„By far the best proof is experience.”
– Sir Francis Bacon

Create a Culture of Execution

Terra Nova is an experiential learning simulation that mirrors real-world organizations by engaging participants in developing a prosperous new land. Individuals are engaged in different teams representing departments, regions, or functions, and must work together to meet a common vision. To be successful, they will need to create a culture of execution and high morale.

PARTICIPANTS WILL FOCUS ON:

Clarity: Communicating clear goals and priorities
People: Knowing your colleagues’ and partners’ strengths
Alignment: Aligning activities and goals to a clear vision
Reality: Understanding the current reality
Process: Continually looking to improve the process
Environment: Creating an environment of individual and group accountability

USE TERRA NOVA FOR...

  • leadership and skill development trainings,
  • leadership and company workshops, off-sites,
  • team develepoment and motivational programs,
  • Terra Nova can be run with up to more hundred participants (and with a minimum of 10 people).
  • Time frame of the simulation is usually one day (but can be conducted in 4 hours).

It’s a New World

Your organization has been commissioned to develop a new world –Terra Nova. You and your teammates have chosen to be part of one of four pioneering Guilds:

Guilds

Rulers have a passion for achieving what’s possible

Builders are hands-on pragmatists

Entrepreneurs love to capitalize on opportunities

Innovators live to implement value-adding ideas

Designed around four quarters, and four debriefs, Terra Nova gives participants several opportunities to stop and evaluate their behavior and performance. The design encourages active experimentation on the part of participants. They learn how to take charge of their decisions, results and environment. The simulation ends on a “high”, not only because the team is successful, but also because they determined what strategies they would use to create that success.

Build a City, Build your Team

The Guilds have been given a common mission: “Make Terra Nova as prosperous as possible!” Each of the four Guilds has its own unique goals, values, and interests. Their individual and collective challenge will be to align their Guild’s goals and activities with the Ruler’s vision of profitability. As they build Terra Nova, participants are divided into distinct Teams. Despite the common purpose of making Terra Nova prosperous, there is a high probability of friction between teams as they each work from their own vantage point towards building a profitable city. As a consequence, quality suffers, conflicts surface and bottlenecks form.

For Terra Nova to prosper, participants will need to focus on aligning individual, team and organizational goals. By focusing on the alignment of goals, participants will create an organization that has removed bottlenecks, drastically improved productivity, and achieved outstanding business results. They may also be surprised to discover that they have also created a great working environment.

Terra Nova will:

  • Engage participants in building a profitable city
  • Provide participants with a debrief after each quarter of the simulation allowing them to “learn-practice-apply” throughout the simulation
  • Challenge participants to determine the right actions that drive maximum profitability
  • Encourage participants to achieve ambitious quarterly financial goals
  • Allow participants to overcome the struggle to hit financial goals and morale challenges in the first half of the simulation, to be rewarded with great morale and tremendous productivity in the second half
  • Have participants learn to deal effectively in an environment of significant change that will occur over the course of the simulation
  • Explore, after each quarter, how participants will hit financial targets and improve employee satisfaction ratings in future quarters
  • Provide participants, who happen to be real-life leaders, an opportunity to explore what builds buy-in, motivation, and effectiveness within their group
  • Reinforce the need to create, share and communicate the vision
  • Teach people who “wear one hat” to put on the hats of others they work with, to see the world from their vantage point

The Turning Point

Terra Nova can provide a powerful revelation for participants in the second debrief of the simulation. Each Guild is provided with the opportunity to rate and describe each of the other Guilds. Typically every Guild says they have got things right and every other Guild has it wrong. Once the Guilds have communicated this belief, they recognize the absurdity. They begin to redefine their perceptions of other Guilds and find the synergies necessary to meet the challenging financial targets the simulation holds for them. A significant transition to more productive behaviour, with far greater levels of morale and synergy, ensues.

By the fourth quarter, participants typically experience high productivity, clear vision, clear roles and expectations and high morale.

Logistics

  • Terra Nova can be conducted with as few as 10 participants. It can also be run with very large groups (up to 150 people) in parallel sessions.
  • Time required: min. 4 hours or full day option with a built-in business application session.
Download PDF file Click here to download the Terra Nova brochure as a PDF file.