The Risk Reward Challenge
Smart risks, quick thinking, collaboration
The Risk Reward Challenge is a fast-paced, high-impact simulation that throws teams straight into the action. It energises participants while putting their decision-making, risk judgement, and adaptability to the test in a constantly shifting environment. With the clock ticking, teams must walk the tightrope between bold ambition and smart control – chasing top performance while navigating curveballs, constraints, and real-world business pressures.
Built around realistic business scenarios, the experience quickly shows how attitudes to risk, quality of communication, and teamwork can make or break results. Expect big decisions, rapid pivots, and plenty of “what just happened?” moments as plans collide with reality. Along the way, teams sharpen their thinking, strengthen accountability, and learn how to stay agile when the pressure is on — leaving with practical insights they can use straight away in their day-to-day leadership and delivery roles.
How our Risk Reward Challenge works…
Teams are given responsibility for managing a simulated business operation, with the shared objective of maximising overall performance. From the outset, they must align around priorities, roles, and a clear strategy for success.
Before committing to a strategy, teams enter an R&D phase where they can explore, test, and evaluate the various risk–reward options available.
- Teams experiment with different approaches to understand potential upsides, limitations, and exposure
- Limited resources and time force teams to prioritise which opportunities to investigate
- Insights gathered during this phase inform later strategic decisions and help reduce uncertainty.
This phase mirrors real-world innovation and market testing, where informed experimentation drives smarter investment choices.
Armed with insight from R&D, teams now decide how much risk they are willing to take in pursuit of higher performance.
- Multiple strategic options are available, each offering different levels of opportunity and exposure
- Decisions must be made under time pressure and with imperfect information
- Teams must balance ambition with control, committing to a clear direction.
These choices determine the maximum level of performance the team can achieve in the next stage of the challenge.
With their strategy set, teams move into delivery mode – but with a twist. A change in stakeholder requirements introduces added complexity partway through execution.
- Teams must adapt their strategy while still operating within defined rules, controls, and tight time constraints
- New stakeholder expectations create additional priorities, trade-offs, and constraints to manage
- Success depends on clear communication, agile decision-making, and the ability to realign quickly under pressure
- Performance unfolds in real time, testing focus, resilience, and leadership.
This phase reflects the reality of shifting business priorities and evolving customer or leadership expectations.
Final outcomes reflect two critical factors:
- The quality of the team’s risk-reward decisions, and
- How effectively they worked together to execute those decisions in a more complex operating environment.
This final phase reinforces the direct link between smart strategy, strong teamwork, and real-world performance results.
A scalable solution, customisable to your needs…
Our fun and inclusive Risk Reward Challenge activity can be tailored to reflect your values and principles, your desired outcomes, and align seamlessly with your conference or away-day themes.
Based on your needs, we have versions ranging from 60 minutes to one-day in duration.
