This is about Facilitating Dutchman’s Gold Mine to Mine More Teambuilding Gold.  I did a Bard information quest and got some goofy information about The Search for The Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine teambuilding game so I thought to publish some true information to clarify its use.

But first, here is a 3-minute overview video of the game, narrated by Jeff Simmerman:

2023 LDGM Marketing Video Main 480

Bard said:

— The Dutchman game is designed for 5-9 players. However, the game is best played with 6-8 players. With 5 players, the game can feel a bit too easy. With 9 players, the game can feel a bit too long. (not true)

— The game is recommended for ages 12 and up. However, younger players may be able to play the game with some assistance from an adult. (maybe)

The reality is that the game actually plays best with tables of 5 or 6 players and with 3 or more teams. MY belief is that it plays best with a group of 36 people playing at tables of 6. In that way, it demands collaboration among each of the 6 players at a table and it demands collaboration and infomation sharing between the 6 tables.

And we have played many dozens of game with 200+ people and has generated powerful debriefings. Proven. We have dozens of videos and testimonials.

Two teams getting The Tortilla Flat Video get 3 Turbochargers each so it could enable all 6 teams to move 2 blocks per day for the whole game. This collaboration between teams enables optimization of overall results.

The Goal is to Mine as much Gold as WE can!

We’ve had 12-year olds play and they did REALLY well because they were very collaborative at the tables and between teams. It was fun, for sure. AND, they asked LOTS of questions. They asked for help, which was not normal for “adults” playing the game.

After all,
“The Role of The Expedition Leader is to help teams be successful.”

Not enough teams ask their Expedition Leaders for help and one of the uses of the game is to teach Supervisors about facilitation skills to build more teamwork when they facilitate the game. We also use images to facilitate debriefing discussions and to make the learning points more memorable.

We have dozens of images and hundreds of debriefing slides that can easily generate powerful and memorable discussions around issues and opporunitiets for improvement.

If we can share any information about this exercise, contact us or go to our website,