GOOLEE : A board game that tap into your subconscious mind.
How can a person who don’t like games, because he is not good contemplate about stealing a cardboard game? That is exactly what happen to me when I played this game call Goolee. Of course, I did not steal it, but the thought did cross my mind when the inventor said we have to give it back to him because it has not gone to mass production.
The point I am trying to make is that the game is so addictive, that it is hard for you to stop. This is true even for a person like me, who never wins anything, suck at competitions and try to avoid video games not because of principles but more because of ego. So I told the inventor that I want to write a review about the game.
In this, era of technology where apps and over realistic graphic is dominating over cardboard games what make particular game particularly addictive. There is a simple reason behind it. What makes Goolee interesting is it is designed to nurture, strategic thinking, focus and problem solving. So what many other products with good copywriting claim to do that but then it turn out to be a disappointment.
Yet Goolee has it’s own history, Dr Kamarulzzamman or better known as Dr Zieman, first designed that game , it was to keep his corporate students busy during his ‘self activation’ course. It was suppose to be part of activity in his talks, but accidentally he discovered the potential of his invention.
The were an incident where a project manager’s and his team who is working on a project they stumble on a problem that nobody can solved they tried every idea in the book but still reach a deadlock. So the project manager gave up on finding a solution and start thinking about what is the worst case scenario. The worst case scenario was he loses his job. That very idea terrified him. How will he pay of his mortgage payment?
On his table was the very board, so to take his mind of he started playing with game, the objective of the game. After a while he felt a lot of calmer, but yet determined to finished the game. After a while, the answer to the problem that he was facing in his project suddenly pop ups in his mind just like that. You probably guess what kind of board game he was playing with, yes it was goolee.
He just solved a problem that a team of engineers can’t seems to find a solution to. It was like the board game has magical powers. No it has no magical powers, the board game simply do two things one is detached his problem from his emotions, secondly it forces him to focus on priorities, thirdly it guides him to take one step at the time.
Another story is about a Professor who tried the. play the game for 40 minutes and then gave up and blame the game as unsolvable.
There is a simple reason why, a Professor fail in solving that puzzle. Unlike the project managers who played Goolee to relax, the Professor was using his conscious mind to solve the puzzle, he was looking at the overall picture instead of taking one step at the time. So he was preventing subconscious mind from doing the work.
While the project managers approach the game as an object of relaxation, this open up their subconscious mind. When your subconscious mind is at work it can solve every problem that may appear to be unsolvable by people who are stuck in the noises of their conscious mind.
Dr Zieman says that wants everyone in the world to have access to the board game and thus open up the opportunity to anyone in the world to become agent to sell the board game.
In my humble opinion after years studying and interviewing great people, I personally think that this is a board game that every house should have.
