Ultimately, the lasting value of a facility like the Decisionarium isn't limited to the bottom line. Once the tough decisions have been made, the spirit of collaboration and of trust that went into those decisions grows within that team and spreads to others. But even the most productive Decisionarium won't replace the office. It's not supposed to. Would you want to work in the Decisionarium all day, every day? "Probably not," Wille says. "People need to go back to their terminals and do their own thing." But they also want to share what they've found out with the group.

"People don't want to sit in an office and have zero contact with other people," Wille says. "They want to contribute and feel valued. And not just in the Decisionarium. The need to collaborate doesn't stop when you leave the room."

Chuck Salter (csalter@fastcompany.com) is a Fast Company senior writer who is based in Baltimore. You can reach Doug Wille by email (dwille@lgc.com), or visit Landmark Graphics on the Web (www.lgc.com).

Sidebar: The Human Side of Digital Decisions

Most decisions have become team-based ones. The trouble is, most teams are teams in name only -- which means they don't get much value from powerful digital tools of the sort that Landmark provides. That's why Doug Wille, solution-development director at Landmark Graphics Corp., spends so much time thinking about the human side of digital decisions. "Encouraging collaboration is like growing an African violet," he says. "It's so easy to kill because people, like violets, are delicate." Wille offers these decision guidelines, based on his experience with the Decisionarium:

The environment should reflect the work. Before a session, Wille finds out the group's work style. Do team members need a phone for conference calls? Do they need different-colored laser pointers so several people can interact at once? Do they prefer chairs in a semicircle or in rows?

The environment should feel psychologically safe. People should be able to speak up and disagree with one another without fear of reprisal later on. Wille finds out ahead of time whether any managers plan to attend a session, along with what role they'll play -- leader, observer, or team member (which he recommends).

Let the data speak. In a small-group setting, the strongest personality tends to take over. Strong-personality types are deadly to collaboration. Landmark uses a facilitator, someone with know-how but nothing at stake. Says coo John Gibson: "We've got an environment in which you make the right decision regardless of personalities."

Deciding means learning. The best decisions are the ones from which you learn the most. A Landmark application called OpenJournal records the group's deliberation, so that today's Decisionarium session can benefit future decision makers. Throughout the session, the facilitator performs screen captures of key models, simulations, and algorithms. That person also takes notes on the group's debate, the heated exchanges, the important what-ifs. Chronicling bad decisions is just as valuable, if not more so, than chronicling good ones, Wille says.

Sidebar: Decisions Are Child's Play

At first, Darcy Cuthill simply wanted children to understand her industry. Now she wants them to experience it: to negotiate with a landowner for drilling rights; to appease a community wary of having a well in its area; to decide whether or not to drill. In other words, to play "The Oil Game." That's what Cuthill, an account executive at Landmark Graphics in Calgary, Alberta calls her creation. High-school students take on the different roles of those involved in drilling a well -- geologist, geophysicist, land negotiator, economist, and drilling engineer -- and learn what each discipline contributes. After overcoming various obstacles, the students roll the dice -- literally -- to see how successful their well is. "It's a Decisionarium for kids," Cuthill says. "The game teaches them how to be leaders in their disciplines and to work as a team. That's a subtle skill to teach. But it's what we're always talking about at Landmark -- collaboration."

Cuthill came up with the idea five years ago, while working as a geophysicist for BP Amoco PLC in Houston. She noticed that the company's annual bring-your-kids-to-work day didn't include any activities that explained to the 500 or so children what their parents actually did. So she taught them. At first, Cuthill and coinventor Paul Myers, along with two other colleagues, played the different roles themselves. Dressed in costumes and carrying rock samples, they invited the kids to participate in a treasure hunt for petroleum and, at the end, to drill for oil with straws in a dish of sand.

A couple of years after moving to Canada, Cuthill decided to revamp the game into a self-directed class project. She spent two years signing up corporate sponsors, including Landmark, for whom she began working in 1997, and developed and tested her prototype with a few hundred students and teachers. The project appealed to the oil companies and educators because high-school juniors and seniors could learn about careers in oil and gas, as well as real-world applications of geology and economics. Eventually, Cuthill believes, the game could be incorporated into Landmark's orientation for employees who are new to the petroleum industry. But her real satisfaction comes from watching students play the game. "I remember one girl saying she wanted to become an engineer, and a boy saying he wanted to become a land man," Cuthill says. "That's when it hits home: You're inspiring kids to have a career in the industry."