Climate adaptation requires profound transformations in organizational thinking and acting, yet organizational members often lack orientation and learning opportunities to understand and enact their roles and responsibilities in these processes. Games offer a non-threatening environment in which complex issues such as climate change can be explored in a practice-oriented way. The competitive nature of games is known to increase participants’ motivation and evoke emotional engagement. In this study, game-based learning is compared with more traditional learning formats, and its effectiveness is examined. For this purpose, 16 expert interviews were conducted with climate managers from industry and climate change lecturers following their participation in a game specifically designed for this study. The findings highlight the effectiveness of participatory and interactive formats: even participants with extensive expertise were encouraged by the game setting and the heterogeneous group of players to reflect on their climate-relevant behavior in both their private and professional lives. The Grounded Theory analysis also emphasizes the importance of neutral moderation: moderators must be able to reconcile different motivations, emotions, and values. A detailed debriefing after the game was likewise identified as essential, as it provides an opportunity to reflect on new insights and experiences and to situate them within a broader context. Overall, the study underscores the need for innovative approaches to professional development that can foster changes in the mental models of both individual employees and organizations and support the re-evaluation of existing beliefs and practices. The transformative learning that can occur in a protected gaming environment offers particular potential for improvisation, creative thinking, reflection, problem-solving, and cooperation.
Sophie Fischer (Wed,) studied this question.