Mission to Enernova: Accessing Potential and Developing Performance

Mission to Enernova: Accessing Potential and Developing Performance

Julie Hay and Peter EmeryGowerISBN 0 566 08416 3£175

You are situated on homebase, a station in space in a galaxy far from earth,where you work for a space exploration agency. News has come in of a discovery of a new planet, Enernova, where there is a valuable source of powerful new energy that will enable your community to thrive for the next millennium. This is a commercial opportunity for your organisation. However, you have heard that your competitors are also aware of this discovery and are expected to reach Enernova within the next fifty light-years.

This is the opening of the participant brief for the simulation Mission to Enernova. The exercise requires the participants working on their own or in teams, to budget, plan and present their strategy for reaching Enernova safely. The quality of their decisions on which route to follow, which crew members and equipment to take, as well as the levels of fuels, food and stores that they will need, will be put to the test when the simulation itself unfolds.

Mission to Enernova can be used as a team-building simulation to explore group dynamics, information handling, planning, decision making,communication and influencing skills, presentation skills, and addresses issues of flexibility, contingency planning, risk management, time management and working under pressure.

The simulation includes full instructions for the team facilitator wishing to use it as a team development exercise.

Though the scenario for this simulation – presumably – is far remote from the everyday working lives of most managers, the processes and skills involved in handling the simulation are those required in everyday working in all organisations.

What is more, the nature of the scenario adds a degree of interest to the simulation that could be missing if it was a "standard" form of management exercise. Whatever else happens, participants are likely to remember the fact that they took part in an exercise which required them to plan a space mission. As such, it will almost certainly be enjoyable. The quality of the brief included – and the material involved – mean that it should also be an educational and informative experience, resulting in real learning and real behavioural change.