The MARS educational game was developed at the behest of the Insurance Department as part of Gan Assurances’ Transformation Plan. The objective was to encourage underwriter teams to work on their relations with general agents.

Transposing the action into a different universe enables them to disconnect from the professional environment and work on “soft skills”, the objective of the activity.

The key word is cooperation! So there is no competition between members of the same team, just rules to be followed.

To sum up, players must build a city on Mars that can withstand disasters; in order to survive, they must create housing, but also cultivate fields and have the resources to defend themselves.

Each element of the game corresponds to a value. The essential values, defined with the Insurance Department, which are Listening, Expertise and Responsiveness, are represented by “free” resources such as water, electricity and building panels. By combining these elements, other values emerge such as Kindness, Involvement and Education, themselves represented by other elements of the city (buildings, etc.). The players thus build their Martian base by talking to each other and acting strategically; the game requires a tremendous ability to listen and heaps of friendly communication.

When they have finished building their city, they must choose together if they want to expose it to disasters. These represent negative values such as distrust, withdrawal and passivity. If they have sufficient listening and communication skills, they can easily withstand the six disasters; otherwise, they will lose points.

The game is followed by a debrief, and set in context with the facilitator. Using a red filter, the players can discover a professional situation under each value card (e.g. “Listen: I call the agent when I realise that the situation is not clear“). Finally, all players/employees choose a value that they wish to incorporate more fully in their everyday work.