The Workshop
Mission Resilience (Mission: Résilience) is an educational board game that brings complex resilience concepts to life for elected officials, territorial leaders, and community actors. Participants work through realistic scenarios exploring how regions can adapt to climate change while managing cross-cutting issues of governance, equity, and systemic thinking. The game translates academic resilience theory into practical, experiential learning where consequences become visible and strategies can be tested in a safe environment.
Why It Matters
This workshop matters because territorial and community resilience requires systems thinking that is difficult to develop through traditional training. By allowing participants to experiment with decisions, observe consequences, and iterate solutions in real time, the game develops the strategic thinking capacity needed for climate adaptation governance. The game-based approach also creates psychological safety for exploring difficult tradeoffs and failures, which is essential for institutional learning.
Good to Know
The serious game was developed based on research in resilience science and proven principles of experiential learning. Quality debriefing after gameplay is essential for linking game experience to real-world application. Facilitators require specialized training to effectively guide discussion and help participants extract strategic insights from gameplay. The game addresses four core learning objectives: making resilience concepts accessible, sensitizing players to key mechanisms, building knowledge of existing resources and tools, and encouraging concrete action.
What to Expect
The workshop progresses through setup (introducing resilience concepts and game rules), active gameplay (2+ hours where participants make decisions affecting territorial systems), observation of consequences (environmental, social, and governance impacts become visible), small-group reflection (discussing strategies and outcomes), and facilitated debriefing (connecting gameplay insights to real-world resilience challenges and participants' roles as leaders).
