Yee San Su, Senior Research Scientist, CNA This presentation was given at the 2016 Serious Play Conference, hosted by the UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School. In November 2015, 60 high-level decision makers from 15 countries participated in a two-day policy game on global food security. This talk will discuss challenges CNA addressed in designing the game, game logistics, and lessons learned (e.g., reconciling stakeholders with different goals, incorporating subject-matter experts, framing pre-game materials).

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Yee San Su and Mary “Kate” Fisher
Serious Play Conference
July 26, 2016
Food Chain Reaction:
A Global Food Security Game
Basics
• Role-playing game
• November 9-10, 2015 in Washington, DC
• Teams representing major actors in the global food system
– Brazil, China, the European Union, India, the United States, and Africa
– Businesses and investors
– Multilateral institutions (e.g., World Bank)
• Game begins in 2020 and takes place over four rounds, covering
2020-2030
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Sponsors
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Goal
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“Food Chain Reaction is designed to help high level decision
makers—across the public and private spheres—better understand
the interconnectedness of the global food system and use this
knowledge to ultimately reduce future global food security risks.”
How do we get from this goal to a game?

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CNA
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• 20+ years of experience designing games
• Supported real-world event analysis and exercise evaluation
• Previously examined connections between national security, climate
change, energy security, and water security
Approach
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Philosophy is to match games to sponsor objectives, and deliver a
game that is real, engaging, and enhances player decision-making
Game
Objectives

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What Sponsors Saw
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?
Game Design in Context
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Project Management
• Adapted a planning framework for large-
scale exercises
• Created a formal project schedule that
assigned responsibility for specific tasks
• Reported on the progress of individual tasks
in weekly core team meetings
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Who?
What?
Where?
When?
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How?

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Who?
Player Criteria
• Experience with and understanding of national and international-level
decision making
• Influence in their respective fields (current and high likelihood of sustained
future influence)
• Complementary expertise among the members for each team
• Ability to commit to the full duration of the game
• Willingness to “play” in the game and not fight the scenario (e.g., flexible
attitude, interest in learning and experimenting, works well on a team)
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6/2: First wave
of invitations
8/4: Tracking
RSVPs begins
10/27: Final list
published
Approximately
45% success rate
for acceptances
What?
Initial Sponsor Objectives (Examples)
• Derive compelling insights to share with food security thought
leaders to inform food security thinking and policymaking
• Identify how the public and private sectors can mitigate, manage,
and intervene constructively around a major disruption
• Understand how players will respond to key trigger points in a crisis
• Explore climate change mitigation and adaptation to understand the
benefits and trade space for both climate change mitigation and
adaptation
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What? (continued)
Getting to Scenario Elements
• Elicited 14 “learning goals” that the core planning team prioritized
• Evaluated situations that would provide an opportunity for players to engage
in discussion around these topics
• Mapped scenario elements to learning goals
Priority Learning Goal Scenario Element
High Supply chain bottlenecks in agricultural
commodity distribution can be just as
disruptive as weather-related effects
• Disrupt traffic on Mississippi
and Missouri Rivers to
dramatically reduce U.S.
exports
• Lack of infrastructure hinders
relief aid to some African
nations
High Climate change affects natural systems in
multiple ways—not just heat waves and
drought
• Spread of Asian soybean rust
in South America
What? (continued)
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Structural Elements
• Commodity index pricing (All Rounds)
• IPCC climate change (Round 1 and 3)
• El Niño/La Niña as a global and recurring phenomena (Round 1 and 4)

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Where?
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When?
Game Starting Year and Duration
• Climate change is a much more significant issue later in the century
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IPCC Fifth Assessment Report

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When? (continued)
• Example: Growing incomes are leading to changing consumption
patterns, increasing demand for grains. Food consumption patterns are
shifting to higher-quality and more expensive foods such as meat and dairy.
In particular, China and India are expected to continue growing their middle-
class consumption levels, with China driving growth in soybean imports for
animal feed use. In the next five years, annual growth in meat
consumption in developing countries (1.9%) is projected at nearly
three times higher than that of developed countries.
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How?
Food Security Has Many Dimensions
• Agriculture
• Resource scarcity
• Climate change
• Sustainable economic development
• Trade and commodity markets
• National security
• Global health
• Technology
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How do we allow players to have complete freedom to
come up with policy options, without “breaking” the game?

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How? (continued)
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Human Adjudication Cell
• Contained subject-matter
expertise in all major categories
• Received projection information
(i.e., commodity pricing) and
access to research
documentation
• Reviewed team decisions and
used this to modify information
contained in a premade
template for the following round
How? (continued)
Underlying Models versus Narrative
• Very difficult to use models, given the freedom afforded to players
• Keep players out of the weeds
• Provided narrative introductions into each round of play
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CommodityPriceIndex

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How? (continued)
Setting the Stage for the Game (video)
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Let the Game Begin!

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Agenda: Day 1
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Agenda: Day 2
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Facilitation
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• Game Directors
• Senior Controllers
– Monitor for and/or address issues (e.g., player confusion/boredom,
overemphasis on a specific issue)
– Trace macro-level trends in discussion and decision making
• Scribes
• Adjudication Panel
Keeping Players Informed
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When Fun Takes Over
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Lessons Learned
• Ask your sponsors about their comfort level; do they feel they have a
voice in the process and know where they can contribute?
• Start player selection as soon as possible; good players fill in gaps
• Accept political realities and do your best to identify these risks early
• Evaluate what level of detail is appropriate for the game
• Don’t underestimate the resources required to facilitate, monitor,
and record what transpires during game conduct
• Think about portability and evaluation during design and
development
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For More Information
www.foodchainreaction.org
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Yee San Su
suy@cna.org
Mary “Kate” Fisher
fisherm@cna.org