Star Trek's Kobayashi Maru puts the participant personally in command of a no-win scenario. That makes it difficult to admit that the situation cannot be won. The proposed teaching sequence begins with an abstract example in which the learner has no personal stake, allowing the problem to be recognized at a distance. A historical case follows, asking what a real decision-maker did under comparable constraints. Only after those examples does the learner enter a scenario without being told that it is unwinnable. The progression gives the learner a basis for recognizing the predicament before having to confront it in a command role.
Notable Point · 2:09:23-2:10:45
Teaching no-win decisions through abstraction and history
Abstract examples, historical cases and personal command scenarios provide a staged method for learning to recognize unwinnable situations.