Through the Looking Glass

In Short

Simulation revealing how leadership behaviour impacts organisational outcomes
Best for: CCL simulation exercise
Through the Looking Glass is a structured tool for coaching and facilitation. Simulation revealing how leadership behaviour impacts organisational outcomes. It provides a repeatable framework that can be adapted to individual, team, and leadership development contexts.
Type of tool: CCL simulation exercise
Expected outcomes:
- Improved ability to simulation revealing how leadership behaviour impacts organisational outcomes
- Improved capacity to decision-making style, communication effectiveness, priority setting, and how le
- A concrete action or development plan to take forward from the Through the Looking Glass process

In Detail

Through the Looking Glass is an experiential exercise designed to help coaches, leaders, and facilitators support practitioners in simulation revealing how leadership behaviour impacts organisational outcomes. It sits within the category of CCL simulation exercise, making it particularly useful for practitioners working on capability development, team performance, and individual growth in organisational settings.

In practice, Through the Looking Glass is delivered as a 5-step process. The process begins by participants are assigned roles as executives of a fictional company. The session closes by debrief: decision-making style, communication effectiveness, priority setting, and how leadership behaviours landed with. The structured approach ensures that participants move through a consistent experience while leaving room for the facilitator to adapt pacing and depth to the group's needs.

Through the Looking Glass is most effective when used to break existing patterns of thinking or interaction. The experiential format creates a low-stakes environment where participants can experiment, make mistakes, and draw direct parallels to real workplace dynamics through the debrief process.

How to Use

1. Participants are assigned roles as executives of a fictional company. 2. They receive in-trays of memos, reports, and problems to handle over a compressed time period (typically half a day). 3. Trained observers watch and take notes on leadership behaviours. 4. After the simulation, participants receive individual feedback from their observer and review the video or notes. 5. Debrief: decision-making style, communication effectiveness, priority setting, and how leadership behaviours landed with others.

Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Creates immediate, memorable experiences that accelerate learning compared to instruction alone Low-stakes environment allows participants to experiment with new behaviours safely Generates rich debrief material directly relevant to real workplace dynamics	Effectiveness depends heavily on the quality of the debrief — poor facilitation wastes the investment Some participants resist "games" as lacking seriousness, requiring careful framing Time investment in setup and debrief limits how many tools can be used in a single session

Created by Center for Creative Leadership

When to Use

This tool is suited to the following coaching and facilitation contexts:

Context	Relevant
Individual Coaching	✓
Team Coaching	✓
Leadership Development	✓
Facilitation / Workshop	✓
Online / Virtual

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