Marks & Spencer

A sim-game designed to give line managers ‘time to think’ about their people skills 

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M&S is an iconic British brand, and an employer that attracts people who stay, often for many years.

Over time, they might rise to positions with line management responsibility, joining a global group of over 5,000 line managers who must lead and nurture teams to a consistent set of M&S values.

 
ipad image with cartoon character one
ipad images with cartoon characters
‘Growing Excellent Managers’ – is M&S’s new approach to nurturing line management skills, centring on people skills, managing a team and showing care.
 
It makes a clear connection between those skills and team morale and performance, customer satisfaction and commercial impact. This project was to be a testbed for encouraging a ‘bigger picture’ approach from line managers across M&S’s operations, and a test of how professional development was delivered, too. 

‘Growing Excellent Managers’ – is M&S’s new approach to nurturing line management skills, centring on people skills, managing a team and showing care. It makes a clear connection between those skills and team morale and performance, customer satisfaction and commercial impact. This project was to be a testbed for encouraging a ‘bigger picture’ approach from line managers across M&S’s operations, and a test of how professional development was delivered, too. 

“When we began talking about developing the people skills of our line managers I was determined to engage and involve people in a new way, breaking away from more traditional face-to-face sessions. So right from the outset I knew this would be an experiment, something we should test and build on with our line managers, and something that might succeed or fail.” 

Eva Adam, Design and Innovation Lead at Marks and Spencer 

How we worked

We took an iterative, collaborative approach. A gamified approach was a real departure for M&S. Besides, in our test group of users, none had played a sim – there was every chance this approach wasn’t going to connect! We worked in close partnership with Eva and her team, who were really determined to build and instil a new approach for L&D.

Interviewing line managers we captured real-life challenges from across M&S, building those scenarios into branching conversations, quick-fire dilemmas and priority choices. The resource will eventually form an asynchronous piece of self-serve learning, but for now it’s delivered in facilitated sessions, the digital game-play interspersed with reflection and group discussions.   

  
3 ipads with game examples on the screens
“What’s coming out of that is really interesting. The culture here is very task-oriented – people have things to do and they’re laser-focused on that. So inviting people to stop, reflect, think about their impact on someone else’s behaviour, feelings, actions marks a real change, but feedback shows us that ‘time to think’ is the most valued outcome.” 
 
Eva Adam at Marks and Spencer 

What we created

Our bespoke html solution uses a complex engine to deliver up to 100 different outcomes.

Using Twine to map and test the branching content, each route delivers rich unique feedback to guide further learning.

The game is scaffolded to enable growing complexity over three sessions of play, so we begin with branching conversations, quick-fire questions and manager dilemmas, then bring in extra pressures, like prioritisation and timely intervention. A short delay stops players answering challenges immediately, as a deliberate push towards conscious decision-making.

laptop image with cards dropping on to it with game example

A dashboard shows players their progress against the key M&S behaviours, their impact on finances, customer satisfaction and team morale, and the impact on the wellbeing and performance of their team colleagues – the non-player characters in the sim.

Rich feedback at the end of each conversation, and a summary at the end of the module, gives managers a clear sense of strengths and weaknesses.

In facilitated sessions, the sim is giving groups a great starting point for reflection and conversation.

The impact

“We’ve seen over 85% completion – which is pretty amazing given it’s not mandatory. It’s been a real discovery working through this process and it’s been great to partner with Desq who have really run with it.”

Eva Adam at Marks and Spencer 

We have also seen call volume drop to the Line Manager Advisory Service.

There has been a 39% drop in calls to the Line Manager Advisory Service (LMAS) indicating that line managers are feeling more confident to make decisions without support, or tapping into those communities created in the blended sessions. LMAS also records the topics of calls and has noted drops in calls specifically about 'people' challenges:
36% drop in calls about performance
32% drop in calls about wellbing
15% drop in calls about absences

85%
Voluntary participation

9/10
Managers would recommend

9/10
Said scenarios 'realistic'

 

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