This video found on YouTube is a nice example of effective adaptation to (unexpected) change.
The story reported by Jim Carroll, an expert on innovation and creativity, shows how a squirrel deals with the introduction of some highway signs onto its path.
A certain level of frustration is part of each game - not succeeding too easily to achieve one’s goal, being disappointed with the progress, realizing that other groups are doing much better, that our assumptions and efforts don’t have the impact we expected, etc.
In EIS, frustration can emerge pretty fast, as teams realize quickly that implementing their strategy is not as easy as they might have expected, and that blocking factors (e.g. gatekeepers like the good Cynthia) can make things hard from the very beginning. And finally, particularly for successful managers, it is not always easy to accept to end their interventions with just a couple of adopters (rather than the 22 they were supposed to convince).
BEFORE the session I typically “prepare” a bit the participants when introducing the simulation scenario, emphasizing that what we have here is a really difficult situation (like setting up very difficult and extreme weather conditions for experienced pilots using flight simulators - otherwise they would find it boring): The type of innovation (the EIS) can be easily perceived as threatening, the target company is very successful (no ‘dissatisfaction with the status quo’) and the change agents cannot use authority (e.g. they cannot fire anybody or so).
DURING the session I tend to move around and encourage teams never to give up. Sometimes I also give them some hints (I have somewhere a list of what I typically do DURING a session, and I will upload it one of these days).
AFTER the session, when participants come back, typically I start the debriefing by asking the teams if they found the experience frustrating. The typical response is ‘Yes, a bit. But it was realistic, and also fun.” If some individuals look a bit depressed I typically tell them that frustration (productive dissatisfaction) is a very powerful stimulus for good learning, and that therefore they should be happy, and also consider that this experience was totally risk-free (unlike what happens in companies). And then I start the debriefing session.
Any experiences on how to deal with frustration and turn it into a positive experience?
Tomorrow I am flying to Stockholm for a session that my Swedish friends have organized with 60 executives (see www.alphaexperiences.com ). Hope not to have to deal with too much frustration 
A couple of videos done by professional facilitators within the Scottish Government (where they use the simulations successfully since years):
Facilitators and Participants Experiences with the EIS Simulation
Deployment Experiences within the Scottish Government
Welcome!
A number of facilitators using the EIS Simulation have proposed to start a Blog to share experiences and Q&As related to the deployment/facilitation of simulations in different contexts. So, here it is. I will start by contributing with a couple of hopefully relevant links.