The Search for The Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine
Experience An Exciting Corporate Teambuilding Retreat
Past Participants’ Feedback
“Thanks for facilitating the workshop for our school. Certainly one of the few interesting and fruitful ones that we’ve had for years. Will consider Ephod in our future seminars.” Mr Eric Chan, VP Rulang Pri School
The Search for The Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine is a fast-paced simulation engaging teams in a journey to mine gold in the Superstition Mountains of the American Southwest.
1. The role of the teams is simple: Mine as much Gold as we can and maximize ROI
2. The role of the Expedition Leader is to help the teams be successful
3. The key to the game is to work together and have fun, collaborating and not competing
Participants join others at tables set for 6. On the tabletops are a map, their Grub Stake of resource cards, planning tools and other information about the exercise. Putting on cowboy hats and colorful bandannas (which add visual impact and energy), the group settles in to hear the history of the Lost Dutchman Mine and to learn the mechanics of the challenge.
Teams have 20 days of 2 minutes each to manage their journey to the mine and back home. They can choose from 3 paths with varying risks, planning for weather and planning for optimal use of resources.
Once the introduction is concluded, teams have 15 minutes to plan. We then begin play (roughly 40 minutes), take a break and then begin what is a very flexible and impactful debriefing. Generally, we complete the entire activity in 3.5 hours but many users integrate the game into other training content on leadership, team building, personality styles, quality improvement and other content. The exercise is metaphor-driven and these metaphors link beautifully to all sorts of other training paradigms.
People have fun and share ideas that apply to their jobs. Substantive action plans for change are common outcomes.
Teams from all over the world have found Dutchman to be a dynamic journey and highly positive learning experience. The game works well with small groups as well as large conferences and retreats.