Tactical Decision Games: Developing Scenario-Based Training for Decision-Making in Distributed Teams

Motivation – Team training should reflect the increasing complexity of decision-making environments. Research approach – Guidelines for scenario-based training were adopted for a distributed setting and tested in a pilot training session with a distributed team in the offshore oil industry. Findings – Participants valued the scenario as challenging and useful, but also highlighted problems of distributed communication. The findings were used to improve the training as well as current use of the technology in the organisation. Research limitations/Implications – Although the findings are currently only based on one pilot, they provide insights for adopting scenario-based training for computer-rich, distributed settings. Originality/Value – The research extends current scenario-based training towards distributed work arrangements in high-technology settings and provides practical advice to developers and implementers. Take away message – If everyday work is computer-mediated, psychological fidelity cannot mean collocated/low-tech training; however it is worthwhile paying close attention to which aspects of technology are integrated into a training environment