Baloise, one of Switzerland’s biggest insurance companies has just launched an interesting team-building exercise—a board game, which would challenge players with problem-solving while sneakily advocating for insurtech advancements.

In the board game Sarah’s Vision, the year is 2163, and the services provided by insurance companies have shifted away from settling claims and now geared towards prevention, safety and security.

However, the period of peace and advanced technology is marred by a “mysterious threat” that holds humanity back from reaching its next step in development, and wants to return humanity back into the old world order. The players are agents of an insurance company that are trying to stop the destructive forces and safeguard the future of humanity.

So Why a Board Game, and Not a Digital Game?

According to Marc Kaiser, Head of Corporate Communications & Investor Relations, the rationale was:

“In the corporate setting, gamification is a tried-and-tested way of communicating a message in a fun way.”

“Because we wanted to make a game that was as multi-sensory and varied as possible, we deliberately avoided creating a digital game and instead focused on the traditional board game format.”

The game is designed for employees from different teams to come together and identify ways of solving various problems presented during the game with limited resources. Players will have to reach a consensus on how these resources can be used; meaning that teamwork is a key skill to victory.

Playing Games in The Office

On a more pragmatic note, with communication breakdowns and bureaucracy as known issues in large corporate settings, Marc hopes that the game would help with cooperation and decisiveness within the company.

The multi-player game is part of an internal communications campaign that is taking a more experimental storytelling approach. It is integrated into a strategy workshop in which interdisciplinary teams participate. The workshops are led by 100-plus specially trained employees who volunteered for this cultural change project and by corporate development specialists.

“The objective is to reflect the group dynamic experienced in Sarah’s Vision, hone employees’ strategic understanding, devise different working methods and, not least, have fun playing a game with a group of colleagues who you would not normally meet in your day-to-day work,”

With the game geared towards 1-4 players though, it would be interesting to be a fly on the wall in the Baloise offices to observe exactly how a game with a small amount of players could lead to company-wide shifts. Perhaps the key is to get senior management of various departments in a round of Sarah’s Vision, rather than the lowest rung of employees?

While they had lofty corporate goals in mind, the team wanted to ensure that the game was still, well, fun. So Baloise did not include their corporate branding, and during its development, worked together with prominent service providers within the industry. This is also perhaps in a bid to sell the game to interested parties outside of the Baloise sphere of influence.

Featured image via Baloise