The Friday Night at the ER team-learning simulation causes us to see the roles we play in organizations as interrelated parts of a system – an essential perspective for high-performing teams and organizational learning.

Yet, understanding and thinking about systems is not enough! It must be paired with actions and behaviors. We aim to teach key actions and behaviors that enable people to apply systems thinking in everyday work.

Think of Friday Night at the ER as a practice field. It gives people an experiential understanding and a hands-on opportunity to put systems thinking into practice.

Do people in your organization collaborate? What does real collaboration look and feel like?

Friday Night at the ER shines a bright light on the imperative for collaborating across boundaries. Whether boundaries are functional or professional or geographical or ideational, neither the part nor the system can perform well if we operate within silos.

The simulation reveals varying levels of collaboration that people naturally exhibit. It tees up the conversation about what gets in the way of reaching across boundaries for collaborative action, smooth hand-offs and shared responsibility for organization performance.

There are opportunities for players to innovate during the simulation, yet many do not. Explored during the debrief discussion, it’s typically one of the “aha!” moments during a Friday Night at the ER program when participants realize how powerfully the boundaries of their own mental models may have limited the possibilities they considered.

Friday Night at the ER demonstrates the way people in an organization respond to new ideas and practices. The program enables leaders to explore the risks and rewards of innovating within the organization, and to become clear about how, where and when innovation will be accepted.

The simulation ends with participants gathering data and scoring. This process is illuminating as participants learn how well they met performance goals for quality and cost.

Did they use data during the simulation to make decisions? Would it have been helpful to do so? The same questions can be asked about the use of data in the organization. Successful organizations are capable of learning and adapting to meet goals. This requires visible data for key performance indicators.

Participants learn that data should replace instinct in the face of uncertainty about the best course of action to achieve desired results.

Best practices for desired behaviors (like Collaboration) can and should be taught. But behavior is powerfully influenced by elements of “structure” in organizations, such as performance measures, policies, physical environment, information visibility, and much more.

The mantra, “structure drives behavior,” is well illustrated during the simulation and can be underscored during the debrief discussion. This often leads to a productive team exercise in which participants recognize where, in their own organization, its structural design may (inadvertently) inhibit the very behaviors we desire to cultivate. It can be a striking realization and a high call to action for organization leaders following this learning experience.