The Experience
Eight civilisations. One contract. Your leaders decide who wins.
The committee divides. In every age the argument is the same: how bold to be, what to pay for certainty, and which risks to carry. Tech Tempest puts your leaders inside that argument.
A Contest, Not a Course
Executives don't learn much from being told things. They learn from decisions with consequences, made under time pressure, against rivals who want the same contract. Tech Tempest puts your leaders inside that contest: eight civilisation teams, one client, and a bid that must survive scrutiny, competition, and finally the storm.
There are no right answers, only trade-offs: how fast to scale, where to build, what to automate, which risks to price and which to avoid. The AI in the room is a tool of inquiry, prompted, questioned, verified, and overruled when the evidence demands it, which is exactly the relationship your organisation needs its leaders to model.
A Day in Tech Tempest
Hudson Hanseatic Bank is building the next generation of its digital banking, and eight civilisation teams are pitching to deliver it. These are the moments that make the day unforgettable.
Eight civilisations take their places beneath a common sun. Athens. Rome. Byzantium. Alexandria. Medici. Silk Road. Sumer. Ming. Identity makes people bolder: the cautious take risks, the quiet lead.
Role cards and capability cards spread across the table. Traded at every break, they decide who can capture value when the Tempest comes.
New York. Toronto. Mumbai. Prague. Manila. Every city a different advantage. Every decision changes the numbers.
Risks priced, alliances brokered, and the pitch delivered to the bank. The strategy is laid out, and every word now carries weight.
Laptops down, eyes to the front. From Zephyr to Typhoon, sixteen segments decide the day: the right capability cards capture value, and the right role and card together withstand the storm.
The scale tips. The contract is raised. Four phases of decisions have led to this moment, and the bank names its winner.
Every moment carries a lesson. Every phase earns its place in the day.
Set in Banking, Not About Banking
The scenario is simply the stage: what your people actually practise is the small set of capabilities every organisation runs on, whatever its industry. They work out what a demanding client really needs. They shape a strategy knowing rivals are shaping theirs. They price a decision, weighing cost against risk, quality and time, and then live with the consequences in front of everyone. They use AI as a tool of inquiry, testing and verifying what it tells them rather than taking it on faith. They pitch, defend their thinking under pressure, and adapt when the storm arrives, as it always does.
A hospital, a school, a manufacturer, a government agency and a software firm all recognise these moments, because they are the moments where every organisation succeeds or fails. The bank is fictional. The judgement is real, and it travels with you.
Two Bids, One Storm
In one recent head-to-head, the Byzantine Architects submitted a balanced bid at $85.8 million: risk priced deliberately, delivery phased, nothing left uncovered. The Roman Collegium went aggressive at $100.2 million: faster, bolder, more exposed. The room debated which the bank should choose, and the arguments ran exactly as they do in a real investment committee.
Then the Tempest arrived, and the storm revealed what each posture was truly worth. That is the moment the learning lands: risk is not a section of the bid document, it is a price you either paid or didn't.
The Cards They Collect
Sixty-four avatars, eight for each civilisation, and every one a real historical figure with a verifiable story. Your leaders claim a role at the Council, then contest capability cards all day: The Sentry flags legal, operational and reputational risk; The Merchant leads pricing and customer strategy; The Advocate crafts the message; The Oracle reads the uncertainty. When the Tempest comes, the cards a team holds decide what it captures and what it withstands.
And every avatar carries their own tempest, the storm history sent them, and what survived it. Trajan's was his body's betrayal. Cleopatra's was Actium. The lesson is the same one the simulation prices in dollars: the storm always arrives, and posture decides what it costs.
And role is only half the hand. Each role pairs with a capability card contested through the day, with the economics printed on the card: GROWTH cuts the bid price by $4 million and, paired with The Merchant, turns a $3 million PR disaster into zero. TECH does the same for delivery with the Engineer. The pairing is the strategy, and every team learns to price it.
The Oracle, The Advocate, The Sentry, The Merchant, and the capabilities they contest: six cards of the deck your teams play all day.
We Bring the Program
Facilitation by Dr John Burgin, creator of Tech Tempest, or a trained facilitator. The video narrators, the physical card system, the apps and the live scoreboard all come with the session, in formats from a conference or webinar session built around a live head-to-head, to a half-day sprint, to the full-day simulation. Your organisation provides a room with a projector, WiFi, and one laptop per player; the apps run in the browser with nothing to install. The Deployment Handbook, provided on engagement, covers the rest.
Your leaders will remember this day.
Will you be the one who brought it to them?
Book a Session
For risk, strategy, leadership and delivery teams. Pricing reflects format, cohort size and location.
Dr John Burgin · Creator of Tech Tempest® · Founder, SHIFT127