Games Engineers Play Workshop
An entertaining and insightful exploration of the social dynamics in engineering teams
Only *£775 + VAT for a fun and insightful workshop exploring patterns of social interaction.
*A 60-minute online session for up to 25 participants.
Social dynamics are complex. Our relationships are difficult to understand and navigate. When it was published in the 1960’s, Eric Berne’s book ‘Games People Play’ became a best-seller as it humorously shines a light on the psychology of human relationships.
The book explores our social interactions as games with titles such as:
“See What You Made Me Do”
“Now I’ve Got You, You S.O.B”
“Kick Me”
“If It Wasn’t For You”
“Why Don’t You…, Yes But”
“Let’s Pull A Fast One On Joey”
“I’m Only Trying To Help You”
These are the colloquially named dramas of social life where we fall into what Berne calls ‘Parent’ or ‘Child’ ego states. We interchangeably play the victim, the persecutor and the rescuer in the subtle dynamics of social relationships in families, work and life in general.
In the Engineering Games Workshop, we take a fun look at how these games play out in engineering ecosystems and what we can do to have more Adult-to-Adult relationships.
What’s included in the workshop?
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Intro Talk
An introductory talk about the book ‘Games People Play’ and the ‘Parent-Adult-Child’ model of Transactional Analysis as a way to understand social dynamics
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Engineering Games
An entertaining and enlightening look at the kinds of game dynamics that prevail in engineering teams. How to spot them and be aware of when we are unwittingly playing games
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Takeaway Tools
Applying the simple ‘Parent-Adult-Child’ model to everyday social situations in engineering teams to find our way back to rational Adult-to-Adult interactions.
“A brilliant, amusing and clear catalogue of the psychological theatricals that human beings play over and over again”
- Author Kurt Vonnegut on the book ‘Games People Play’
Understanding ourselves and our relationships
Team dynamics are difficult to manage. Everyone acts according to patterns they’ve learnt through life, often in automatic ways which are dysfunctional, both for their own well-being and the effectiveness of those around them.
Human relationships are the delivery mechanism for software, and we cannot be better engineers than we are as people. The Engineering Games Workshop is a light touch approach to surface the deep bonds between us and to help us begin to form better Adult-to-Adult relationships.
Ask us about the Engineering Games Workshop
If you’re interested in running the Engineering Games Workshop for your team, drop us a line.
Prefer to talk?
Book a call directly
Resources
To find out more about the therory behind the book ‘Games People Play’ and how this may manifest in software engineering environments read the article on our substack.
