1. Andrew Simon
October 18, 2012
Simon Associates Management
Consultants

2. Why Every Voice Engaged? Why Budget Games?
 Meaningful Play….including games gives “permission” to
be fully creative.
 Serious Games utilizes multiple forms of intelligence
(verbal, visual, strategic) resulting in greater volumes of
information.
 Encourages collaborative behavior & shared goals.
 Collaborative play builds consensus.
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3. To Say it Another Way…
 Games involve a high level of emotion.
 Emotions help us to
Focus
Remember
Decide
Perform
Learn
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4. Play = Fools the mind
 The human brain is a pattern-making machine.
 We seek and find patterns everywhere we look.
We’re so good at it that once we find one, it can be
difficult to see anything else.
 Creating randomness is a way of fooling the mind so
that you can more easily search for new patterns in
a familiar domain.
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5. City of San Jose
 Limited dollars available due to current
recession.
 $28 Million shortfall
 Can’t be all things to all people…..need to
establish priorities.
 Budget Games conducted in 2011 and 2012.
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6. Goals of Budget Games: San Jose
 Gather input from citizens on
city’s programs and
services.
 Educate both citizen and
staff on issues, values,
roadblocks and alternatives
to city challenges.
 Provide actionable
quantitative and qualitative
citizen feedback to city’s
leaders in a non-threatening
environment.
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7. Who Participates
 Diversity critical to process
 City residents and
leaders……Neighborhood
Associations, Youth
Groups ……other
Commissions.
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8. Team Effort Requires People-Power
 City Subject Matter Experts
on hand to answer technical
questions
 Game Facilitators to explain
and manage the game.
 Game Observers to capture the
“why”.
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9. Additional Stuff
 12 to 20 items
including costs and
benefits.
 5 to 8 players at
table with limited
“dollars”.
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10. Budget Game Play and Rules
 Small “items”
 Each participant at table has a little amount of play
money.
 Can join with other allies at the table to fund certain
activities.
 Does NOT require unanimous agreement at table.
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11. Budget Game Play and Rules
 Large “items”
 Need to fund new initiatives two ways:
 New taxes.
 Current program reduction or elimination.
 Requires unanimous consent for program
reduction or tax increases.
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12. Before We Started Negotiations
 List of items ranked by each participant.
 Reason for ranking.
 Table feedback that refines an understanding.
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13. Results of individual ranking & group feedback
 11 Tables
 10 tables funded increase in library hours.
 8 tables funded major initiative thru tax increases.
 8 tables funded increased police patrols.
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14. What Happened?
 Citizens were willing to bear
consequences of tax
increases.
 Wide range of
programs….public safety was
not the only priority.
 Much more agreement than
expected.
 Built community “teamwork”.
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15. Why Budget Games Works?
 Experienced facilitators and observers
provide support and manage the
structure/process ..but not the outcome.
 In-person discussion creates dialogue
leading to a collaborative environment.
 Quantitative and qualitative feedback.
 Measurable results.
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16. Next Steps
 Understanding that every initiative can not be
funded.
 Great Neighborhoods created.
 Goes from a macro to a micro basis.
 Further builds on collaboration to shape ideas
for potential projects that are self-funded.
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