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Case Study: Gamifying with P.L.A.Y. Method™ to Align Priorities During Organizational Change

Client

Consulting Company in Eindhoven, Netherlands
A mid-sized consulting and engineering firm based in Eindhoven, Netherlands with 350 employees across multiple business units.

Business Challenge

Organisation was preparing for a major transformation initiative involving:

  • Digitalization of internal processes
  • Resource constraints
  • Competing departmental priorities
  • Pressure to deliver faster client projects
  • Lack of alignment among leadership stakeholders

Every department believed its initiatives were the most important.

The leadership team had dozens of potential projects but no shared understanding of what should be:

  • Must Have
  • Should Have
  • Could Have
  • Won’t Have

As a result, meetings were becoming debates instead of decisions.


The P.L.A.Y. Method™ Journey

P = Present Visually

Objective

Create a shared understanding of priorities and strategic trade-offs.

What We Did

Instead of beginning with PowerPoint presentations, we facilitated a visual strategy workshop.

Using Business Sketchnotes and Visual Storyboards, we mapped:

  • Current business challenges
  • Strategic objectives
  • Stakeholder expectations
  • Resource constraints
  • Delivery risks

We then introduced several visual strategic thinking models:

  • MoSCoW Prioritization
  • Impact vs Effort Matrix
  • Strategic Trade-off Scale
  • Resource Allocation Canvas
  • Priority Funnel

The leadership team could literally see how competing priorities were affecting execution.

Outcome

Participants quickly recognized that:

“Everything cannot be a priority.”

Visual thinking reduced ambiguity and created a common language for discussing trade-offs.


L = Learn Through Games

Objective

Move from understanding priorities to experiencing priorities.

What We Did

Instead of teaching prioritization through theory, we introduced the MoSCoW Priorities Game.

To make the concept easy to understand, we first used a neutral scenario:

The Wedding Planning Challenge

Participants received a deck containing wedding-planning decisions such as:

  • Venue booking
  • Photography
  • Catering
  • Decorations
  • Luxury add-ons
  • Drone shots
  • Fireworks
  • Backup plans

Unexpected events were then introduced:

  • Budget cut by 40%
  • Wedding date moved earlier
  • New regulations imposed
  • Family emergency

Participants had to make difficult choices using the MoSCoW framework. The game included essential and optional wedding elements along with scenario cards that forced trade-offs.

Learning Insight

The wedding scenario removed workplace politics.

People immediately understood that:

  • Prioritization is not selection.
  • Prioritization is sacrifice.
  • Every choice has a consequence.
  • Resources are always limited.

The game generated more engagement than a traditional training session.


A = Apply Through Co-Creation

Objective

Transfer learning into the client’s real business environment.

What We Did

After the game, we facilitated a visual stakeholder extraction workshop.

Using large-format visual canvases, teams mapped:

  • Strategic initiatives
  • Department requests
  • Customer needs
  • Operational constraints
  • Transformation goals

Through guided visual facilitation, we collected stakeholder inputs directly from:

  • Executive leadership
  • Operations
  • Sales
  • HR
  • Project Management Office

The outputs were translated into a customized MoSCoW game.


The Customized Priorities Game

The wedding cards were replaced with actual business initiatives such as:

Must Have

  • ERP Migration
  • Cybersecurity Compliance
  • Key Client Retention Program

Should Have

  • Knowledge Management Platform
  • Internal Automation Projects

Could Have

  • AI Experimentation Program
  • Employer Branding Campaign

Won’t Have (For Now)

  • Office Renovation
  • New International Expansion Initiative

We also created custom disruption cards:

  • Budget reduction by 20%
  • Loss of key project manager
  • New client contract opportunity
  • Regulatory compliance deadline
  • Talent shortage

Teams then played with their own reality.


Y = Yield Business Outcomes

Results Achieved

Within two workshop rounds the leadership team reached alignment on:

  • Top 10 strategic initiatives
  • Projects to postpone
  • Resource allocation priorities
  • Risk mitigation actions
  • Transformation roadmap

Business Outcomes

✓ Faster decision-making

✓ Reduced stakeholder conflict

✓ Shared prioritization language

✓ Clear ownership of initiatives

✓ Stronger cross-functional alignment

✓ Higher engagement than traditional planning meetings

Measured Impact: The intervention reduced the strategy alignment cycle from approximately 6 weeks to 4 weeks, enabling faster decisions, earlier execution of priority initiatives, and more effective utilization of leadership time.


What the Client Said

“For the first time, we stopped discussing everything and started agreeing on what truly matters. The visual facilitation and customized MoSCoW game turned a difficult prioritization exercise into a constructive decision-making process.”

This transformed prioritization from an opinion-based discussion into a data-informed, stakeholder-owned decision process.


Why This Worked

Traditional consulting often tells people what to prioritize.

The P.L.A.Y. Method™ helped stakeholders:

Present

Visualize complexity.

Learn

Experience prioritization through gameplay.

Apply

Use their own business realities.

Yield

Generate decisions, alignment, and action.

The result was not another strategy document.

The result was a leadership team that could confidently decide what matters most.

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