This is a short story about gälliwashere's three-year history and what has been done in that time and why. You will also get answers to the questions "where do the names Gälliwashere and Topaasia come from?" and "Where did you get this idea?"
was the question Jussi and I set out to explore in the autumn of 2014. The starting point was a desire to create conversation between people, or to put it more elegantly, dialogue about people's work and the habits, perceptions and culture connected to it. We thought that perhaps a board game could be a good way to create shared dialogue in a fun and engaging way compared to a PowerPoint show or a flip chart and post-it marathon. At the Protomo incubator of the time we built a prototype of the board game, and its theme became piracy and an archipelago adventure. (A less glorious candidate for the game's theme was Three Star Brand, an adventure with a brandy-sipping Brand Fairy. The wordplay between brand and brandy was strong.)
The hand-made prototype of the first Topaasia board game.
We had just read Parantainen's Tuotteistaminen (Productisation), and inspired by it, this fine board game needed an outrageous promise. It went like this: ”a board game that delivers better results in four hours than a marketing consultant does in a month”. Despite the bewilderment and laughter (or with their help), many kind people welcomed us and wanted to see this game, which had been christened Topaasia: a 4-hour board game for a company's leadership team. Topaasia was sold as a four-hour game session that we facilitated, so the game did not stay with the customer after the session.
gälliwashere Oy was founded in November 2014. From then on we sold, ran and developed the board game, and during 2015 we played with around 30 client companies, most of them leadership teams of companies of various sizes. In smaller firms we played with the whole crew (fewer than 30 people). Feedback to the question ”perceived benefit relative to the time spent?" was mostly excellent (ratings from around 200 people averaging 4.2 on a scale of 1-5). As the outcome of the game, the most important development areas, or matters of the moment, were prioritised based on the discussions, and an action plan was created for this top matter. Top issue. Topasia (this would not do as a name since it belongs to a large logistics company, so). Topaasia. -mind blown-
The Topaasia board game, version 2.0
The ”washere” part of the company name came about when Jussi, while studying at Tiimiakatemia, had enthusiastically had ”Gallawashere” stickers printed, which were meant to be spread around the globe on a round-the-world trip. ”gälli” is a combination of the founders' surnames, Galla and Häll.
Here is a picture of the artwork in question, after which the story continues:
Many of our customers asked for the same playful ease, but with strictly business content, packed into something shorter than four hours, so the game could be played more often than just on development or strategy days. From this idea we started building the Topaasia card games. With hindsight one could also note that the products could have been given different names, as this caused some confusion in the second year.
The first Topaasia card games were about sales and marketing, because we were told that most of the problems and development needs of Finnish SMEs were in sales and marketing. We concluded, however, that even though we know a little about sales and marketing, we needed tougher professionals to create the game content with us, since the topics would be explored at a more detailed level than in our board game. We did get help from brilliant experts in their fields, and our first games were the marketing and sales themed Marketing Health Check and Sales Aid Kit, later renamed Topaasia - Sales and Topaasia - Marketing.
Product development with the Topaasia® card games has been long-term, and there have been close to a few hundred different iterations of the game. If customer-driven product development interests you in more detail, have a read of the blog post we wrote about the card games, 5 lessons from 1.5 years of product development. The Topaasia® - Sales game
Today there are Topaasia® decks for many different topics such as customer experience, lean, agility, the work community, and so on. We have also created the so-called ”General deck”, a versatile Topaasia deck that we recommend as the game for your first session. See all the decks and the partners who created the content with us here.
The Topaasia card games are used in many different contexts: in software teams' retrospectives and various development meetings, in clarifying a team's own problems, as part of participatory strategy work, as a work community assessment tool, and so on. We have found that the game makes it easy for people to start talking about the things that matter to them. Many customers have said that the game has helped them ”clarify direction and create shared understanding”. There are now over 200 client companies playing the card games. The feedback and references have been abundant and constructive, and you can read more about our customers' experiences here. Below is a taste:
With the help of our customers we have identified and learned to name the following problems:
1. There is no time for the team's development discussions
2. The shared direction is momentarily lost
3. We are stuck and need new perspectives
4. We do not give and receive enough direct feedback
In a nutshell, Topaasia® brings a solution through a method that quickly guides different kinds of people to the matters that are meaningful to them. In practice, facilitation without a facilitator. Or a team coaching itself.
gälliwashere and the Topaasia games are 3 years old, but surely this story is only beginning. Stay in the loop by following us on social media and/or joining our email list, where we irregularly share the most important news, customer stories, blogs and additions to our offering. You will find the social media and email list links at the end of this story.
You can also buy Topaasia® games directly from our brand new online shop. And of course you can also get in touch just because, contact us.
Oh right, vision, mission and values?
The question that has long guided our internal work has been ”how would the world's largest consulting company operate without a single consultant?”. Indeed, our first business cards and roll-ups read "The world's largest consulting company without any consultants - to be."
The mission is to create the best service and the best products for teams for creating, clarifying and staying on a shared understanding and direction.
We have not crystallised our values. They lean strongly towards dialogue, shared understanding, and something about a belief in people's ability and desire to learn. In our customers' words, we are "creative, persistent and extremely service-minded".
The vision is something in between. Perhaps it will still be understood.
”Could playing a game lead to better meetings?”
was the question Jussi and I set out to explore in the autumn of 2014. The starting point was a desire to create conversation between people, or to put it more elegantly, dialogue about people's work and the habits, perceptions and culture connected to it. We thought that perhaps a board game could be a good way to create shared dialogue in a fun and engaging way compared to a PowerPoint show or a flip chart and post-it marathon. At the Protomo incubator of the time we built a prototype of the board game, and its theme became piracy and an archipelago adventure. (A less glorious candidate for the game's theme was Three Star Brand, an adventure with a brandy-sipping Brand Fairy. The wordplay between brand and brandy was strong.)
The hand-made prototype of the first Topaasia board game.
We had just read Parantainen's Tuotteistaminen (Productisation), and inspired by it, this fine board game needed an outrageous promise. It went like this: ”a board game that delivers better results in four hours than a marketing consultant does in a month”. Despite the bewilderment and laughter (or with their help), many kind people welcomed us and wanted to see this game, which had been christened Topaasia: a 4-hour board game for a company's leadership team. Topaasia was sold as a four-hour game session that we facilitated, so the game did not stay with the customer after the session.
gälliwashere Oy was founded in November 2014. From then on we sold, ran and developed the board game, and during 2015 we played with around 30 client companies, most of them leadership teams of companies of various sizes. In smaller firms we played with the whole crew (fewer than 30 people). Feedback to the question ”perceived benefit relative to the time spent?" was mostly excellent (ratings from around 200 people averaging 4.2 on a scale of 1-5). As the outcome of the game, the most important development areas, or matters of the moment, were prioritised based on the discussions, and an action plan was created for this top matter. Top issue. Topasia (this would not do as a name since it belongs to a large logistics company, so). Topaasia. -mind blown-
The Topaasia board game, version 2.0
"Where does the name gälliwashere come from?”
The ”washere” part of the company name came about when Jussi, while studying at Tiimiakatemia, had enthusiastically had ”Gallawashere” stickers printed, which were meant to be spread around the globe on a round-the-world trip. ”gälli” is a combination of the founders' surnames, Galla and Häll.
Here is a picture of the artwork in question, after which the story continues:
“Could playing get you truly good meetings, in a fun and efficient way, in half an hour?”
Many of our customers asked for the same playful ease, but with strictly business content, packed into something shorter than four hours, so the game could be played more often than just on development or strategy days. From this idea we started building the Topaasia card games. With hindsight one could also note that the products could have been given different names, as this caused some confusion in the second year.
The first Topaasia card games were about sales and marketing, because we were told that most of the problems and development needs of Finnish SMEs were in sales and marketing. We concluded, however, that even though we know a little about sales and marketing, we needed tougher professionals to create the game content with us, since the topics would be explored at a more detailed level than in our board game. We did get help from brilliant experts in their fields, and our first games were the marketing and sales themed Marketing Health Check and Sales Aid Kit, later renamed Topaasia - Sales and Topaasia - Marketing.
Product development with the Topaasia® card games has been long-term, and there have been close to a few hundred different iterations of the game. If customer-driven product development interests you in more detail, have a read of the blog post we wrote about the card games, 5 lessons from 1.5 years of product development. The Topaasia® - Sales game
Today there are Topaasia® decks for many different topics such as customer experience, lean, agility, the work community, and so on. We have also created the so-called ”General deck”, a versatile Topaasia deck that we recommend as the game for your first session. See all the decks and the partners who created the content with us here.
The Topaasia card games are used in many different contexts: in software teams' retrospectives and various development meetings, in clarifying a team's own problems, as part of participatory strategy work, as a work community assessment tool, and so on. We have found that the game makes it easy for people to start talking about the things that matter to them. Many customers have said that the game has helped them ”clarify direction and create shared understanding”. There are now over 200 client companies playing the card games. The feedback and references have been abundant and constructive, and you can read more about our customers' experiences here. Below is a taste:
With the help of our customers we have identified and learned to name the following problems:
1. There is no time for the team's development discussions
2. The shared direction is momentarily lost
3. We are stuck and need new perspectives
4. We do not give and receive enough direct feedback
In a nutshell, Topaasia® brings a solution through a method that quickly guides different kinds of people to the matters that are meaningful to them. In practice, facilitation without a facilitator. Or a team coaching itself.
“What now?”
gälliwashere and the Topaasia games are 3 years old, but surely this story is only beginning. Stay in the loop by following us on social media and/or joining our email list, where we irregularly share the most important news, customer stories, blogs and additions to our offering. You will find the social media and email list links at the end of this story.
You can also buy Topaasia® games directly from our brand new online shop. And of course you can also get in touch just because, contact us.
Oh right, vision, mission and values?
The question that has long guided our internal work has been ”how would the world's largest consulting company operate without a single consultant?”. Indeed, our first business cards and roll-ups read "The world's largest consulting company without any consultants - to be."
The mission is to create the best service and the best products for teams for creating, clarifying and staying on a shared understanding and direction.
We have not crystallised our values. They lean strongly towards dialogue, shared understanding, and something about a belief in people's ability and desire to learn. In our customers' words, we are "creative, persistent and extremely service-minded".
The vision is something in between. Perhaps it will still be understood.
PS.
If you are still pondering the meaning of life, you will find it here.