Decision making is a critical skill, but it needs exercising and development. You aren’t born making great decisions, and there’s always room to grow. It’s essential to practice decision making, and the best way to do that is through games.
Games are a low stakes way to work out decision-making skills. Games are fun, and they don’t have consequences in the real world, but many game strategies mimic common problem types. Whether you’re practicing for better decisions in the workplace or practicing for life, they can transform your decision making.
How Do Decision-Making Games Benefit Me?
Decision making and critical thinking are like muscles. The more you challenge your brain, the more you may be able to see the benefits of continuous “brain exercise.” They offer more benefits than just building skills.
Studies show that video gamers experience changes in the brain related to attention, for example. They’re better able to sustain attention and show physiological changes in the area of the brain responsible for attention. There’s also evidence that video games improve spatial awareness and can help gamers sustain selective attention for longer.
Some video games may also help improve the connections that make memories, and some could even help stave off the effects of brain aging. While these studies are in their infancy, there’s initial evidence that they could stave off mild cognitive impairment and may even prevent harsher mental declines like Alzheimer’s.
Strategy games may improve your cognitive flexibility, as well. People who regularly play strategy games may show better productivity skills because their brains are better able to prioritize tasks and sustain attention.
On teams, games may also improve things like productivity and morale, giving players the chance to bond, build relationships, and experience wins with brainstorming or finding solutions. Games are a classic team-building exercise and will continue to be the cornerstone of team development.
Whether you’re looking to improve your cognitive functions, build growth mindsets, or understand your team better, games can provide support. Decision-making games give you the chance to hone your skills and develop new ones, things that benefit you both in your personal and in your professional life.
What Types of Decision-Making Games Are There?
There are three basic categories of decision-making games, and they cover a range of decision-making skills. Let’s break down the three categories to give you an idea of what your options are.
Skills Based Games
Skills-based games help the player practice skills through control. The player has control over the outcomes, and as skills improve, the outcomes do as well. Players use their skills and have ways to exercise those skills.
Some skills games are simple, while others are more complex, but they all feature an arc mastery. Once there’s no more growth or improvement, the game is mastered.
Skills-based games work best with another player, and the interaction is a vital part of the game. Playing with those of more considerable skill pushes you to improve, and playing with those of lesser skill gives you the chance to teach and get into the flow.
Chance Based Games
Chance based games use nature as the opposing player. The player doesn’t have complete control over the outcome, and decision making considers the circumstances and not just the game.
Players don’t necessarily get better through pure skill, but games of chance can help the players better understand how situations can affect outcomes. That type of situational awareness helps with split-second decisions.
Both probability games and uncertainty games both introduce players to the circumstances that help in choices. So many things can influence decision making, and these games help reveal some of those situations.
Strategy Based Games
Strategy games are two or more players, and each one has some control over the outcome, but not completely. The strategy involves decision making with skill and by understanding the circumstances.
These strategy games are categorized into three different options. Cooperative games provide the chance to make decisions in a group setting. Competitive games allow you to make decisions that will happen at the expense of others. Mixed-motive games blend the two scenarios.
Strategy games provide lots of mental stimulation and give players the chance to work with a variety of factors to make decisions. They’re suitable for small groups or large teams, and even in Silicon Valley, workers understand the value of strategy games.
What Are Some Decision-Making Games?
There are plenty of decision-making games that can help you practice those skills. They fall into different categories for different skills and different ages. Whether you’re teaching your child to develop coping strategies or looking to exercise your own brain functions, there’s a decision-making game for that. Here are a few to try.
Children’s Games
It’s essential to allow children the chance to practice their decision-making skills. Here are some games that children can use to be introduced to the concepts of decision making. Games are especially useful for children because they learn well through play.
Musical Chairs
Musical chairs is a fast-paced game that allows children to make split-second decisions. They can play and read the room. In order to play, you’ll have to gather a crowd of at least four people and three chairs, plus a music master.
First, set the chairs in a circle with the seats facing outward. Everyone stands in a circle around the chairs. Play music, and everyone walks around the chair. When the music stops, everyone tries to sit in a chair. The one who doesn’t have a chair is out. The last one to be able to sit in a chair is the winner.
The purpose of the game is to read the room and make quick decisions quickly. It’s a strategy game that requires children to watch the circumstances and make decisions with only partial control over the outcome.
Tic-Tac-Toe
This is a simple game that even children can grasp. It’s also a game of strategy for children, but there are only two players.
You draw a small grid of three by three. One person is “X,” and the other person is “O.” Each person takes a turn placing their symbol in a square. If someone gets three of their symbols in a row, they win.
The games are fast and allow children many chances to refine their strategies and potentially win. They’re also easy to explain and understand, giving children the opportunity to practice without getting frustrated.
Hide and Seek
Hide and Seek is a fantastic way to practice decision-making skills. It includes split-second decisions for where to hide and long term strategy because they’ll have to look for those hiding.
The most common way to play hide and seek is to figure out one person who is “it.” That person closes their eyes and counts to ten while everyone finds a place to hide. One by one, “it” finds people, and the last person to be found is the winner.
Another fun way to play is reverse hide and seek. Everyone except one person counts to ten while that one person hides. Each person goes to find that one person. Each person joins that one person in the hiding place and the last person to join has to be the next person to hide.
Checkers
Checkers is an excellent strategy game. It’s easier for children to grasp than Chess and helps them practice making decisions that add up to long term goals. It’s fun, and the rules are easy to understand. Plus, as children play, they get better, which is rewarding.
As children move the pieces to the other side of the board, they can also understand how sacrificing some pieces gives greater wins later. This is an important element of decision making and can help children learn that not all decisions are simple.
It’s a slow decision method and allows children to think through different aspects of decisions and watch their choices unfold before them. These games provide valuable skills and teach a variety of decision-making skills.
This or That
This or that requires children to make decisions, and even more crucially, explain their choices. It begins by giving children a choice. Would you rather be an ant or an elephant? Would you rather fly or be invisible?
Children must decide this or that and then justify their decision using logic. As children think through what they’ve decided, you or other children can add opinions so that everyone gets a chance to hear different sides.
If you have the chance to make cards or you can get some, that’s a great way to play the game more easily. And the best part is that you don’t have to play it all at once. You can ask questions whenever you have a few minutes to give children lots of chances to play.
Decision-Making Games for Adults
These games are the same ideas but with a little more flair and designed to challenge the adult brain. The intent is the same, however. Give adults the chance to hone decision-making skills in a low stake environment.
Chess
The ultimate game of strategy, Chess, has been around for generations. It builds on the concept of checkers with more complex rules and millions of ways for the games to go. Chess allows you to develop skills and continue learning while adapting to different strategies from opposing players.
Games can take hours, and careful consideration shapes the way the game turns out. The game’s rules are designed to provide boundaries to the movement of the pieces, offering players the chance not only to gauge what the other player is doing but work with constraints.
If you don’t have a partner, you can also build your skills on the computer with simulations that learn your style and adapt to provide challenging gameplay.
Settlers of Catan
Settlers of Catan is a Silicon Valley favorite with gameplay matching the same ideas of entrepreneurship. The game is complex and changes with each session, allowing players to develop long term strategy skills for decisions.
You can play with two people or expand the board to multiple players. The rules are complex and encourage players to make decisions that benefit their society’s good while navigating the actions of other players.
It teaches you to analyze data quickly while neutralizing competition and the effects of other players. These skills are real-life ones that can happen in business or personal life.
You can play both as a board game and online. If you don’t have friends who like to play, you always have an outlet with online play. It’s a great chance to play long term strategy with a game that changes every single time.
Poker
Poker is another strategy game that requires players to read small signals from other players. It involves long term decision making with plenty of strategies. It’s complicated and can go in lots of different ways.
Poker is part strategy and part luck. It adds an element of complexity that allows players to manage situations while working with what luck provides. Because outcomes are determined by probability and psychology, it’s an excellent decision-making game.
If money is involved, there’s another layer of strategy. Players make bets based on expected value, a type of decision making strategy that appears in a lot of business strategies.
Spades
Spades has elements of both competition and cooperation. The game requires partners to work with each other without knowing specifically the hands they’re playing. Players need a combination of strategy, luck, timing, and psychology to win.
There are lots of strategies, and players can work with other players to learn decision making. Because luck plays a part in it, players must work with what they’re dealt with. There’s also psychological understanding involved as well.
Solitaire
Solitaire is another classic strategy game, but you only need one person. Solitaire depends on a blend of skill and luck. The game improves long view decision making. You can play with a simple deck of cards and steadily develop your strategy in spite of the random nature of the game.
Even better, if you can play on the computer when you can’t cheat, you won’t be able to undo your decisions. It provides a variety of scenarios, and you work with what you’re given, a good life skill in general.
Electronic Games
Video games are excellent strategy options for a wide variety of ages. They’re adaptable and can range from realistic to fantasy. Whether you’re looking for simulations or long-form video games, it’s an easy way to practice decision making.
Oregon Trail
One of the most classic school games of all time, Oregon Trail, led participants through a series of life or death decisions as they relived the migration west. The game allows a variety of situations to influence decisions, and the outcome will enable players to learn.
Players can get better each time they die in the game, putting together experiential learning and long term strategies. The game is fun and puts real-life issues in the game.
Sims
One of the most popular games of all time, Sims provided low stakes opportunities to make a variety of choices. As you build characters, you get to make decisions about their lives and learn how those outcomes affect the future.
If you feel like you can’t quite manage to make a wild decision with your own life, Sims can give you the chance to play out a lot of different scenarios in order to build experience. You can make decisions that you wouldn’t usually and see the results online.
Sims has a variety of offshoots, including Sim City, a game allowing you to build cities and maintain them. It provides so much chance to experiment with decisions without real-life consequences.
Team Building Decision-Making Games
Sometimes you want your organization to work better together. Decision-making games that help build team strategy are a vital part of establishing work culture.
The Shrinking Vessel
To play Shrinking Vessel, a group of people fills a defined space. Each round, the space gets a little bit smaller, and the members must figure out how to fit in the area. As it gets smaller and smaller, members must get creative for how they occupy the space.
Larger teams can compete with each other for increasingly more creative options. It allows teams to bond while also brainstorming solutions and making decisions on the fly as the situation changes.
Shipwreck (Lost At Sea)
Shipwreck is a classic strategy game in which teams decide from a list of things what would be more critical during a shipwreck. There’s even an official list from the Coastguard outlining the real importance.
The list gives managers and team members the chance to make critical decisions and reflect on them. If your team is making the decision, it can provide the opportunity for others to learn different methods of decision making.
Whether you choose to reveal the official list or you stick with allowing your team to make their own conclusions, it’s a fascinating exercise for decision making and justifying those decisions. You can find the list online.
Dumb Ideas
Some decision making involves brainstorming. For this one, the team addresses a hypothetical idea by putting out the dumbest, most ridiculous ways to solve it. Once everyone has put down their ideas, you can revisit everything to see if anything could actually be implemented.
It’s an excellent idea for decision making and allowing team members to build their brainstorming skills. It’s good for team members to build confidence and begin to understand each other better. It’s also a great way to learn flexibility in decision making.
Sometimes, decisions happen through a process of brainstorming and refining, so this is a classic exercise. It teaches adaptability and that even terrible ideas can go through a refining process to turn out as the right decisions.
How Do I Incorporate More Decision-Making Games Into Life?
If you aren’t in the habit of paying games for decision making or allowing your children to play to them, there are ways to incorporate them into your personal and work life.
After Dinner
After dinner is an excellent time to build games into your schedule. Meals bring families together, and you can extend that family time while also teaching your children decision making. Decision-making games help families bond and can benefit not only children but also the adults involved.
The best option is to stick with games that are appropriate for a variety of ages. Tic-Tac-Toe is a classic, as is checkers. You can also play cards if your children are older and can grasp more complex rules.
Family and Friend Game Nights
The idea of game night is pretty appealing, and playing a variety of games can utilize different decision-making skills. Using a series of games that allow you to practice various strategies and learn from each other.
Begin with games that allow more participation, like Settlers of Catan or Spades. You can get everyone involved or even have tournaments. You can also leave out games for people to choose and group up as they like.
If it’s a friend game night, you could suggest that each friend bring their favorite game, so everyone has a chance to take turns playing. You could also have theme nights – maybe a strategy night one night and card games the next.
Team Meetings
Once a quarter, it could be a good idea to bring your team together for brainstorming and decision-making game sessions. You may not need to do it all the time, but allowing team members to explore brainstorming and decision-making sessions with each other can be a great way to build skills and encourage bonding.
You can break up all-day strategy sessions with a few rounds of Dumb Ideas or various versions of Shipwreck. Team members have the chance to work through different problems and from each other.
You can also schedule sessions that happen for a few hours at a time if you don’t think your team members would go for all-day team meetings. Even a few hours practicing decision making and playing those games can be beneficial for overall team morality and bonding. Plus, you may get some great ideas out of the session.
Dedicate Professional Development Time
Simulation and online games could be great learning experiences for professional development. Whether it’s personal or for business, professional development could help with practicing decision making.
Your management may be able to get you access to games for decision making. If you have logical outcomes for your decision-making games, your management should be able to understand the value of your professional development.
To pitch games as professional development, you should gather information about the known benefits of decision-making skills and how certain games align with that goal. You should also have measurable outcomes from the gameplay and a logical time frame for it to happen.
If you’re the boss or team leader, you may not have to pitch the idea to your superiors, but you may have to sell them to your team. Follow the same type of structure above so everyone is on the same page about what to expect.
Work Alone
You can always play a game of solitaire on your phone instead of scrolling through social media. If you use your computer or television to wind down at the end of the day, you might use a few of those nights to play a quiet, solitary game.
You and your roommate or spouse could also take the time out of your day to play games as a way to relax or pass the time. You don’t need to throw a huge game night with dozens of people to ensure that you have time to play decision-making games.
Replacing even one mindless activity with a strategy game or a game of skill could provide long term benefits for your brain and your decision making skill.
Using Decision-Making Games To Grow
Decision-making games provide the chance for you and your friends, family, or team to exercise your decision-making muscles and experience the cognitive benefits of making decisions and brainstorming. Whether you choose games of skill, chance, or strategy, there’s a lot you can learn from games.
Games help elevate functions of the brain responsible for productivity, like sustained attention or visual skills, and can also provide a path to developing better creativity. As problems surface, the chance to focus on the issue and think about it from a different perspective could prove beneficial in making better decisions.
Working with others, whether collaboratively or competitively, opens the doors to better team relationships, and the opportunity to practice games of chance gives you the ability to work with a variety of factors outside your control. All these things are valuable aspects of making the best decisions possible.
Once you’ve determined your decision-making process, you can practice those skills in a low-stakes environment and feel more confident about your ability to make snap decisions, solve problems, and understand a challenge from a variety of angles. It’s a whole new decision-making world, and games can help you get ready.