Biodecision: The First Workshop

A room full of scientists and technology transfer professionals may not be everyone's idea of a fun filled afternoon but anyone who attended the first Poppyfish Biodecision Simulation Workshop earlier this month would hopefully agree with me when I say that what was shared that afternoon was informative, fun and filled with learning.

 

This proof of concept workshop for Biodecision was the first time that this particular workshop had been held and took place at Rothamsted Research with the support of InCrops. 

Aims

The aim of the Biodecision workshop is to create a system in miniature and to explore how people and organisations within the system interact and make decisions. The system in question is the commercialisation system for new technology. In this instance we chose fictional patented developments associated with the fictional biofuel, 'Cropanol', but this topic could vary depending on the audience. We split the fifteen delegates into six groups of between two to three people each (in an ideal workshop of 18 people I think 3 per group would be ideal) and set the scene. Two of the six groups had technology to bring to market, one represented technology transfer agents and the remaining three were technology seekers, actively looking to secure their product and technology pipeline. After a brief pre-amble during which I outlined the way that the simulator worked, the groups made plans and drew up strategies about how they intended to secure their goals before starting to interact and setting the system in motion.

People

Being a Poppyfish simulation, the design of the workshop is people-centric and provides space to explore how individuals and groups interact within the system to give the system it's own character and dynamic. And what a dynamic we created. The dynamic in the room became very interesting - and very real - as the various agents worked together (or in competition) to achieve their goals. At various stages in the workshop we called time-outs to explore who was talking to who, why, how they did so and what it meant for the other players in the system. The various feelings towards individual groups were explored candidly and some of these were unpacked in more detail to generate deeper learning. Individuals logged their experience and reflections throughout and these too provided meaningful individual learning opportunities - sometimes it pays to see the wood for the trees!

 

Proof of concept

The workshop proved beyond doubt that there is a place for interactive workshops in the knowledge transfer arena. Fourteen of the fifteen delegates rated the workshop as "Excellent" which is a pretty successful outcome in anyone's book. The feedback received from delegates included space for ideas about further improvements and I am now looking at ways of building these in for the next version, which is already attracting interest from organisations wishing to host their own  workshop. Brilliant.

 

The overall outcome was a rewarding session that delivered on the various levels we had hoped and certainly if the level of discussion and reflection generated is an indication of success then we did well. For me, the simulation reinforced in my own mind the benefits such simulations can offer individuals and organisations and it was great to work with such an open minded and knowing group. I am happy that the workshop can exist either as a stand alone event or as an item in a longer prgramme looking at any of the activities it includes (negotiation, IP processes, technology transfer, selling, commercialisation, group process and more) Thanks go to Bianca at Incrops for organising the workshop despite lots of car troubles on the day, and to Rothamsted for providing the facility. A special thank you to those who took the bold step of coming to an unknown event and for taking part with such conviction and good humour.

The 'proof of concept' now established, Biodecision is now well and truly a key offering in the Poppyfish simulation stable and I hope very much to take the simulation to other interested and relevant organisations in the New Year.