Leading experiences for groups with the En-ROADS simulation model can be a rewarding way to engage people around climate change solutions.
Becoming an effective facilitator of the En-ROADS Climate Workshop or Climate Action Simulation takes significant preparation. With the resources below, we are happy to support you to learn about the En-ROADS simulator and facilitation techniques. There are many others around the world, like you, taking these steps too – welcome to the community!
Join our Training Webinars
Join others for this series of webinars that cover how to run the game or workshop, how the simulator behaves, and how to facilitate a group skillfully. The overall series includes seven one-hour webinars. (7 hours)
Read the Guides & Explore Materials
Read through the En-ROADS user guide to improve your understanding of the model’s dynamics, and then begin exploring the simulator itself. After this, learn how to lead the workshop or game with the facilitator guides which walk you through key concepts — from preparation and room setup, to sample scripts and debrief techniques.
Workshop Materials
Game Materials
See Other Facilitators In Action
It can be helpful to learn facilitation approaches and simulator dynamics by watching others, either in-person or via recordings from previous sessions. We plan to add more up-to-date recordings over time, but here are a few to get you started:
The En-ROADS Climate Workshop
Drew Jones presents the En-ROADS Climate Workshop to members of the Sierra Club
The Climate Action Simulation
Watch an early pilot version of the game we ran in Asheville, North Carolina, USA
Explore more En-ROADS videos
Practice
Spend time experimenting with the model to make sure you can explain the dynamics when you are presenting to groups. We suggest creating at least thirty scenarios in En-ROADS and as you move sliders practices explaining the behavior to yourself and consult the En-ROADS user guide to understand it deeper. Lead a practice game or workshop for a group of friends and ask for their feedback.
Additional Readings
Check out these resources to improve your understanding on systems thinking, climate science, and other topics to complement your facilitation training.
Systems Thinking and Climate Action
• The Climate Leader course — our series of videos about applying systems thinking to climate action
• “Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System” by Donella Meadows – an essay on the areas of a system where there is the most impact.
• “The Power of Multisolving for People and Climate” — TEDx talk by Dr. Elizabeth Sawin
Climate Change Science
• IPCC AR5 Summary — a condensed, over-arching summary of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) for Policymakers
• IPCC Special Report — a summary for Policymakers on the impacts associated specifically with global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels
• Executive Summary of the US National Climate Assessment (for US audiences) — an in-depth report on the present and future impacts of climate change in the United States
• Climate Interactive’s Climate Scoreboard — shows the progress that the national plans submitted to the UN climate negotiations will make in mitigating climate change
• Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) — a general background on carbon capture and sequestration technologies
• Carbon Removal — a general background on carbon removal technologies
Climate Change Communication
• Yale’s Program on Climate Change Communication — explore their research to better understand how climate communication relates to attitude and behavioral changes
• Skeptical Science’s “cheat sheet” — how to talk to climate deniers and combat climate change myths
Read Our Published Papers on World Climate
• WORLD CLIMATE: A Role-Play Simulation of Climate Negotiations — a published view on our role-playing, climate negotiations game, the World Climate Simulation
• Combining role-play with interactive simulation to motivate informed climate action: Evidence from the World Climate simulation — a publication exploring our approach of using gaming to encourage participants to learn for themselves and motivate climate action
• Climate Interactive: the C-ROADS Climate Policy Model — an overview providing insights on C-ROADS model structure
More on Systems Thinking
• Thinking in Systems by Donella Meadows — a book which dives deep on the grounding principles and applications of systems-thinking, and demonstrates how you can use these skills to problem solve in many different contexts
• The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization by Peter Senge — through this book, learn essential theories of systems-thinking dynamics and group problem solving in the context of organizational improvement