With a myriad of hypothetical problems faced by all businesses and a holistic exploration of the internal and external environment, Leadership Chronicles serves up a valuable opportunity for leadership teams to develop their team dynamic while proactively solving problems they will almost certainly face together at some point or another during the natural course of their business journey.

So, get ahead of the game, grow as a team, and future proof your business with a regular serving of Leadership Chronicles.

To coincide with each Show and Tell episode, Darren will be making the featured deck FREE for 30 days. So don’t forget to keep coming back to see what the featured deck of the month can do for you.

Free to use as often as you wish for 30 days from the date this Show ‘n’ Tell drops (until 30th June) (access via the ipsodeckso.com free membership option).

This month (June) only – this offer also includes the previous decks featured on Show & Tell too – The Coaching Spectrum Deck, The Sanctuary Deck and the Johari Go! Deck.

Ipsodeckso is a platform which is going to be of considerable interest to facilitators and coaches. It contains a number of great decks already, but also includes the capability for you to upload and use your own cards, for use on the same platform.

Show & Tell videos will all accumulate at the Show & Tell Page as they are published. You can also check out one of Darren’s games, ‘The Walking Dead’ which featured in a Ludogogy live play session.

If you would like to appear in a Show & Tell episode, get in touch at info@ludogogy.co.uk

The post Ipsodeckso – Leadership Chronicles Deck first appeared on Ludogogy.

Brian Cant’s Dialectic

For international readers, or those of a fresher vintage than the authors, Brian Cant (no relation of Immanuel) presented a children’s television programme, along with guests including Jeremy irons in his pre-Pentaverate youth.

P-L-A-Y, P-L-A-Y… it made for a good theme song, at least. But when playfulness is confused for childishness, things get tricky, not least in conversations with Human Resources. So we set out to apply Ekvall’s insights in a way which business could make use of. Surely, we thought, that couldn’t be too much to ask.

We Need a Landscape – Call a Constable!

John Constable, preferably – but more about art therapy anon. Our adaptation of Ekvall’s findings set out to identify the key dimensions of what we call Creative Climate, a quality so closely related to Ludogogy’s founder calls Landscape that we’re not going to argue about it. The nature of the landscape and the clemency of the climate do tend to define the success of a day in the Great Outdoors, so it seems fair to identify as kindred spirits. What we soon found was that Creative Climate could be not only measured, but improved – and when the experience of measurement and change is delivered playfully, it works even better. If you’re curious enough to digest the full logic, there’s even a book about it called Creative Climate Change, but we’re not contributing here just to sell more copies so let’s share a summary to get started with.

What Gets Measured Gets Done – but whodunit?

The assumed consensus these days seems to be that ‘gamification’ is good while ‘gaming the system’ is bad – but maybe it’s the same human trait reflected in subtly different ways. We found that some previous attempts to gauge team culture, such as surveys, had been of limited use due to a tendency to tell visiting consultants what the boss wanted to hear. So we anonymised our scoring process, which immediately removed the ‘who said that?’ distraction while also making room for a bit of constructive competition. Our self-scored tool produces a spider’s web diagram and, when compared to that of an ‘ideal’ or high-performing team, leads to the temptation to show ‘em what we’re made of. In practice, gamesmanship thus introduced itself into the Creative Climate Change model without having to be invited – and we anonymised the team self-scoring process to avoid that become too much of a distraction. But the spider’s web usually proved informative, and once those spinnerets got pumping, the fun could really begin.

The Eye Of The Spider

Organisational Development folk sometimes talk about the difference between deficits based and strengths-based models of improvement. In helping teams to make sense of their spider’s web outputs, we found neither extreme useful; one gets people’s backs up while the other leads to excessive back-slapping. What does seem to work well is looking at the dimensions as a recipe rather than a list of ingredients – for a team to be successful, it needs to get the mix right.

All the Right Notes, but not Necessarily in the Right Order…

How playfulness interacts with other dimensions is often very instructive. To take a hypothetical case (because it’s rarely quite this simple), a team which scored high on Playfulness but rock bottom on Idea Time and Idea Support could well be frittering much of its time at the office ping-pong table and very rarely producing anything of real value. Yes, play is desirable in and of itself – but to really get something from it which will benefit the bottom line, a structure of positive habits is required. Fortunately, those habits can all become games too.

Surfacing the Submarine

Good ideas are often lurking just below the surface, and ‘idea liberation’ can be promoted quickly through a combination of freedom, risk-talking and playfulness itself. We know of several techniques to promote that, one of the most well-received being – wait for it – a card deck! As devoted music fans we’ve always been drawn to Brian Eno’s ‘Oblique Strategies’ method – if it’s good enough to unblock creativity for David Bowie why shouldn’t we play too? It works remarkably for teams trying to innovate in bureaucratic or highly formal organisational cultures, where the random element of the deck cuts-through staid group-think, as well as generating a little laughter along the way (which is also great for getting creative juices flowing). “Mechanise something idiosyncratic”, for instance, is guaranteed to raise a chortle or two – and might accidentally distil your USP for wider use.

All Time is Relative – Lunchtime, Doubly So

Idea Time is an important dimension in Ekvall’s concept, and therefore in ours too. Much has been made of structural solutions, from Fed-Ex Days for creative tinkering to Lockheed’s skunk works, but where there isn’t yet C-suite permission for such radical methods it’s still possible to get almost as far – by making a game of it. We backed-up Creative Climate Change with a ‘periodic table’ of change techniques, so there are plenty of games to choose from, but one of the most immersive is the full-on role-play experience of Synectics. It certainly involves ample idea Timer, of necessity, but creating a metaphor for a business problem then riffing on themes surfaced by random (or are they?) stimuli is also a lot of fun – and, often to the surprise of PMOverseers and Prince-wallahs, it usually solves thorny problems a whole lot better than any number of Gantt charts could.

Without Visible Means of Support

Idea Support is a term which we have found has to be used with some care; if it looks like there isn’t enough, it can seem a criticism of the team manager. But it really is not just the boss’s responsibility; supporting the introduction of new ideas is a task for the organisation as a whole, and culture may need to evolve for this to happen meaningfully.

By this point, it might not be entirely surprising to learn that games can be part of the answer. But we’ve saved the best for last. In a workplace culture which views fresh ideas with a scepticism bordering upon phobic, laughter is not just desirable –it’s essential. So when Idea Support runs low, amongst the many responses available is the near legendary game of Reversals. The opening phase of this game is a riot of creativity, inviting as it does suggestions as to how we can completely screw-up the reputation, profitability or actual future of the business. You might accidentally write a new episode of The Thick Of It as a result. The second phase takes all the identified destructive factors and turns them on their heads, generating development options so easy to support that only a complete loser would demur. If you haven’t tried it before, you’ll be amazed at how well it works.

Wanna play?

The post Play with a Purpose first appeared on Ludogogy.

The simple definition of culture is the way companies do things -it is the feel, the smell and the vibe you get when you walk into an environment of an organisation. Cultural change is deeply behavioural, if you want a new culture, it means you have to define a new way of being. Changing an organisational culture starts with changing individual behaviour – it has the daunting task of surfacing embedded beliefs and identity that inform the combined habits and collective behaviour.

This article will outline how a transformational game was a powerful tool in a cultural change initiative for a large international mining organisation. We will outline how it fitted and supported other change elements and the benefits derived from applying this approach.

When we consider this type of change, our starting points is to distinguish between diagnostic and dialogic approaches to organisational change.  A diagnostic perspective is very appropriate when you do something that’s being planned – you know what the outcome is going to look like. An example may be the introduction of new technology and its adoption, there is a clear path to get buy-in, education and ultimately use.

Deep behavioural change requires a more dialogical approach, it is about constructing meaning and eliciting a new identity within the organisation. It seeks to challenge the status quo and ultimately a new way of “being” emerges which influences values and behaviours across the organisation. A dialogic change has an broad “end state” however the tempo and how the organisation is going to get there is not exactly defined and planned, furthermore the stakeholders inform the meaning of the end state.

Cultural change within a large mining organisation

A large, multi-national mining organisation embarked on a cultural change journey, with the intent to align its strategic intent with a cultural intent of significance, espousing a leadership style, values and employee engagement and shifting the culture from one of surviving to that of thriving. The 14 elements of the ideal culture were categorised into three pillars of:

(i) Leadership Values  consisting of personal leadership, serving and supporting leadership, inspirational leadership and significant and Ubuntu leadership

(ii) Core Values of Safety, Accountability, Care and respect, Integrity, Collaboration and Innovation

(iii) Engagement Values  from personal, team, job and organisational engagement

Each value was underpinned by a series of behaviours, with definition of how each would be demonstrated across all levels of the organisation.

How do you embed this change across multiple levels within an organisation of 25,000 people in dispersed locations speaking various languages ? When faced with this challenge, it was acknowledged that an innovative approach was required to work in an African context. These constraints led to finding a solution to enable a change dialogue with limited number of skilled change facilitators and which also could resonate with a diverse workforce. In this article we briefly discuss the overall design of the behavioural change and how a transformational game formed a key part of addressing the constraints and complexity.

Prior to unpacking the design, and benefits of the transformational game; it is important to place it in context of the overall change initiative and how it supported (and was supported by prior interventions). Any complex, large scale change intervention consists of multiple components supporting each other.

The First Stage in the Cultural transformation : Leadership Preparation

The cultural change required a new leadership style that was embedded, and even taught in the organisation. This wasn’t about the top 250 leaders; it was an inclusive style and was about any person in a role influencing somebody else. A standard leadership style was defined based on supporting the cultural change (and the renewed 14 components of the culture). A 360-leadership feedback tool measured and participants received feedback on how others perceived them on this style. This initial leadership journey was a series of small group sessions and was in preparation for the next phase of the cultural change. Due to the engaging nature of this intervention, the organised labour representation and leadership, were also included in the leadership development aspects.

The Second Stage : Workforce Engagement

This stage was about engaging the workforce. An important aspect of embedding this cultural change was to make sure that the correct language, symbols and metaphors were being used to get workforce buy-in. Although a central identity and culture for the organisation was the aim, there was also an appreciation for the diverse nature of the various operations. Different operations were therefore allowed to craft a unique metaphor or change journey to embed in the group culture, while accommodating the unique context. Each operation participated in discussions to select a suitable theme (conversation metaphor) these ranged from soccer (La Duma) to the big five animals representative of Africa –  one such metaphor was “The Elephant”. Each operation selected a conversation metaphor which resonated with them, and workshop discussions allowed for the theme to be communicated and related back to the 14 culture elements. Language was an important part of communicating the theme, and each of the 14 elements had to be reflective of actual behaviour in the workplace and where possible weave in the conversation metaphor. As an example in the La Duma (soccer theme) the value of integrity was related back to how a referee would ensure the fairness of each game, and  how this instils integrity in the sport.

Third Stage : Experiential Learning and Transformational Game

The conversation metaphors were communicated and understood across each operation and embraced by all. This was delivered with short impactful videos and workshop discussions hosted by change leaders in each operation. A transformational game was selected as the experiential tool to support and embed the behaviour change.

Why was a transformational game chosen ? A transformational game has the intention of changing the “player” (learner) rather than a focus on content or a topic (The Transformational Framework, Sabrina Culya, 2019). A transformational game which seeks to enable a behaviour change requires people to shift their mental paradigms; how they think. A well-designed transformational game can allow for participation which creates emotional connection while challenging mindset with non-threatening dialogue. The nature of play and social dynamic of a game opens neural pathways – we often refer to this space as the “magical circle” where structure and interaction of a game allows a new reality to be created.  It leads to creativity and openness. This type of experience also brings new energy and motivation required to sustain the dialogue.

The transformational games were designed with the following criteria from the change sponsor and client :

1. It needed to reflect and weave the conversation metaphor (theme) into the game narrative.
2. It needed to be designed on a standard framework however still accommodate the nuances for each operation and their metaphor.
3. The game design needed to encourage dialogue, not just light-hearted fun but also serious conversation.
4. Due to the scale of the rollout, experienced change facilitators would need to upskill team leaders to facilitate the dialogue with their teams.
5. The game design also required a degree of adaptability in terms of accommodating longer teaming sessions (one day) while also being able to be played in shorter on-the-job sessions such as meetings
6. There needed to be clear outcomes and accountability following the session, which could be tracked over a period of time

The intention of the transformational game

We set about looking at the intent of the transformational game – to change individual stories, identity and ultimately shift behaviour within the business. When we brainstormed  and tested different types of design, we realised that applying a mechanical approach of using game mechanics as triggers to drive behaviour, would not be suitable . Our intention was to rather design a framework which would create an environment to loosen mental constructs and encourage a new way of being to emerge through the experience.

The design elements of the transformational game

The change required deep learning, and therefore experiential and active learning was applied, incorporating all modalities from auditory, kinaesthetic, visual and tactile. Our anchor point of this design was three representative areas of (i) Head – How do I think about a value (ii) Heart – what is my feeling about this value (iii) Feet – how can I change my action (ultimately) my behaviour based on reflecting on my thoughts and feeling.

The game play was to foster excitement and energy, while encouraging collaboration and limited competition. A pathway was designed which required teams to journey through a cluster of 4 values, starting with head and heart scenarios, and culminating in feet activities and reflections. The gameplay was enriched with strong narratives of the conversation metaphor. This included a series of relatable scenario for each value, which was carefully crafted in consultation with operations and a test audience.

Game Play

The objective was to move along the pathway with a die roll, responding and progressing with thought provoking  scenarios which would require a choice with motivation or an open-ended question. These forms of game quests and questions invited discussion and over time a dialogue evolved . The feeling of movement was created, and all teams were required to work collaboratively to progress through the scenarios. The surprise element was in how teams then decided to commit to change behaviour in the “feet” icon on the gameboard. As follow-up after gameplay, a leaderboard was framed as an action board with teams reflecting and then committing to on-the-job actions.

How was the transformational game delivered?

There were a series of four transformational game which utilised the same framework and gameplay and was played with four – five of the 14 values per game. Each three – four months a session was facilitated by team leaders either as a full day or half day session. In between the more formal sessions, shorter variances of the transformational game (in a spin-the-wheel) allowed for refresher sessions and a check-in on accountability actions.

1. Team Leader Led

The game was facilitated internally with little to no interference from external sources, this allowed for a non-threatening space to be created. This was an environment to foster more transparency and vulnerability for the reframing of personal stories and re-evaluating underlying beliefs. The benefit of internal facilitators also allowed for more contextual discussions related to the working environment and a sense of shaping the culture change. The guidelines and nature of the game environment, furthermore empowered the team leader as facilitator to open up deep conversation about behaviour in the workplace, that is typically left to behavioural experts or psychologists.

2. Designing relatable narratives within the game journey

Each transformational game had a theme and story (conversational metaphor) selected from the operations and across all stakeholders. This element created involvement and immersion of participants (elements of storytelling). Going beyond telling and teaching into the space of involvement and deeper learning.

3. Sustainability

Delivering the transformational games as a series of interventions which could be facilitated in both formal (teaming sessions) and on-the-job sessions, allowed for a gradual embedding of a new way of being in the workplace. Deep learning and shifting of mental paradigms require multiple sessions, this approach allowed for feedback loops to be created between formal sessions, and temperature checks of general sentiment with the accountability board.The transformational game empowered the team leaders to have the conversations and dialogue which are usually reserved for trained professionals. This approach made it feasible for this large scale rollout.
The transformational game received positive feedback, and certainly empowered each change champion to deliver on their mandate. Here are a couple of insights from people participating in the transformational games :

• This approach is not a top-down-listen-to-the-leader approach, but it is about participation of all members, where all have a voice and viewpoint that can benefit the rest of the team.
• It encourages participation, engagement and the desire to transform our behavior as individuals and teams.
• It is not about who is right and wrong, but about what we can learn from each other. We all have learned so much in life and this we can share with other in terms of our desired behavior.
• I was surprised about the levels of wisdom in the room and how sometimes academic jargon on desired behaviours got translated into practical language and application in work, life and play
• I was surprised to see how team dynamics have changed for the better, how teams become more engaged with one another, and how collaborative conversation, instead of me-know-it-all conversations are taking place.

Adjusting to an Online World

Since this cultural change initiative was embedded in the organisation in 2019, many changes have impacted our world. At Game2Change we have reviewed and recalibrated how we can foster dialogue in a virtual world, and still capture the magic circle which leads to shifting stories and ultimately behavior. One of our key insights in interviewing learners, is the power of writing scenarios which capture imagination and can trigger dialogue. We are exploring how you can capture the “stories” of a culture and design for an immersive setting such as online game journeys and live synchronous sessions. The power of technology will make a transformative game more scalable and impactful in the near future. To learn more about our work and how we have applied transformational games and gamification, especially in emerging and developing markets such as South Africa and Africa – visit our website : www.game2change.com

The post Behavioural Change through Transformational Games first appeared on Ludogogy.

In today’s fast-paced environment, learning is the need of the hour. Yes, you may get hired because you’re a talented individual with a great track record and have experience with Fortune 500 companies but the reason you’ll stay on top of a company’s “watch-list” is if you keep learning and growing.

We need to learn to learn quickly and efficiently: what you knew five years ago will most likely not work today. Marshall Goldsmith talks about this in his book: ‘What Got You Here Won’t Get You There’. So in search of a powerful learning tool that meets today’s demands of growth, I have discovered Game-Based Learning (GBL) and here’s why I believe GBL will change corporate learning for years to come.

What Got You Here Won’t Get You There is available on Amazon

1. PROXIMITY TO REALITY for authentic behaviors

Game-based Learning has the ability to build a strong association with reality. What happens in a game-based learning environment has a direct correlation with how you might deal with a similar situation in real life. 94% of participants who have played our game-based learning games say that their behaviors in the game are indicative of how they actually respond. Knowing these responses in a closed-circuit environment are far safer than dealing with their consequences in real-life. For instance: counter-productive behaviors, ineffective decision making skills

2. ACCELERATED GROWTH through real experiences

Real growth happens though experience. And we know that the more experience one gathers, the more wisdom they have because the learning associated with an intense experience gets lodged into one’s cerebral cortex. Game-based learning is about taking months, if not years of experience and condensing it into one or two days. An effectively designed game-based learning experience can also create a similar impact because authentic emotions are triggered due to the experience’s closeness to reality.

3. BRIDGE THE KNOWING-DOING GAP

When people fail to apply what they’ve learned it is not because they don’t want to. In a study conducted by Stanford University, it is found that people don’t apply their learning because they aren’t confident enough in their ability to apply the learned skill/behavior. Game-based learning bridges that gap by giving participants the opportunity to apply their learning in real-time. Participants see the impact of their actions right away and are more confident to apply in other parts of their lives as well.

4. MULTI-FUNCTIONED USAGE for Organisational Development (OD) interventions

Imagine a training program that can be used to achieve not one but multiple objectives; learning, behavioral analysis, skill development, succession planning. Because an immersive learning environment is designed to replicate life — it has several simultaneous use cases. Life doesn’t play out in a linear fashion, many things are happening simultaneously. Job, family, health and wellness and every decision you make has not one but many implications. Likewise, game-based learning allows multi-functioned usability through its implementation.

These four elements stand out strongly from a typical experiential learning or classroom training environment. They also have the potential to change the way corporate training happens because of their multifold impact on everything business: ROI, top-line and critical lead measures that can’t be leveraged without effective learning interventions.

This article was originally published in the Gamitar Blog.

The post Four Reasons Game-Based Learning Makes Corporate Training Better first appeared on Ludogogy.

How often do you leave a meeting room uninspired with the solutions presented ?

Do you need a more positive and energised workforce ?

Organisations are unsure of the concept of ‘play’, as play and work seem to be at opposite ends of a spectrum.  If you walked into the office of some ‘tech giants’ you might find a pinball machine, table tennis and trampolines around the room because they recognise a change of scenery can re-energise people.     

“there is good evidence that if you allow employees to engage in something they want to do which is playful, there are better outcomes in terms of productivity and motivation”  

– Dr S Brown Institute of play

If the Leader Plays, the Organisation Plays

‘Play is disruptive’ some might say, ‘it stops staff getting on with work’

Leaders may feel embarrassed to engage in imagination and play but are also under constant pressure to adapt and change to meet the demands of  the market and external environment.

We are not leaving this room until play has given us the answer….

Whether it’s lego or play dough, doughnuts or word play, creative arguments or doodle boards, VR or digital play, leaders could do worse then learn how to lead facilitated play sessions.

Play needs space without the pressure of the end goal.  Leaders in a corporate organisation can encourage play ‘with intent’, acknowledging that employees need time to get into play and imagination mode; ideas may not come initially but more sustainable innovation will emerge. Play stimulates the mind and can boost the organisations creativity if presented and nurtured in the right way.

Leaders can bring play to their organisation

Enabling structured play in the workplace involves removing the things that limit individuals:

limits of time – limits to new thinking – emotional limitations – limits to imagination,

freeing us to create new possibilities in our thinking and in our actions.  A leader that does this can individually and within a team, innovate and invent through different thinking.  Idea generation or problem solving using Play techniques offers far more rich and sustainable solutions, involving individual contributions and group collaboration.  This also instills loyalty in the team and a sense of buy-in to the solution which enables change to be more effective.

An organisation should find what works for them culturally and start playing.  We’d love to hear your examples of play in your organisation.

The post Are You Leading Play in Your Organisation? first appeared on Ludogogy.