Change Community Cycle: The Serious Game That Started Everything
The Genesis of a Framework
Two days before I developed the Change Community Cycle Framework, I was invited by François-Xavier Lainé to facilitate an OpenSeriousGame session at eXalt. What emerged from that collaborative exploration became the foundation for everything that followed - the workshops, the reference guides, and a complete methodology for community-driven transformation.
This is the story of that original game, designed as a playful systems thinking approach to help facilitators, change agents, and community members explore the dynamics of running change-oriented communities in organizational contexts.
“In a world of silos and inertia, communities open the door to collective momentum.”
🎲 What Is the Change Community Cycle Game?
The Change Community Cycle Game is a collaborative simulation that transforms abstract organizational transformation concepts into tangible, experiential learning. Through playful exploration, participants discover what makes change communities thrive or falter, while co-creating realistic roadmaps they can apply in their actual work.
Core Design Principles:
- Open-source and transmissible - Following OpenSeriousGame methodology
- Systems thinking approach - Exploring interconnected community dynamics
- Experiential learning - Discovery through doing rather than lecturing
- Collaborative intelligence - Collective insight generation
🎯 Game Objectives Framework
| Objective Type | Specific Goals | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|
| 🎓 Pedagogical | Understand what makes change communities thrive or falter | Deep pattern recognition, systems awareness |
| 🛠️ Operational | Co-create realistic roadmaps usable in real communities | Practical action planning, resource optimization |
| 💬 Relational | Build mutual understanding through shared imagination | Team alignment, empathy development |
👥 Audience and Context
Ideal Participants:
- 5-70 people (optimal groups of 3-5 per community simulation)
- Current or future community members in enterprise transformation contexts
- Change agents and facilitators seeking practical community management insights
- Leaders exploring community-driven approaches to organizational change
Background Requirements:
- Basic familiarity with change management concepts
- Experience with collaborative workshops helpful but not required
- Openness to playful, experimental learning approaches
🛠️ Game Logistics and Setup
| Element | Specifications | Implementation Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Duration | 90 minutes total (60 min game + 30 min debrief) | Adjustable based on number of rounds |
| Materials | Post-its, roadmapping sheets, markers | Digital alternatives: Miro, Mural, Figma |
| Format | In-person or remote | Hybrid possible with proper facilitation |
| Space Requirements | Team workstations + central presentation area | Virtual breakout rooms for remote |
Game Setup Process
Each team represents a fictional change community within their organization. Teams receive:
- Light-hearted transformation challenge (e.g., “Everyone transitions to scooters,” “Office becomes typewriter-only”)
- Organizational context that evolves each round
- Action planning framework for systematic response development
The playful scenarios reduce resistance while enabling serious exploration of transformation dynamics.
📅 The Seven-Phase Journey
The game follows the complete Change Community Cycle progression, with each round representing a three-month quarter:
| Round | Phase | Community Focus | Typical Challenges |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 💡 Inspiration | Awareness and interest building | Generating initial curiosity without overwhelming |
| 2 | 🔍 Collection | Understanding context and relevance | Clarifying personal and organizational relevance |
| 3 | 🧪 Initiation | Safe experimentation | Balancing safety with meaningful practice |
| 4 | ⚠️ Reality Check | Facing implementation challenges | Supporting members through difficulty and disillusionment |
| 5 | 🏆 Success Confirmation | Optimizing and documenting successes | Capitalizing achievements without complacency |
| 6 | 📢 Exposition | Scaling impact beyond initial scope | Expanding influence while maintaining quality |
| 7 | 🏛️ Fortification | Institutionalizing sustainable change | Embedding practices into organizational systems |
Each phase mirrors real-life community maturity stages, enabling participants to experience the complete transformation journey.
🔄 Round Structure and Flow
The Four-Minute Planning Cycle
Each round follows this structured process:
- 🎭 Context Reading (2 minutes)
- Facilitator narrates dynamic organizational situation
- Teams absorb new environmental factors affecting their community
- ✍️ Strategic Planning (4 minutes)
- Teams develop three coordinated responses:
- 🗓️ Organize an event (external engagement)
- 🧱 Structure the community (internal organization)
- 📣 Create and publish content (communication and knowledge)
- Teams develop three coordinated responses:
- 📣 Roadmap Presentation (3 minutes per team)
- Teams share their quarterly action plan
- Visual roadmapping captures decision evolution
- 🔁 Peer Feedback Exchange (2 minutes)
- Each team provides one-sentence written feedback to others
- Focus on constructive insights rather than critique
- 🧠 Optional Scoring (1 minute)
- Teams receive one point per distinct piece of feedback
- Encourages creativity and thoughtful peer engagement
The Power of Constraints
The four-minute time limit forces prioritization and prevents overthinking, mimicking real organizational decision-making pressures. Teams must collaborate rapidly, building alignment through shared creation rather than extended discussion.
🎭 Sample Round Illustration
Round 3: 🧪 Initiation Phase
Facilitator Context:
“Your sponsor just approved a small budget for experimentation. However, you only have active support from two departments out of five, and one enthusiastic member is pushing to ‘try something concrete immediately.’ Meanwhile, three other transformation initiatives launched this quarter, creating some competition for attention and resources.”
Team “Scooter Revolution” Actions:
| Action Type | Specific Response | Strategic Reasoning |
|---|---|---|
| 🗓️ Event | Host co-creation pilot workshop with the two engaged departments | Build momentum with supporters before expanding |
| 🧱 Structure | Assign two rotating experimentation leads | Distribute leadership while maintaining focus |
| 📣 Content | Create teaser video: “Change starts small, dreams big” | Generate interest from uninvolved departments |
Peer Feedback Received:
“Smart to start with supporters! Consider inviting skeptics as observers to build bridges early.”
Learning Captured: The team discovered the tension between moving fast enough to maintain enthusiasm while building sufficient foundation for sustainable growth - a core challenge in real community development.
🧰 Action Categories and Examples
🗓️ Event Planning Options
| Phase Focus | Event Examples | Community Building Impact |
|---|---|---|
| Early Phase | Lunch & learns, coffee chats, demo sessions | Awareness and relationship building |
| Growth Phase | Workshops, hackathons, peer learning sessions | Skill development and collaboration |
| Mature Phase | Conferences, mentoring programs, external partnerships | Knowledge sharing and influence expansion |
🧱 Community Structure Evolution
| Organizational Elements | Early Stage | Mature Stage |
|---|---|---|
| Governance | Informal coordination | Defined roles and decision processes |
| Communication | Ad hoc conversations | Systematic channels and rhythms |
| Knowledge Management | Personal sharing | Documented practices and resources |
| Member Development | Peer support | Structured learning pathways |
📣 Content Strategy Progression
| Content Type | Inspiration/Collection | Success/Exposition |
|---|---|---|
| Internal | FAQ, basic resources | Best practices, case studies |
| External | Awareness posts, invitations | Thought leadership, training materials |
| Interactive | Polls, discussion starters | Community-generated knowledge |
🧠 Facilitation Excellence Guidelines
Pre-Game Preparation
Context Design Principles:
- Emphasize improvisation to energize and surprise participants
- Value story-building over execution realism - focus on learning, not feasibility
- Create progressive complexity that mirrors real transformation challenges
- Include unexpected elements that test community resilience and adaptability
Facilitator Mindset:
- Avoid judging action feasibility - the goal is exploration and reflection
- Encourage creative problem-solving over “correct” answers
- Model systems thinking by connecting actions across rounds
- Maintain energy through enthusiastic context delivery
During-Game Navigation
Pacing Strategies:
- Run fewer rounds with quality over speed if time constraints emerge
- Allow teams to build on each other’s ideas across presentations
- Use feedback patterns to identify emerging insights for debrief discussion
- Adjust context complexity based on team engagement and energy levels
Intervention Techniques:
- If teams struggle, provide process coaching rather than content solutions
- Highlight interesting pattern differences between teams without declaring winners
- Use peer feedback to surface insights teams might miss about their own approaches
- Bridge individual team experiences to broader transformation principles
Post-Game Integration
Debrief Focus Questions:
- “What community dynamics surprised you during the simulation?”
- “Which of your planned actions would you actually implement in your real context?”
- “How did external context changes affect your community strategy?”
- “What tensions between individual and collective needs did you navigate?”
Learning Consolidation:
- Connect game experiences to participants’ actual organizational challenges
- Identify transferable principles rather than specific tactical actions
- Explore how different phases required different leadership and member behaviors
- Discuss sponsor and stakeholder relationship insights from the simulation
🌐 OpenSeriousTemplate Integration
Following the complete OpenSeriousTemplate framework, here’s how this game achieves viral transmission:
🧱 Level 1: Curious People
- Catchline: “Build a change community, one roadmap at a time”
- Hook: “Discover transformation dynamics through collaborative simulation”
- Value Proposition: Experience community development challenges in a safe, playful environment
🧱 Level 2: Players
- Clear Rules: Four-minute planning cycles with three coordinated actions
- Example Turn: Provided above with “Scooter Revolution” team
- FAQ Handling: “What if my team feels lost?” → Embrace creativity - there are no wrong actions, only learning opportunities
🧱 Level 3: Scouts
- Learning Objectives: Pattern recognition in community growth phases, action planning under constraints, peer perspective integration
- Expected Outputs: Simulated 2-year roadmap, shared transformation vocabulary, practical insights for real communities
- Scope Limitations: Doesn’t deeply explore sponsor alignment complexities or detailed resistance management
- Complementary Tools: Works excellently with CCC Workshops for implementation and CCC Framework for strategic understanding
🧱 Level 4-5: Facilitators
- Detailed Timing: 90 minutes structured as 8 rounds (7 phases + bonus) with integrated debrief
- Role Distribution: Primary facilitator (context and energy), timekeeper (pace management), observer (pattern tracking)
- Advanced Debrief Prompts:
- “How did your team’s identity evolve through different phases?”
- “What community governance challenges emerged as you scaled?”
- “Which external pressures most influenced your strategic decisions?”
🧱 Level 6: Creators
- Adaptation Variants:
- Real Transformation Themes: “Digital ethics adoption,” “Remote work culture,” “Sustainability practices”
- Industry-Specific Contexts: Healthcare, education, manufacturing scenarios
- Visual Enhancement: Phase-specific context cards, community maturity indicators
- Licensing: CC-BY-SA under #OpenSeriousCommunity - freely adaptable with attribution
🎯 Impact and Legacy
Immediate Game Outcomes
Participants typically leave with:
- Experiential understanding of community development challenges across phases
- Practical action ideas applicable to their real organizational contexts
- Systems perspective on how community, organizational, and individual dynamics intersect
- Collaborative confidence from successful team creation under time pressure
Framework Development Connection
This game session at eXalt revealed patterns that became the foundation for:
- The 7-phase CCC model - directly derived from game round progression
- Community-sponsor relationship dynamics - observed through context responses
- Phase-specific activity alignment - discovered through successful and unsuccessful team actions
- Member flow patterns - identified through participant engagement variations
Broader Transformation Impact
Organizations using this game report:
- Increased readiness for community-driven change initiatives
- Better stakeholder alignment on transformation approach and timeline
- Enhanced change agent capability through experiential learning
- Reduced resistance to collaborative transformation methods
🔗 Connection to Complete CCC Methodology
This game serves as the experiential entry point to the complete Change Community Cycle methodology:
Learning Progression:
- 🎮 Game Experience - Discover dynamics through simulation
- 📚 Framework Study - CCC Framework for conceptual depth
- 🔧 Workshop Implementation - CCC Workshops for practical application
- 📖 Reference Mastery - CCC Reference Guide for expert troubleshooting
Unique Value Proposition: While frameworks provide structure and workshops offer tools, the game delivers emotional and experiential understanding that makes abstract concepts tangible and memorable.
🚀 Getting Started
Immediate Implementation
For First-Time Facilitators:
- Practice the format with a small group using simplified contexts
- Prepare 7 contextual scenarios that build complexity progressively
- Focus on energy and pace rather than perfect content delivery
- Trust the process - participants will generate insights through experience
For Organizational Deployment:
- Identify transformation context where community approach could add value
- Gather stakeholders across functions who would benefit from shared understanding
- Frame as exploration rather than training to reduce resistance
- Follow up with concrete planning using insights generated during the game
Advanced Applications
Multi-Session Campaigns:
- Use game insights to design actual community roadmaps
- Run periodic “strategy refresh” games as organizational context evolves
- Train internal facilitators to spread community development capability
Integration with Other Methods:
- Combine with Design Thinking for innovation-focused communities
- Integrate with Agile methods for delivery-oriented communities
- Connect with Change Management frameworks for large-scale transformations
🎁 Open Source and Viral Transmission
Following OpenSeriousGame principles, this game is designed for adaptation, improvement, and sharing:
License: Creative Commons BY-SA under #OpenSeriousCommunity Encouraged Adaptations:
- Industry-specific scenarios and terminology
- Cultural context modifications for global organizations
- Technology integration for virtual or hybrid formats
- Extended or compressed versions for different time constraints
Improvement Contributions:
- Share successful context variations
- Document facilitation insights and challenges
- Develop supplementary materials (cards, digital tools, assessment instruments)
- Create translated versions for international deployment
🌟 The Broader Vision
The Change Community Cycle Game represents more than a training tool - it’s a demonstration of collective intelligence in action. Through playful simulation, participants experience how communities can become engines of organizational transformation when properly understood and supported.
As organizations face increasing complexity and change velocity, the ability to develop and manage transformation communities becomes a critical capability. This game provides a safe, engaging environment to develop that capability while building the relationships and shared understanding necessary for successful implementation.
Questions for Your Context:
- What transformation challenge in your organization could benefit from community-driven approaches?
- How might simulating community development help your stakeholders understand collaborative change?
- What adaptations would make this game most relevant to your organizational culture and context?
Ready to play? Ready to transform? Ready to transmit?
This game is shared under Creative Commons to foster replication, adaptation, and collective refinement. The original session at eXalt with François-Xavier Lainé sparked a complete methodology - imagine what your session might create.
For additional resources and community sharing: openseriousgames.org