Congratulations! You’re building a collaborative! Your mission is simple: work with a group of passionate, thoughtful people to solve a problem no single organisation can solve alone.
Difficulty level: Impossible
Estimated completion time: Unknown
Power: Collective Optimism
Level 1: Synchronise calendars
Your first quest seems straightforward: Find one hour when everyone is free.
Bonus Challenge: Manage global participants. “Did you mean EST or IST?”, “Your morning or mine?”
After 9.5 attempts you have 38 emails, 4 doodle polls, 11 calendar conflicts, and 1 meeting.
Level 2: Name your alliance
Error: You cannot proceed to the next quest until you have a name.
Choose one: Collaborative, Coalition, Consortium, Network, Platform, Alliance, Ecosystem.
Any choice triggers a 2 week discussion delay.
Level 3: The Shared Google Doc
Quest: To agree on a two-page concept note.
Current status: Version 34.2_FINAL_v5_REALFINAL.docx
Defeat condition: Nobody is entirely happy
Victory condition: Nobody is entirely happy
Level 4: Taking Ownership
Quest: To assign responsibilities.
The player who volunteers immediately unlocks new abilities: the meeting scheduler, the note taker, the follow-up email drafter, the keeper of the shared drive
Level 5: The Infinite Loop
By now you’ve survived calendars, terminology debates, governance discussions and Google Docs.
Surely morale must be low? Surprisingly, no! Every player still believes the mission is worth it.
And that’s why, just when you think you’ve finished the game…a message appears.
“We’re thinking of convening a new collaborative around…”
You find yourself choosing:“Happy to join.”
