System innovation depends on actors with different logics, drivers and goals being able to collaborate. But in practice it is often difficult to see these differences because each actor primarily understands the world from their own horizon. Role-playing is therefore one of the most effective tools for making the logic of the system visible in a vivid and concrete way. By stepping into the perspective of other actors, insights arise that traditional workshops, analyses and presentations rarely succeed in eliciting.
Here we try to describe why role-playing can work, how to design them for system innovation and how system innovation leaders can use the method to create shared understanding and common direction.
Why role-playing works in system innovation
Role-playing forces participants to temporarily leave their own perspectives and adopt the logic of another actor. This allows participants to experience the system “from the inside” instead of just discussing how they see the system from the outside. The result is a dramatic increase in understanding of the drivers and the obstacles and conflicts that exist.
Several dimensions make role-playing games particularly powerful for system change:
- First, role-playing games make visible interests and power dynamics that are otherwise not expressed openly. Actors can act out conflicts without it feeling so personal.
- Second, role-playing games show how decisions are made in practice. Participants are forced to act in real time, based on the incentives of the role, which reveals the actual logic of the system. People often see things differently when they are associated with the decisions that others are going to make.
- Third, role-playing games lead to emotional insights. When a company representative is forced to play a citizen who feels worried or an official who lacks a mandate, deeper empathy and understanding arise.
- Fourth, role-playing games become a creative prototype of the system that makes it possible to quickly test ideas, proposals for change and partner constellations.
How the logic of the system becomes visible
In a role-playing game, the system appears as a kind of living organism. When participants interact according to their roles, a format of reality is created where one can see how decisions are published, how goals clash, how resources circulate and how misunderstandings arise.
- A municipal representative may, for example, realize that a company does not act slowly out of disinterest but out of demands for returns and follow-up.
- A citizen may discover that an authority is not sluggish but rather binds its decisions to legislation.
- A politician who is forced to play a researcher may feel how frustrating it is to lack a forum to influence decisions despite evidence.
These insights are often what allows actors to unite in a common system shift.
Typical roles in a system role-play
Roles should represent the most central logics in the system. Common roles may be:
- Authority or municipality with responsibility for laws, regulations and policies.
- Private companies that balance innovation and profitability.
- Residents or users who are affected by the decisions but lack formal resources.
- Civil society that drives value issues and opinion.
- Researchers who carry knowledge but lack a mandate.
- Financiers who control capital flows and risk.
The roles do not need to be realistically detailed. The important thing is that they reflect the actor’s goals, obstacles, driving forces and concerns.
Example of a role play with an unexpected insight
Below is a short excerpt from an example role play in which actors discuss the introduction of a circular waste hub. The participants are a municipal representative, a company and a citizen.
Municipal representative
Our goal is to reduce the amount of waste but we are bound by procurement rules. To move forward, you must show that the solution is stable in the long term.
Company
We can scale up your hub but we need a clear risk-taking from you. Our board wants guarantees, otherwise the money will go to other investments.
Citizen
I want lower costs and better service. But if you make the hub too far away, I won’t bring recyclables. It’s already hard to find the time.
Municipal representative
We can’t put the hub close to the center because we have land conflicts.
Company
Why didn’t you say that earlier? We have planned our entire model for the hub to be centrally located.
Citizen
I hear you both, but you seem to miss that it is behavior that is the problem. None of us have incentives to change habits.
Here comes an unexpected twist. The role of citizen intuitively points out that the system is stuck precisely because the incentives are not directed at behavioral change, something that neither the municipality nor the company thought about because they were busy with structural and organizational limitations.
The dialogue reveals the system’s blind spot: everyone is doing their best but no one is addressing the habit patterns. This is an example of the kind of insight that role-playing can generate.
How to Design a System Innovation Role Play
Below is a framework for how a system innovation role play can be prepared and implemented.
Define the system
A clear system area and purpose are needed. This could include mobility, circularity, energy or health. The roles are then based on this.
Choose the central roles
Three to five roles are sufficient in most cases. Each role should be described simply but clearly with goals, concerns, incentives and constraints.
Create a common situation
Formulate a realistic challenge where the roles must interact. Examples could be a policy change, a new innovation or a growing problem.
Instructions to the participants
Encourage the participants to act consistently based on the role, not based on themselves. This is crucial for the logic of the system to emerge.
Run the game
Let the participants negotiate, discuss and react. The system innovation leader observes flows, conflicts and unexpected synchronizations.
End with a debrief
After the role play, insights are gathered by asking: what incentives guided you, what obstacles arose, what surprised you, what is needed for the system to shift?
It is in the debrief that the insights are combined into direction for the next step in the system innovation process.
How the system innovation leader uses role-playing strategically
The leader uses role-playing to:
- Reveal obstacles that no one dares or can formulate in regular meetings.
- Identify where norms and assumptions rub against the system.
- Create empathy between actors who otherwise only meet through formal roles.
- Test change proposals in low risk before they are tested in reality.
- Gain insight into opportunities for coalitions and win-win solutions.
A role-playing game makes it possible to prepare the system for change by allowing actors to try it out before it happens.
When role-playing games are used regularly, they become a tool for monitoring how the understanding of the system changes over time. It provides a collaborative and creative way to guide actors through complexity and into joint action.
Bringing Complexity to Life
Roleplaying can bring complexity to life, uncover hidden drivers, open up empathy, and allow actors to explore futures together. For the systems innovation leader, roleplaying is a way to move from abstract analysis to concrete experience. When actors experience the system from different perspectives, it becomes easier to find paths that work for more people and create solutions that actually have an impact in reality.
