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I guess it's mostly just about putting people in a stressful management situation to get them used to it. Not much of an ultimate lesson there, just some experi

• Jtsummers 4y ago
  The Beer Game is a simulation of something that takes place over weeks and months and years in the real-world (you don't normally double or triple your manufacturing capacity in hours, unless you went from one employee to two). It's not about experiencing a "stressful management situation." It's not the same as pilots in flight simulators experiencing a simulated real-time disaster in the making and having to respond correctly (or at least more correctly) in real-time. The objective of The Beer Game and the other materials related to it and the research by Forrester et al. is to develop an understanding of systems dynamics and systems thinking. In this specific game the systems effect they are exploring is the bullwhip effect and how imperfect, incomplete information can cause it. Other games in this genre of games may have specific other systems effects they aim to explore, but in total their objective is to get the participants to start thinking about systems. Not to help them avoid panicking (though thinking clearly does help with that).