- Virtual Reality Solution
EARTH-TO-MARS: AN AWARD-WINNING LEADERSHIP SIMULATOR
A Virtual Reality experience designed to develop resilience, empathy, communication and decision-making skills under a high-pressured environment.Book a Demo

Leadership Skills Put to the Test
In the heat of critical decision-making, uncomfortable or unfamiliar situations and in-the-moment negotiations – people can make mistakes.
How can leaders prepare for such scenarios? How can your business pressure-test its leaders in a safe environment?
Earth-to-Mars is a two-player virtual reality simulator designed to develop critical thinking, agility and self-awareness in a mission-critical scenario, enabling participants to reflect on and build the leadership skills that will help better prepare both themselves and their team in an ever-changing and unfamiliar world.
Using virtual reality technology and pedagogically constructed game-play, Earth-to-Mars allows the players to discover and self-identify their weak spots, empowering them to assess and strengthen their core capabilities in communication, negotiation, agility, resilience, empathy and metacognition.
Leadership Skills for a Changing World
Earth-to-Mars aims to transfer key learnings back to the workplace through diagnostic, assessment and behavioural change support. It has a unique impact measurement methodology focused on behaviours such as staying focused under pressure, persistence and rapid iteration and more.

Applicable
Earth-to-Mars was developed to put theory into practice. It helps to develop key leadership skills such as decision-making under high pressure. Staying calm is key.

Collaborative
The virtual reality environment encourages participants to work together and communicate in order to make key, mission-critical decisions. Collaboration is a must.

Flexible
Earth-to-Mars can be delivered as a stand-alone module or as part of a wider leadership or innovation development program. It's a great way to put theory into practice.

Putting Theory into Practice
Earth-to-Mars is made for two players. While one player experiences the Mars base environment in VR, their partner runs Earth’s Mission Control using their tablet’s interactive Mars Manual to provide critical guidance.
Participants encounter three different scenarios requiring them to draw upon different skills, such as clear communication, creative problem-solving with limited information, and even coping with physical disorientation. It is possible to fail one scenario but continue on to the next.
Winning the game requires the Mars player to leave the base to map the planet. Learning, however, doesn’t depend on completing the simulation, rather in how participants deal with the challenges.

Learning Objectives: Your Business Outcomes
The post-game debrief session is pivotal to ensuring both critical self-reflection and learning transfer.
Facilitators will explore different examples of scenario, situational references and thoughtful questions to debrief the game. Suggested application questions provide a springboard to help participants consider how the game experience can be applied in a business context. Upon reflection of their reactions, emotions and situational awareness, participants are ready to access the following:

Empathy
Interest in others underpins almost every aspect of people management and team development.

Communications
Leaders must know where they want to take the business – articulating the goal effectively is essential.

Decision-Making
Success is a result of key decisions. But good decision-making rests on important factors that will be explored during the program.

Resilience
Leading a business requires mental energy and physical stamina to keep going, solve problems and enable others to execute strategy.

For Leaders and Change Makers
Whereas Earth-to-Mars touches on common issues many teams would face, It was developed particularly for leadership teams in high-pressured environments.
An example are consulting and law firms facing intense client and stakeholder pressures, but it’s not limited to office professions. The game is also highly applicable to surgeons or air controllers who have to make difficult decisions with potential big consequences. We are here to help your team develop skills to further be prepared for when uncertainty and stress hits.
Delivery Options
Delivering deep and current insights into real business-relevant topics, we will help your team stay abreast of technological, political or economic trends as they happen.

As Part of a Program
Cohorts are split into small groups run by Headspring facilitators. Gameplay sessions of approximately 90 minutes are then scheduled for each group.

As a Stand-Alone Experience
Participants are divided into small groups. Once staff have completed initial training, a debrief session are scheduled for group reflection

License it for your Business
If you are from a large organisation and would like to use Earth-to-Mars in your own context, you can license it and we can train your teams on how to use it.
Trusted by global leaders
Meaningful business transformation starts from within. These are some of the clients whose businesses we’re helping to reinvent, with programmes designed to bring out the best in their people.
How we will work with you
Co-creation is one of the key principles of the Headspring approach. We don’t assume we have the answers – instead, we work with our clients to create and deliver a solution that meets its main goals and objectives. As part of this process, the next steps will include:

Book a Demo

Co-design

Bring to life
