We seem to believe it is possible to ward off death by following rules of good grooming. — Don Delillo

The rules of this Game of Goose version have been changed to get rid of limiting beliefs about our capacity to work together as a team. The game is open source. If you wish to facilitate it in your local context, feel free to do so.

* Duration: 3 hours
* Type: Experiential learning cycle
* Minimum number of participants: 10
* Maximum number of participants: 60 – 120 (depending on number of facilitators available)

Open Source

This game is open source. Feel free to adopt/adapt/use respecting the creative commons by-sa 3.0 license.

• Facilitator instructions (html)
• Instructions for participants (pdf)

For boards you can try toy companies Ravensburger, Selecta or Jumbo International. In the US the Jumbo International version was (maybe still is) sold through Toys “R” Us.

History

The oldest spiral Game of Life we know, Mehen, was reported found in Egyptian Old Kingdom graves dating as far back as 5000 BP. This form of game seems to have spread over Europe in the 16th century.

Spiral games of life seem to have in common that they have 63 (7 times 9) fields, obstacles and surprises are placed at 6, 19, 31, 42, 52 and 58, and the spiral goes inward counterclockwise, mirroring the possible dangers, coincidences, happy occasions, progress, hitches and certain death affecting human life (and businesses, teams, our contextually non fitting opinions, assumptions, belief systems, and world views, whole cultures, species, planets, stars, … in short, systems .

In contemporary times, the games first public run at a Dutch local Chamber of Commerce meeting of more than 100 people, it was embedded in a half day afternoon session wedged comfortably between a goal (re)writing exercise of by participants themselves brought goal statements and a hilarious video on human and team stuff. Later runs drew also from otherwise gathered data, like at US Consultants Camp in 2003, facilitating with Philip Thunder Panther Trice, where a nature walk was used to gather noticeable keys. And in 2004 it ran stand-alone in Ordina, facilitated by Willem and Nynke.

Current versions (2009) are all focused on rewriting rules for improving collaboration