Be Connected and the Psychology of Werewolf: Lessons for Public Procurement
At first glance, public sector procurement and the Russian social deduction game Werewolf may seem unrelated. One is a data-driven platform designed to enhance collaboration and transparency in procurement, while the other is a psychological game of trust, deception, and strategy.
But beneath the surface, Werewolf offers fascinating insights into decision-making, group dynamics, and risk management—all of which are critical to effective procurement.
By exploring the principles behind the game, we can uncover valuable lessons for collaborative procurement, risk mitigation, and supplier negotiations—as well as highlight a fundamental gap in UK public procurement: the centralisation of critical data without a structured distribution system.
What is Werewolf? A Psychological Game of Trust and Strategy
In Werewolf, players are divided into two groups: the villagers (who must identify and eliminate the werewolves) and the werewolves (who secretly deceive and eliminate the villagers).
The game revolves around persuasion, strategic alliances, and incomplete information. Every round, players must make decisions with limited visibility, leading to trust dilemmas, suspicion, and power struggles.
This dynamic mirrors the challenges of procurement—where decision-makers often work with fragmented data, information gaps, and competing interests.
The Psychological Parallels Between Werewolf and Public Procurement
1. The Challenge of Information Asymmetry
In Werewolf, the werewolves know each other’s identities, while villagers must rely on limited evidence and deduction.
In public procurement, suppliers often have better visibility into their own capabilities, pricing strategies, and risks, while procurement teams must make high-stakes decisions with limited, delayed, or incomplete data.
✅ How Be Connected Helps:
- Real-time procurement intelligence: By providing live contract data, supplier insights, and procurement trends, Be Connected reduces uncertainty and enables smarter decision-making.
- Benchmarking: Procurement teams can compare contracts, identify cost inefficiencies, and mitigate risk through data-driven insights.
2. The Power of Collaboration vs. Individual Gain
In Werewolf, villagers must work together, share insights, and form alliances to identify the werewolves. However, individual fears and misjudgments can lead to poor choices, false accusations, and missed opportunities.
Similarly, procurement should be collaborative across government departments, but siloed decision-making and lack of data-sharing often prevent public sector teams from achieving the best value.
✅ How Be Connected Helps:
- Inter-agency collaboration: Our platform enables cross-departmental procurement visibility, ensuring government bodies align their strategies and avoid redundant spending.
- Shared intelligence: With access to a centralised contract register and supplier performance metrics, teams can work together rather than in isolation.
3. The Centralised Data Problem: Procurement Without a Distribution Mechanism
One of the biggest weaknesses in UK public procurement is that critical procurement insights are often held centrally—but not distributed effectively.
Currently, procurement organisations at the national level collect and store vast amounts of spending data, contract details, and supplier information, yet this intelligence is not actively shared across government departments, local authorities, or other public sector verticals.
This creates several risks:
- Procurement professionals are forced to work in the dark, leading to suboptimal contracts and missed cost-saving opportunities.
- Maximum value for money is not achieved due to a lack of visibility, benchmarking, and competitive insights.
- Public sector organisations remain vulnerable to poor supplier choices, duplicate spending, and inefficiencies simply because they do not have access to actionable data.
✅ How Be Connected Helps:
- Decentralised access to procurement intelligence: Instead of data being locked within a central body, Be Connected ensures that every procurement professional, across every government vertical, can access the insights they need.
- Empowering procurement teams with live, actionable data: No more blind decision-making—every department gains the visibility required to negotiate better contracts, track supplier performance, and align strategies.
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4. Deception and Risk Management
In Werewolf, deception is the key to survival for the werewolves. They exploit gaps in reasoning, create uncertainty, and manipulate decisions to stay undetected.
In procurement, deception isn’t always malicious, but lack of due diligence, overpromising by suppliers, and hidden costs can have serious consequences. Recognising red flags and proactively managing risks is crucial.
✅ How Be Connected Helps:
- Supplier risk assessments: By analysing contract history, spending patterns, and supplier performance, procurement teams can avoid unreliable vendors and negotiate with confidence.
- Predictive analytics for risk mitigation: AI-powered insights help spot potential contract risks before they become costly mistakes.
Final Thoughts: From Werewolf to Public Procurement
The game of Werewolf highlights key psychological and strategic challenges that also exist in public procurement:
✔️ Managing information asymmetry
✔️ Fostering collaboration over competition
✔️ Identifying and mitigating risks
✔️ Making high-stakes decisions under pressure
✔️ The dangers of centralised, undistributed intelligence
Just as villagers in Werewolf must use pattern recognition, logic, and teamwork to win, procurement teams need actionable data, transparency, and strategic collaboration to maximise public value.
This is exactly where Be Connected comes in—empowering procurement professionals with the tools they need to break free from outdated, siloed systems and make smarter, more transparent decisions.
📌 Want to see how Be Connected transforms public procurement?