Why building a city, launching a rocket or stacking a pyramid makes teams smarter

When organisations go through change, we often default to strategy documents, transformation models and workshops filled with sticky notes. But real change doesn’t start on paper, it starts when people feel it. When they’re immersed in a situation where decisions matter, pressure is real, and mistakes become stepping stones.

At Pink Elephant, we believe in experiential learning. Our serious business simulation games give teams a safe but high-pressure environment where they collaborate, stumble, improve and accelerate. It may look like play, but it feels like reality, and the insights that emerge are powerful, sometimes confronting, and always unforgettable.

Below, a tour through our most popular simulations, enriched with honest (and often amusing) reflections from participants.

MarsLander II – Modern Service Management on a digital mission (ITSM)
MarsLander II isn’t about rockets, it’s about building a modern, agile, customer-centric service organisation. Teams guide a mission to Mars while managing priorities, handling disruptions and collaborating across silos.

Mistakes become teachers: value streams stall, communication breaks down, and “small” oversights suddenly feel mission-critical.

“I thought we were doing well… until we realised we hadn’t informed operations.”

MarsLander makes behaviour visible: cross-functional collaboration, customer focus and continual improvement become not just principles, but lived experience.

Apollo 13 – Designing, improving and surviving processes (ITSM)
Apollo 13 transforms a legendary space mission into a lesson on process design and improvement. Teams create services, define processes and learn to iterate, right up until something goes wrong.

“Houston, I think we’ve got a problem… sounds very different when you’re responsible for the solution.”

The simulation brings ITIL to life. Clear roles and processes become anchors in the chaos, while missing ones show their consequences instantly. Participants walk away with practical, memorable insight into what truly makes service delivery work.

Challenge of Egypt – Project Management in the desert
Building a pyramid seems simple — until shifting priorities, scarce resources and tight deadlines turn it into an organisational puzzle.

“We thought: we’ll just build a pyramid. But it quickly became an organisational challenge.”

Challenge of Egypt makes project management tangible. Teams learn to define responsibilities, manage risks, control scope and adjust when reality refuses to follow the plan.

City Construct – Scrum in the city
Our own City Construct lets teams experience Agile and Scrum in action. You build a city in sprints while juggling the needs of the product owner (the deputy mayor) and the customer (the mayor).

“The mayor wanted a statue, but the deputy mayor wanted a bridge. Bit of miscommunication.”

Sprint by sprint, teams learn the value of communication, feedback, prioritisation and adaptability. Agile becomes less of a framework and more of a mindset.

The Phoenix Project – DevOps in action
This simulation immerses teams in the chaotic world of the failing Phoenix Project at Parts Unlimited. With roles across business, development and operations, the goal is to deliver faster, reduce errors and improve continuously.

“We thought we were collaborating. Until someone shouted ‘deployment’ and everything ground to a halt.”

Teams experience the impact of hidden dependencies, siloed thinking and fragmented responsibility. Only when collaboration deepens and feedback loops shorten does flow finally emerge.

Why simulation works
These aren’t “games.” They are high-fidelity learning experiences where behaviour becomes visible and mistakes accelerate insight. Teams learn fast, see consequences instantly and translate lessons directly to their real work.

Whether the challenge is leadership, collaboration, process improvement or change management, serious business simulations move, amuse, confront and unite.

Ready to grow?
At Pink Elephant, we help organisations that truly want to change. With the right simulation, clear learning goals and guided reflection, we turn game insights into workplace transformation.

Explore all simulations at pinkelephant.co.uk/business-simulation or get in touch with our Education team members Nektaria and Chantal, at n.kriketou@pinkelephant.co.uk & chantal.clavan@pinkacademy.nl to discover how a rocket launch or a city-planning exercise could elevate your team.

Let the games begin!