Excursion Day

By far the most rewarding part of this experience was the opportunity to meet with Christian from the Centre for Management Simulation and learn about their products.  This center is paid for by the DHBW University and is part of the coursework for management, HR, and leadership education.  Their instructors use games and simulations for learning about different types of business management styles such as profit and loss sheets, communication issues, and business overhead.  During our time there, we got to play the game called “Fountains” where the goal was to have as many “horses” drinking from the most possible fountains.  During the game, we each had a strategy and we did not communicate with each other until the end.  At which point, Christian asked what our biggest mistake was and if we had noticed that we barely communicated with each other.  That was a learning point for all of us as we were all from different backgrounds (Germany, USA, Spain, and Egypt).  This has left me wondering if it is our natural inclination to avoid communication with other nationalities and cultures that we don’t know much about.  Would that same scenario have happened with three other Americans?  After the game we were all eager to play again to show that we could communicate with each other, but we didn’t have the chance.  I realized how important communication is between us and our diverse teams.  In the workplace, do teams have communication issues with people from different backgrounds?  How long does it take to be comfortable with someone to start openly communicating our thoughts and feelings?  My biggest takeaway is that all teams should play this game when first getting to know each other to foster closer relationships through communication.