Nice, I have used techniques like this before, but never thought of it as gaming. I guess I have traditionally thought of gaming as something that people 'win' at, but of course it can be as much about the journey as the destination to continue with your metaphor, which landed pretty well :)
Hi Luigi, the concept behind Gamestorming is pretty simple. Most meeting suck. They can be improved with a facilitator, but 99% of the time you can’t afford a facilitator, and asking someone in the meeting to do that (which often happens) really isn’t fair, because the facilitator can’t truly participate in the meeting when they are focusing half their brain on managing the agenda and the group. But when you are at home playing Monopoly you don’t need a facilitator. Why? Because games have structure. Rules, turn-taking, and artifacts like pieces, cards and a game board to keep people on track. So in Gamestorming we apply the design principles of game structure to meetings, so you can have a fun and productive meeting, with or without a facilitator.
Nice, I have been following a Dutch business that uses gamification in business, and community problem solving. Watching them, I have come up with some exciting ideas using gamified simulation to teach people how to do roles, where they need to come up to speed very quickly. Combining role play with a board game seems to have massive potential. When I was working in emergency services, we constantly used role play to learn and develop solutions and plans for a variety of unplanned events, which was incredibly powerful. It had a huge impact on our effectiveness when similar events occurred in the real world.
The concept is simple but actually doing it right in a work setting is not as easy. Many people still want to appear professional and are worried to look stupid in front of their peers.
From your experience what is the most important thing to do or say so that people feel comfortable trying something new?
I’ve always liked the squiggle bird exercise. It creates a level playing field and gets people in a fun, creative mood. https://gamestorming.com/squiggle-birds/
Cool! I have used squiggles for idea generation where people created a flip chart size squiggle together, then shared what they saw and developed ideas how this thing they saw could improve the product. They came up with some really novel ideas.
I might have another idea generation session coming up where I might try the squiggle birds. Thanks, Dave. I appreciate your comment.
Your “what can you see in the squiggles” activity might work just as well! You might try thinking of it as an icebreaker rather than just a tool for idea generation
There is a difference between game and play. While game per definition creates the winning competition and reward, the play enpowers creativity flow and play for the sake of play and for the hapiness that is created. Both work , its just important to apply them in the right setting for the right team:)
I agree Andra. The real win in business is if the game can teach people things we want them to know, but at the same time to challenge the conventional wisdom, and explore whether there are smarter ways to do things.
I am curious how you ran a DS to choose what tool to use, never thought of this use case before - hwo did u adapt it?. I am in a similar situation, and running a DS might save us tons of time.
I agree Luigi, role play is very powerful. I used role play to train my sales team back in the day.
Nice, I have used techniques like this before, but never thought of it as gaming. I guess I have traditionally thought of gaming as something that people 'win' at, but of course it can be as much about the journey as the destination to continue with your metaphor, which landed pretty well :)
Hi Luigi, the concept behind Gamestorming is pretty simple. Most meeting suck. They can be improved with a facilitator, but 99% of the time you can’t afford a facilitator, and asking someone in the meeting to do that (which often happens) really isn’t fair, because the facilitator can’t truly participate in the meeting when they are focusing half their brain on managing the agenda and the group. But when you are at home playing Monopoly you don’t need a facilitator. Why? Because games have structure. Rules, turn-taking, and artifacts like pieces, cards and a game board to keep people on track. So in Gamestorming we apply the design principles of game structure to meetings, so you can have a fun and productive meeting, with or without a facilitator.
Thanks for clarifying Dave!
Nice, I have been following a Dutch business that uses gamification in business, and community problem solving. Watching them, I have come up with some exciting ideas using gamified simulation to teach people how to do roles, where they need to come up to speed very quickly. Combining role play with a board game seems to have massive potential. When I was working in emergency services, we constantly used role play to learn and develop solutions and plans for a variety of unplanned events, which was incredibly powerful. It had a huge impact on our effectiveness when similar events occurred in the real world.
The concept is simple but actually doing it right in a work setting is not as easy. Many people still want to appear professional and are worried to look stupid in front of their peers.
From your experience what is the most important thing to do or say so that people feel comfortable trying something new?
I’ve always liked the squiggle bird exercise. It creates a level playing field and gets people in a fun, creative mood. https://gamestorming.com/squiggle-birds/
Cool! I have used squiggles for idea generation where people created a flip chart size squiggle together, then shared what they saw and developed ideas how this thing they saw could improve the product. They came up with some really novel ideas.
I might have another idea generation session coming up where I might try the squiggle birds. Thanks, Dave. I appreciate your comment.
Your “what can you see in the squiggles” activity might work just as well! You might try thinking of it as an icebreaker rather than just a tool for idea generation
There is a difference between game and play. While game per definition creates the winning competition and reward, the play enpowers creativity flow and play for the sake of play and for the hapiness that is created. Both work , its just important to apply them in the right setting for the right team:)
I agree Andra. The real win in business is if the game can teach people things we want them to know, but at the same time to challenge the conventional wisdom, and explore whether there are smarter ways to do things.
I am curious how you ran a DS to choose what tool to use, never thought of this use case before - hwo did u adapt it?. I am in a similar situation, and running a DS might save us tons of time.