Military Might!

Might! is a high impact participative team building simulation that is simple and straightforward to deliver. Focused on strategic planning, shared missions, communications and collaboration, the exercise shares some of the main packaging and delivery features of PMC's flagship program, The Search for The Lost Dutchman's Gold Mine.

Might! is designed to generate powerful but flexible debriefings.

Military Might! focuses on enhancing teamwork and collaboration. Teams choose from a set of required missions and acquire information from the Command Center as well as weaponry from other teams. They then have to put their plans into action, trusting that luck will not turn bad and their planning fails. In addition, as play continues, teams acquire new information that rewards flexibility and inter-team communications.

Might! comes "unencumbered" by the common restrictive covenants, per-participant fees, annual licenses and other things that characterize other packages that make collaboration between users and the designer difficult if not impossible. We partner with our clients. As a result, we receive continuous feedback about new ideas and alternatives for how the exercise is delivered. Thus, you can expect continuous updates, delivery options and improvements over time. This has been PMC's pattern of building relationships and product improvements since 1984.

Teams of Special Ops forces were transported to a foreign location to deal with a terrorist group which is planning a major offensive. Our mission is for squads to make their way to the enemy base, accomplish as many target missions as possible and return to base. Squads have only 18 days to get to the enemy base and back, safely.

Teams of 6 have many decisions to make in their planning, including vehicle choices, route they wish to travel and additional training options, intelligence and/or vehicle modifications. Along the way, random events occur causing teams to improvise, adapt and collaborate with other teams in order to accomplish pre-planned objectives and other goals.

Military Might! is educational and engaging; it is an experiential exercise designed to generate a variety of typical team behaviors that can be readily debriefed in a number of ways. The overall goal is to accomplish all the missions; teams need to communicate amongst themselves to develop an overall plan of action. And while some level of risk taking is rewarded, excessive risky behavior generates problems. Poor planning and competition also tend to suboptimize results.

Teams find the challenges and situation to be motivating -- they face deadlines for decision-making and can quickly see the impacts of their choices on their results. The game is not difficult to play but teams need to understand the basic approach and must generate specific plans of action that will have to be modified as new information arises.

Collaboration between teams towards common goals generally maximizes results in most organizations. It is the same in this exercise. We balance objectives, challenges and interpersonal relationships and build on the normal spirit that comes from being a part of a team. A debriefing point, for example, is that while fun competition between teams is motivating to most people, excessive competition will generate long-term negative impacts. Focus is on building healthy levels of competition within and between teams. The overall goal is optimizing overall Mission success.

The exercise is designed so that no one dies. "Combat" is de-emphasized; there is no violence. Missions may fail. Teams will see the result of poor planning but they will all be somewhat successful. Every team contributes a score to the overall result. The discomfort from the exercise is such that teams will look for ways to improve rather than be discouraged by a lack of success.

Key learning outcomes are clear and the facilitator / Commander is positioned to be an available expert resource.

Knowledge of the military is not necessary. Might! would be ideal for sales groups or the more aggressive organizational teams. It is meant to be fun, while also teaching basic themes of teamwork's importance to success.