Your Next Move: January 2016
Case Study: Taking the Pain Out of Prioritization 
Plus, Idea Engine 2.0 is Live. new Enterprise Collaboration workshop & more!
Customer Story: Telecom Takes the Pain out of Prioritization.
Masa Maeda Valueinnova

In June 2014, Masa Maeda, CEO of Valueinnova, Playcamp organizer and Conteneo Certified Collaboration Instructor, began work on an Agile Transformation project at the Ecuadorean office of the fourth largest telecommunication company in the world. This company (unfortunately to remain unnamed for this report) has a corporate presence in each country where it offers services and among all of its offices, the Ecuadorian headquarters was considered the most innovative.

"The agile transformation began with a very positive impact," Masa relates, "spreading from 34 people in one department to more than 200 people in eight departments in only six weeks. This happened despite the fact that original contract was for the transformation of just one department."

Read more!
Budget Puzzles: More Harm than Good.
By Luke Hohmann

In my last post about Participatory Budgeting, I discussed why surveys suck when used to understand budget priorities. But there is a game-related evolution of surveys, so-called "budget puzzles", that are even more harmful because they create intense feelings of
Participatory Budgeting. Messier than Budget Puzzles? Yes. And worth it.
despair and 
harden political opinion. In an era of increasingly partisan politics, budget puzzles are making things worse, not better. What's especially sad about this is that it appears to be the exact opposite of the goals of the organizations who are promoting budget puzzles. In this post, I'll elaborate on why budget puzzles are considered harmful and show how collaborative participatory budgeting is the superior approach.

Budget Puzzles in Action
I define a budget puzzle as an interactive simulation in which a solo player strives to complete the typically nearly impossible task of balancing a city, state or national budget.
An example is the New York Times Budget Puzzle, in which you attempt to balance the national budget by considering various combinations of spending reductions and revenue increases.

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Product Update: 
Idea Engine 2.0 is Live!
Introducing Idea Engine 2.0!
Introducing Idea Engine 2.0!

We're really excited. The new Idea Engine 2.0 was released into the wild last night. It's the most significant release ever for our platform that supports visual collaboration frameworks like Speed BoatPrune the Product Tree, and many other agile and Gamestorming games. 

Our development team has rewritten the entire user interface, and over the next few weeks we're going to have a lot of fun introducing its many improvements, ahead of the official launch on 19 February at the Collaboration Confab.

Watch our Intro Video, give Idea Engine a spin, and let us know what you think!


Collaboration Confab: Enterprise Collaboration Workshop!

Workshop: 18 Feb 2016; 1PM -  5PM
We're excited to announce that world-renowned collaboration expert, Dion Hinchcliffe, will offer a half-day workshop at the Collaboration Confab, in addition to his keynote. The workshop, entitled "Developing an Enterprise Collaboration Strategy That Creates Results" will prepare participants to: 
  • Get the most from modern workforce collaboration tools and techniques.
  • Explore strategies to drive high business performance with digital collaboration.
  • Understand what IT & business leaders can do personally to foster effective collaboration.
The workshop description and agenda is now live on the Collaboration Confab website, along with workshops in Advanced Facilitation Techniques, Civic Engagement Games and Serious Games Design

Confab Keynotes
We're really excited about the group of speakers who will be joining us. The conference explores the intersection of civic engagement, social business, technology and innovation and the speakers are simply the best in the industry: 
Attendees will also get a chance to put what they've learned about collaborative techniques into practice by volunteering as facilitators or observers for the San Jose Budget Games event on 20 Feb. 2016 at San José City Hall. We hope that you can join us!



Upcoming Events
Jason Tanner is teaching several CSPO + Innovation Games classes in the ne year, starting with Morrisville, NC on Jan. 19-20. Check out the course list for other classes & more details.
Join Certified Collaboration Instructor Jurgen De Smet  on Jan. 22, 2016 for his "Innovation Games for Distributed Team" class, focused on digital collaboration. More Info.
CCI Jonathan Clark will be teaching his Advanced Facilitation Master Class at the Collaboration Confab at Microsoft's Silicon Valley campus  on Feb. 18, 2016. More Info. 
Product Box Supplies on Table
Luke Hohmann will be teaching his new Game Design Master 
Class, Designing for Multidimensional Collaboration on 18 February 2016 at the Collaboration Confab.  Join us!

Join Amy Lee from the Kettering Foundation for a half-day workshop at the Collaboration Confab certifying participants to become Common Ground for Action & Budget Games facilitators. More Info. 
Join us on 18-19 Feb. 2016 for a two-day conference focusing on how organizations are building the collaborative communities that drive innovation. More Info.
For certification classes, upcoming Playcamps, webinars and regional and international conference sessions from the Conteneo community, check out our website

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