Team Building, Simulations, Gamification & Experiential Learning
From Fun to Functional: Team Building with Lasting Impact
At Tirian, we redefine what team building can—and should—be. Our Intelligent Team Building approach goes far beyond traditional feel-good activities by using gamified simulations and experiential learning to drive real behavioral change. Our programs combine immersive storytelling with structured reflection to deliver those rare, transformative “Aha!” moments, tackling challenges like communication breakdowns, siloed thinking, and innovation fatigue. We deliver all the energy and excitement of traditional team building, but with purpose. Our approach transforms playful moments into powerful outcomes: aligned teams, stronger collaboration, and meaningful leadership growth. Because when fun meets strategy, the results go far beyond the game.
This page explores what makes team building truly intelligent: experiences designed with purpose, grounded in behavioral science, and expertly facilitated to turn play into progress. Discover how memorable theming, game theory, and strategic facilitation can elevate a simple activity into a powerful intervention for lasting team success.
The Case for Intelligent Team Building:
Why Fun Isn’t Enough.
Listen to a 15-minute Audio Overview
(Spotify)
About:
Our intelligent Team-Building, Serious Games & Experiential Learning will help any team discover for themselves their own dynamics, effective leadership, and communication. Our Simulations & Gamification will ensure the learning is engaging. We can add these elements to most of our programs. We also have dedicated team-building programs specifically designed for a conference setting, especially when needing a memorable wow factor. Best of all, we can integrate the gamification element into any design, from a workshop to a full conference, live in person or on a Zoom / Teams online virtual session. This ensures the learning will be integrated and lasts. We don’t throw around these words loosely, and we won’t insult you by offering childish games, fillers or teadious simulations. Everything we do is focused on achieving the most effective outcomes. Below is our understanding of what this method is all about, and the benefits when implemented properly.
What is Experiential Learning: Serious Games, Team Building, Simulations, and Gamification?
Experiential learning is the overriding name that covers (Serious Games, Team Building, Simulations, and Gamification). It is founded more on the active doing rather than the passive being done to. In this way, people practice the very skills they are learning and are more likely to maintain their change back at work. Experience-based learning becomes “experiential” when elements of reflection, support and transfer are added to the base experience.
Is your ‘team-building’ still fun?
YES! Fun and learning are not mutually exclusive, and in fact the best way to ensure learning lasts, is to make it fun and engaging. Getting the balance working is the key. Pure fun can sometimes be seen as not great use of corporate time and resources. Dry academic content-only learning, often does not stick, and these days, this can be achieved through self-learning & less budget resource options such as Books, Courses, Podcasts and YouTube!
What is the value of Experiential Learning, Simulations, and Gamification?
Experiential learning & gamification is used to create “virtual practice fields”. This allows individuals and teams to test assumptions and experiment with ideas without having to face real world reversals or setbacks. Companies need to create practice fields where issues that arise in the workplace can be isolated and focused on. This enables the team to see the consequences of particular actions and incidents that can occur very rapidly in the workplace and ensure they can be examined in more detail. The complexities of the everyday working environment can then be simplified and analyzed. Actions and attitudes that cannot be reversed or taken back in the real world can be re-tried countless times in a protected environment.
Experiential learning for Team building is designed to create safe places where people can self-discover & explore ideas and behaviors. Team Building can end with general (personal and/or business) applications, and lead onto deeper applications and Business Facilitation sessions.
What is Debriefing?
In Debriefing facilitators ask clients for their opinions and refrain from making statements to clients. In this way, clients learn to think for themselves and begin to take ownership over confronting issues (educational programs). If they “own” their issues, they are more likely to commit to changing the situation and to following through on their commitments. In a debrief discussion, clients are asked (under the guidance of a questioning facilitator) to reflect on their experiences and to discuss points of learning that they believe took place.
Why us?
We are the original designers of these programs. These unique programs are used internationally under license by many companies.
For more info about how we define: Serious Games, Team Building, Team Bonding, Team Activities, Ice breakers, Interactive workshops, Simulations, and Gamification: see Andrew Grant presenting at the Australasian Simulation Congress AND our ABOUT > FAQs page)
Are Traditional ‘team-building’ activities worth the time & investment? How to make team-building programs effective?
- Traditional ‘team-building’ activities allow for, at best, recreational fun. When a group engages in an activity together, it can just create a ‘collective effervescence,’ which excites and unifies the participants. However, without self-discovered “Aha” learning moments specifically designed into the activity and properly facilitated, this temporary effervescence is unlikely to lead to lasting change. (In some polls, as low as only 5% of participants say that team building is effective, whilst 27% say it depends on the activity.)
- It’s the difference between Fizz and Fuel, Sparkle and Substance, Economy and Premium. Both have their place—but when you want more than just a good time, we’re here to deliver something that lasts.
. - The artificial reality of ‘team building’ disguised as an endurance challenge or a ‘competitive race’ and trumpeted through the genre of contemporary reality TV needs to be challenged as to what it really achieves….
- See our relevant articles: Why is real collaboration so challenging? / “Why Do Team-Building?“
- Team-Building> FAQs page
SUBSTANCE OVER SPARKLE:
Some of our best Team Building & Gamified Simulations …
CREATE: A diagnostic game to explore the crime, and scene, to investigate potential psychological and environmental blocks to creativity.
CREATE: A gamified team-building simulation, with a twist, that dives deep into: Customer-Focus, Employee Engagement & Creative Design.
INNOVATE: A gamified table-based global adventure simulation (backed Ph.D. research), that dives deep into: How to Win, who loses and who gets eliminated, in The Innovation Race?
COMMUNICATE: All the fun & engagement of normal team-building, but with outcomes & a memorable theme. To lead and build high-performing teams.
COLLABORATE: A powerful game-theory style interactive session & themed team-building program, where the participants become involved in a social experiment that demonstrates the challenges of collaboration in a competitive environment.
NARRATE: A challenging ‘Apprentice’ ‘Shark Tank’ style program to help teams really understand their brand, values and core vision
NARRATE: Create a movie representation of the company culture, to capture its vision mission and values & present it back in a dinner academy awards show.
Sample ‘Hollywood’ fully themed versions- for a memorable “wow” factor
