intended goals.  
  • We developed five challenges applicants needed to solve to prevent a large-scale malfunction at a Red Bull event.
  • Observers were watching the players as they were playing, assessing them on their communication skills, capacity to influence others, and team spirit. Challenges were set up in such a way that behavior related to these three competencies was easy to recognize.

The result

The game was incredibly well received by Red Bull and its applicants, receiving an NPS score of 10.

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Rabobank – Beyond the Money

Rabobank Beyond The Money

Our challenge

Rabobank asked us: “How can we effectively, innovatively, and playfully train our employees to apply Customer Due Diligence (CDD) standards?”

De Nederlandsche Bank (the Netherlands’ central bank) considers banks the gatekeepers of the financial system. As gatekeepers, they are charged with combating financial crime, such as whitewashing and the financing of terrorist activities. To fulfill their role, Rabobank employees need to be up to date concerning sanction regulations, standards, and procedures, and they must know how to effectively employ them.

The approach

In co-creation with Rabobank, we developed an expansive, blended development program consisting of ten interventions. The program was not only concerned with developing knowledge, but also made space for raising awareness and skillset development. E-learning was one of the program’s most important components, which was combined with an online game, Beyond the Money.

Beyond the Money was built to look like an interactive Netflix series, in which player choices guide the story’s development. Although the situations players encounter and the choices they need to make during the game mirror the realities of their daily practice, they come at them from a different perspective, such as that of an investor, a quiz participant, or a futuristic “RaboCop”.

The result

The program we developed was used to train more than 3,000 people at 31 different locations worldwide. The target audience was varied, consisting of both front-office employees and CDD analysts. All players played the same game, however, regardless of their job or role within the organization. The program was received incredibly well and is still being used by Rabobank as an example of how to innovatively train employees.

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