Hi! This is a continuously updated version of the Topaasia® dealer's guide for the physical Topaasia card games. (Last updated 22 April 2020)
The guide covers common questions about using the Topaasia game and shares tips for playing it.

Below is a video of the latest rules for playing Topaasia:

Download the latest Crystallisation Canvas seen in the video here.

Contents of the dealer's guide:

Making use of Topaasia
-In what situations would I use Topaasia?
-Choosing when to play
-Inviting people to the game

Preparing for the game
-Downloading the Crystallisation Canvas
-Choosing the topic of the game
-Choosing the deck
-Choosing the perspective cards

The dealer's role
-Moving the game forward
-Does the dealer play along, and can the dealer be part of the team?

Playing the game
-Having the discussion
-Use of time
-Choosing the Topaasia

Crystallising the game session
-Going through the stages of crystallisation

Special situations
-1-1 discussions
-Larger groups
-Playing remotely

Other
-The basics of dialogue
-How can I share the good news of Topaasia?

Where would I use the Topaasia® game?

Depending on the industry, our customers use Topaasia® games in very different kinds of events. They are used by permanent teams (management team, sales team, etc.), project groups and other working groups, as well as people who have simply gathered around a particular topic.

Common recurring situations where it is worth using the games:

-Monthly meetings
-Weekly meetings
-As part of team/strategy/vision/development days
-Project interim meetings
-Retrospectives
-Various workshops
-Forums for continuous improvement, learning and knowledge sharing.

You can also use Topaasia games in themselves to support continuous improvement and learning, or for problem solving:

-An ad hoc game session
-As the opening programme of various workshops or development days.
-Reserve a dedicated slot in the calendar for Topaasia sessions

Choosing when to play

Choosing when to play depends a lot on the kind of situation in which the game is used to generate discussion. If you use the game as part of a recurring, ongoing routine such as monthly meetings, it may make sense to go through the recurring agenda items first and then play.

On the other hand, in various development sessions Topaasia works well at the start, because through its gamified approach it tunes people into the discussion easily and in a fun way.

If you have exactly one hour reserved, use all of it to play Topaasia on a topic that matters to you.

Inviting the players (calendar invitation template)

To make inviting people to the game easier, we have created a calendar invitation template. Feel free to use and adapt it as needed:

"Hi!

Let's hold a shared Topaasia® serious game session around the topic "WRITE YOUR CHOSEN TOPIC HERE".

In the session we will examine the chosen topic from many different perspectives. The aim is to form a shared view of the current state and to get "results in an hour", which in this case means a light action plan for moving things forward.

The game requires no separate preparation and takes about an hour.

You can see the basic idea of Topaasia here:
https://topaasia.com/topaasia-pahkinankuoressa/

best regards,

(YOUR NAME)"

Downloading the Crystallisation Canvas

The topic and outcome of a Topaasia session are crystallised on the Crystallisation Canvas. One canvas comes ready in the game package, and for future sessions you can print more:

DOWNLOAD THE CRYSTALLISATION CANVAS HERE

Choosing the topic of the game session

Before starting the game, the group chooses the topic of the session. The topic should be timely and relevant to the group playing. It is important that the topic is one the group needs to discuss and reach a conclusion on together. Choosing the topic matters so that as a team you are talking about the same things. You can also choose the topic in advance, as long as it is something worth discussing and something the group can act on.

Ready-made options for a topic:

The team's perspective

The team's development discussion
Self-direction as a team
The team's retro
The ability to work in an agile way
Collaboration between teams
General venting

The project's perspective

Steering the project
The project retrospective
The project's monthly meeting
Project success
Project communications/marketing
Identifying and preventing project risks

The perspective of a topic area (sales, customer experience, agility)

Improving/developing the topic area
Succeeding in the topic area
Learning in the topic area
Improving collaboration around the topic area

The organisation's perspective

Making operations more effective
The work community's discussion culture
The success of an organisational change
Supporting self-direction
Coping in everyday work
Use of time
Collaboration culture
Sharing competence
Sharing knowledge and developing it
Internal communications
The transformation of work
Building learning environments
How the work community functions
The ability to work in an agile way
Leadership
Strategy implementation
Culture

Choosing the deck

The Topaasia® deck you play with matters when choosing the topic. A discussion about the work community is better held with the Work Community or the General deck, than with the Customer Experience deck.

For example, with the Marketing deck it is natural to choose as the topic the marketing of a product, service, project, initiative or company.

The General deck works well for all topics as a first game, but does not dig especially deep into anything.

Choosing the perspectives

The Topaasia game has 9 possible perspectives:

3 positive perspectives (strongest, most inspiring, most important)
3 negative perspectives (weakest, most frustrating, most challenging)
3 risk perspectives (most likely risk, most serious risk, hardest risk to deal with)

We recommend playing games with 3-4 perspectives, in which case the session lasts 30-60 minutes. It is always worth including at least one positive perspective in the game.

You can choose the perspectives to play together, or you can pick them yourself in advance with a dictator's grip.
The most common combo we recommend is most inspiring, most frustrating, weakest, most important.

If you are playing in a situation where the project, initiative or team is only at the beginning, it is worth emphasising a few risk perspectives. At least the most likely and the most serious risk are good choices, and from the positive side the most inspiring.

Playing the game

The rules of the game are covered at the beginning of this article, in the rulebook and in the rules animation.

A few notes and reminders about the rules:

-players do not have to reveal the card they played. They may of course do so during the discussion if they wish.
-hand cards may be exchanged on every round, even all at once.

Having the discussion

When the players' cards have been turned over in the middle, it is time to flip the hourglass and start the discussion.
There are at least two ways to start the discussion:

Way 1) Simply start discussing the options freely
Way 2) Each player presents or justifies why they chose the card they played

Use of time

Each perspective round has a maximum of 3 hourglasses of time (9min) available. In other words, the hourglass may be flipped 2 times on each round. Some discussions take the whole time, that is, 9 minutes. Some perspectives resolve more easily in a single hourglass.

As the dealer, it is worth nudging people to notice when the sand in the hourglass has run out if none of the players does. (Usually someone does keep an eye on the hourglass). There is 3X the hourglass sand per round for the discussions, so a maximum of 9 minutes.

The dealer should also make sure the time the group has reserved for the game does not run over too much if the players start discussing eagerly.

Choosing the Topaasia

When cards have been played for the perspectives, it is time to choose one card among them that is a topic that can and should be acted on in practice. This is the Topaasia, meaning the most useful thing with the most significant impact. It should be something that is or can clearly be of benefit. It also needs to be something the players themselves can do something about in practice to help it improve.

After this comes crystallisation, meaning the Topaasia choice is worked through according to the questions on the Crystalliser Canvas

Crystallising the game session

The Crystalliser Canvas consists of defining the topic and the desired change, reflecting on challenges and opportunities, ideating solutions, deciding to do something in practice, and concrete actions.

Challenges and opportunities

In this part you define which things make developing the Topaasia topic challenging (awareness for ideating solutions) and what opportunities developing it offers (motivation to act).

Ideation

Ideation does not mean that things are being done yet. The purpose of ideation is to bring up options: all the things that could help improve the Topaasia topic.

Decision

In some situations the discussion is enough. You do not always need to go all the way to concrete actions if people's calendars are jammed or the matter at hand is especially difficult. It is still worth deciding whether you will do something or not. Choosing to act often also lifts the group's morale around the matter.

Concrete actions

When choosing an action, we recommend preferring:

-small concrete things over big things
-few actions over many. Even one action is enough.

Of course, if the group is active and can reliably deliver on what it promises itself, the group can define many actions.

An action can also be an experiment. The outcome of an experiment can be either a success or a failure. The most important thing is to find out what happens when you try, and to learn from it.

The dealer's role

Moving the game forward

If there are quieter people in the game, the dealer should (if no one else does) acknowledge them by asking:

what do you think?

One way to move the discussion forward is to narrow down the cards among the choices, that is, move some of them slightly lower and say for example "well, not this one and not this one at least". It is easier to continue the discussion with fewer options.

The best way to move the discussion forward, if it is slow to get going, is to boldly state your own opinion and open the discussion. Usually someone picks it up after a moment's reflection. If the dealer is not playing, they can also give someone the floor if the discussion does not get going:
"What do you think, XXX?"

The dealer's most important role is to make sure you keep to the schedule.

Does the dealer play along or not?

The dealer can choose whether to play along with the group. This depends partly on what the dealer's role is in relation to the playing group and how familiar the game is to the dealer.

Special situations

1-1 discussions

Topaasia can also be put to good use in 1-1 discussions, such as coaching and development discussions. We have given guidance and covered the topic further in its own article.

Playing in pairs if the playing group is 8+ people

If there are more than 8 people in the game session, we recommend playing in pairs.
This means the hand cards are dealt per pair, and the pairs discuss among themselves which card to play into the discussion on the table. For the discussion, one of the pair should be chosen as the "spokesperson" for the round.

Playing remotely

For playing remotely we have created a digital version of Topaasia.

Dialogue

Topaasia is a dialogical serious game. All the value and benefit arises in the discussion between the players. Here are a few sources on dialogue that you can use with your group if you wish.

David Kantor has defined four roles for people engaged in dialogue: mover, follower, opposer, bystander.

"Without movers, the dialogue has no direction.
Without followers, nothing gets completed.
Without opposers, no one makes corrections.
Without bystanders, the dialogue has no perspective."

Topaasia provides one of "the most important characteristics of dialogue", namely a discussion atmosphere, a "field", in which fruitful interaction can arise. The frame of the game helps create a situation where the dialogue itself starts from an equal footing.

Isaacs has pointed out that good dialogue has four rules:

Listen
Respect
Suspend
Speak directly

How can I share the good news of Topaasia?

Thank you for asking. For those interested, you can share the Topaasia in a Nutshell page , which briefly explains the idea of the game.

You can also follow us on social media:

Thank you for reading!

You can buy Topaasia games from our online store.
For tips on which decks suit your particular needs, ask our game man Jussi Galla on 040 0246626.
You can also send enquiries by email to asiakaspalvelu@topaasia.com