On October 18, 2012 we presented this workshop at the Michigan State University's International Academic Conference on Meaningful Play. The conference included 250 attendees from 10 countries. Andrew Simon, Steve Dodds and Carrie Heeter engaged the audience in active games to show how meaningful play can help neighborhoods and cities engage their communities. Budget Games was designed by Luke Hohmann, CEO of The Innovation Games Company.

1. Andrew Simon
October 18, 2012
Simon Associates Management
Consultants

2. Why Every Voice Engaged? Why Budget Games?
 Meaningful Play….including games gives “permission” to
be fully creative.
 Serious Games utilizes multiple forms of intelligence
(verbal, visual, strategic) resulting in greater volumes of
information.
 Encourages collaborative behavior & shared goals.
 Collaborative play builds consensus.
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3. To Say it Another Way…
 Games involve a high level of emotion.
 Emotions help us to
Focus
Remember
Decide
Perform
Learn
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4. Play = Fools the mind
 The human brain is a pattern-making machine.
 We seek and find patterns everywhere we look.
We’re so good at it that once we find one, it can be
difficult to see anything else.
 Creating randomness is a way of fooling the mind so
that you can more easily search for new patterns in
a familiar domain.
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5. City of San Jose
 Limited dollars available due to current
recession.
 $28 Million shortfall
 Can’t be all things to all people…..need to
establish priorities.
 Budget Games conducted in 2011 and 2012.
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6. Goals of Budget Games: San Jose
 Gather input from citizens on
city’s programs and
services.
 Educate both citizen and
staff on issues, values,
roadblocks and alternatives
to city challenges.
 Provide actionable
quantitative and qualitative
citizen feedback to city’s
leaders in a non-threatening
environment.
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7. Who Participates
 Diversity critical to process
 City residents and
leaders……Neighborhood
Associations, Youth
Groups ……other
Commissions.
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8. Team Effort Requires People-Power
 City Subject Matter Experts
on hand to answer technical
questions
 Game Facilitators to explain
and manage the game.
 Game Observers to capture the
“why”.
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9. Additional Stuff
 12 to 20 items
including costs and
benefits.
 5 to 8 players at
table with limited
“dollars”.
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10. Budget Game Play and Rules
 Small “items”
 Each participant at table has a little amount of play
money.
 Can join with other allies at the table to fund certain
activities.
 Does NOT require unanimous agreement at table.
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11. Budget Game Play and Rules
 Large “items”
 Need to fund new initiatives two ways:
 New taxes.
 Current program reduction or elimination.
 Requires unanimous consent for program
reduction or tax increases.
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12. Before We Started Negotiations
 List of items ranked by each participant.
 Reason for ranking.
 Table feedback that refines an understanding.
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13. Results of individual ranking & group feedback
 11 Tables
 10 tables funded increase in library hours.
 8 tables funded major initiative thru tax increases.
 8 tables funded increased police patrols.
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14. What Happened?
 Citizens were willing to bear
consequences of tax
increases.
 Wide range of
programs….public safety was
not the only priority.
 Much more agreement than
expected.
 Built community “teamwork”.
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15. Why Budget Games Works?
 Experienced facilitators and observers
provide support and manage the
structure/process ..but not the outcome.
 In-person discussion creates dialogue
leading to a collaborative environment.
 Quantitative and qualitative feedback.
 Measurable results.
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16. Next Steps
 Understanding that every initiative can not be
funded.
 Great Neighborhoods created.
 Goes from a macro to a micro basis.
 Further builds on collaboration to shape ideas
for potential projects that are self-funded.
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