Is Frameworks for Change the Game of Games? Balancing high-tech and high-touch through play by Connie Lohuis. "Seeing is believing." Wessel Ganzevoort is enthusiastic about Frameworks for Change. Along with sixty KPMG'ers, the chairman of the board took part in this spiritual game that claims to encourage change processes at the individual, team and organizational levels. It's striking that KPMG has turned to outside assistance. After all, the management consulting organization has plenty of its own management games. "But they're not comparable with Frameworks for Change", says chairman of the board Wessel Ganzevoort. "It's the game of games. Our games initiate concrete business situations, whereas Frameworks for Change works more at the individual and team level". The editors of ELAN also tried the game for a day at Amsterdam-based Oibibio Business with a group of representatives from Dutch multinationals. In his introduction, Hans Kramer, the founder of Vision Unlimited and licensee of Frameworks for Change referred to Frameworks as a catalyst that can be used in processes intended to bring about essential cultural changes. The game gives players a deeper personal insight through play. It expands consciousness and creates conditions for basic team building. In fact, Frameworks is a means of enabling people to get to know themselves and each other at a deeper level. Frameworks normally takes three days and has more than two hundred rules. The game was conceived and developed by Joy Drake and Kathy Tyler, of the America training bureau InnerLinks. They based it on The Transformation Game, the ten-year old spiritual meeting game. As yet, the business version is only played in the United States and the Netherlands. Since its introduction on the Dutch market, it's been played by workers at KPN, Rabo, Aegon, AT&T and Nedlloyd, as part of their 'transformation'. Playable by between thirteen and twenty-four people, the game calls to mind Tarot cards, the I Ching and Rorschach inkblots. Illustrations with themes like Impasse, Setback, Stress and Acknowledgment are laid on the ground, along with themes like Breakthrough, Insight, Mentor, Choice, Creativity, Intuition and Success. The illustrations are called fields. A player who lands on a field after throwing a dice and then draws a corresponding card gets the chance to experiment with the themes on the card but in the context of a concrete game objective agreed on by the team beforehand. The focus is on issues the players have difficulties with in their work, expend energy on or would like to obtain more insight about, such as cooperation, motivation or being goal oriented. In addition they formulate an individual goal such as - I want to be less stubborn and understand my colleagues better, or dare to be more assertive. Kramer, the facilitator, plays an important role in the game. He responds to the interaction between individuals, teams and team members. He asks questions in a friendly but penetrating way, while keeping the agreed goal in mind. He also assesses the feedback the players get about their actions and protects everyone's privacy. KPMG's Wessel Ganzevoort played The Transformation Game eight years ago but kept his enthusiasm to himself. The time wasn't right yet. But when Frameworks for Change came out on the Dutch market last year, be soon took the initiative to try out the business version with twelve colleagues, managers of business units and co-directors. KPMG played the game again last summer but this time with fifty employees. Ganzevoort: "The impetus for me was when Hans Kramer led a guided meditation here with staff members. After it had finished, people whispered to each other, Wessel ought to see this. Yet I applauded the fact that KPMG'ers were doing things like this. It was time for me to make it clear that I supported the spiritual development of employees, but I must stress that I'm against dogmas and ideologies. A critical mass had gradually developed in our organization and it had become completely legitimate to explore and discuss all kinds of spiritual matters." According to KPMG's top man, managers and management consultants mainly work with the rational left side of their brain. "They can make terrific analyses for clients and for our own company. But a company doesn't progress at all if high-tech and high-touch aren't combined. It's important to be able to approach people about things for which they don't have cut and dried solutions and can't resort to the laws of physics and scientific analysis. I also like to make a distinction between emotion and feeling. Feeling is the individual experience and emotion is the reaction to it. Frameworks encourages us to learn to use the feeling and to reflect on our own functioning. The game kindles a flame that smolders in everyone. The effect can't be analyzed, but I'm convinced that it contributes to the individual growth process of employees and the way they work together." The twenty six employees who played Frameworks for Change were generally positive about it. Of course there were skeptical comments but most people went away with a positive impression. The game mainly leads to a confrontation with values like openness, trust and compassion. It contributes to clarity, intimacy, mutual trust, approachability and touchability. These concepts are not just talked about; they're also linked to behavior and attitudes. So they are actually experienced in the sense of 'this is how we work with each other.' Does this new way of thinking also have an impact at the macro level? Ganzevoort: "Strategic thinking is also turned inside out. Not so long ago we looked at the threats, opportunities and market possibilities. I hate to hear people say 'respond to market changes'. That's adaptive thinking along the lines of how can I survive, instead of how shall I live. It's all about creating a context yourself, regardless of whether there's a market for it. The market will come." Ganzevoort sent a letter to the KPMG managers and consultants who took part in Frameworks for Change. He wrote: "There is still a big taboo in organizations like ours about making feelings and values discussible. We think we're open but we're not really. It has to become normal to look each other in the eye and say what we feel. This is also what people seem to want. The game showed that some colleagues are still troubled by feelings of loneliness, coldness and aloofness. We'll be needing another dose of vitamins soon. Single shot interventions doesn't work. Processes like this need time and maintenance." There are no clear winners and losers in Frameworks for Change. Taking part is the most important thing. The benefit is determined by the insight the individual gains into what motivates him or her and what motivates the team members. People lose their hidden agendas, old survival strategies and ingrained preconceptions. The game doesn't end. It keeps on working after the players have gone home. First published in Elan Magazine, Netherlands. Translated from Dutch.