VisualsSpeak blog

Brandon Hall Research’s Innovations in Learning conference will take place September 25 and 26, 2008, at the Fairmont San Jose, in San Jose, California, with a pre-conference day of workshops planned for Wednesday, September 24.

I will be facilitating a session, Using Visuals to Unlock Strategic Processes

In this experiential session we are going to tap into strategic problem-solving capabilities quickly and deeply. We’ll be using photographs as a way to unlock a group’s ability for innovation and creativity. This process is a way to bridge the verbal and visual, the tactical and strategic, and with the added benefit of building stronger teams. This is a low-tech process for getting high-tech results.

A number of my colleagues are facilitating pre-conference workshops.

Tom Crawford, the CEO of Vizthink, is facilitating a pre-conference session. Visualization for Learning: Approaches, Tools, and Applications to Improve Effectiveness. Here is a podcast with an interview I did with Tom.

During this one day workshop, we’ll explore what visualization approaches exist, how they can be applied, and what tools can be used to assist in the process. Visualization approaches can be used to improve the entire learning development process. Regardless of your specific development approach, visualization techniques can provide dramatic improvements to your analysis, design, development, implementation, and even evaluation processes. During this session, we’ll explore a variety of techniques that can be applied to each step of the development process. We’ll even put several of them to the test both on paper and online. No drawing skills are required.

Michele Martin from The Bamboo Project is also doing a pre-conference session with Janet Cleary, Social Media Jumpstart. Here is a podcast with an interview with Michele.

This pre-conference workshop is for those who want to maximize their conference experience by exploring the social Web before the conference begins. The workshop will introduce you to social media like blogs, social network sites, wikis, social bookmarking, photo sharing, Voice over IP, virtual worlds, instant messaging, videosharing, microblogging, etc. Delegates will be exposed to applications like WordPress, Facebook, Ning, wikis, delicious, SlideShare, Flickr, Skype,SecondLife, YouTube, Twitter, etc. Each media will be presented Pecha Kucha style followed by a brief, hands-on trial or demonstration. You’ll leave with the skills to explore each of these social media applications on your own while at the conference and later, at your workplace.

Gary Woodill and Anya Wood are doing a pre-conference workshop, Emerging Learning Technologies in Healthcare Training. Here is a podcast interview with Gary.

The use of technology in healthcare education has increased dramatically over the last decade, and none too soon. Because of rapid change, providing meaningful access to learning opportunities for both practitioners and the general public has become increasingly important. With the advent of the Internet the general public has become more knowledgeable and, in turn, demands access to healthcare education in a variety of different formats. Practitioners continue to experience time constraints and a need to relate training to practical, real-world experience, making accessibility and application to real-life top priorities.

I presented at this conference last year, and it was great. Not only were the sessions high quality, but the other participants were also very engaging. Here are posts I wrote about sessions last year:

• What is innovation in learning? This was the session I did.
  
• OilSim: Learning to explore for oil in an hour This session was facilitated by Olavur Ellefson who will be doing another session this year.
• Five Worlds of Learning 2.0 This session was facilitated by Lance Dublin, he is one of the keynotes this year.

I hope you will consider joining us in San Jose!

Monthly meeting of the Northwest Coaches Association (NWCA)

TIME/DATE
Tuesday, March 11, 2008

– Free pre-meeting workshop from 5:45 p.m. - 6:45 p.m.
– Networking from 6:45 p.m - 7:15 p.m.
– VisualsSpeak Program from 7:15 p.m. - 9 p.m.

PRE-MEETING WORKSHOP DETAILS
Presenter: Veronika (Ronnie) Noize
Topic: Media Training Workshop
Description: Past President Ronnie Noize presents a shortened version of the Media Training Workshop created by media expert Peter Kerr for the ICF chapters leaders at the 2007 ICF Conference. Participants will learn how to prepare for a media interview, identify journalists’ techniques, tools, and traps, what constitutes “news” as well as practice an actual interview. This program and materials are used by permission of Peter Kerr of Kerr Communications, www.kerrcommunications.com.

Bio: Veronika (Ronnie) Noize, known professionally as The Marketing Coach, is the author of How to Create a Killer Elevator Speech, The Real Magic Bullet of Marketing, and a contributing author of Marketing Strategies that Work. As a marketing executive for over 10 years, Ronnie launched more than 200 consumer products, including software, books, comics, CDs, toys, and games, generating more than $650 million dollars through sales and licensing.

Voted the 2007 Coach of the Year by her chapter of the International Coach Federation, and named one of the Pacific NW’s 100 most influential women by the NW Women’s Journal, Ronnie is a dynamic speaker and sought-after marketing expert with an international clientele who helps small office/home office (SOHO) businesses attract more clients through her presentations, products and programs.

In addition to her busy speaking and coaching practice, Ronnie is a trainer for International Coach Academy, an accredited coach training school in Australia, and an active member of several business and philanthropic groups. In 2004 she founded the Northwest Women’s Virtual Business Network, a virtual space where businesswomen in the Portland/Vancouver area can network and connect with others. Visit her group at http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/NWWomensBizNetwork.

Ronnie’s web site is a comprehensive resource with free articles and valuable marketing tools for small office/home office businesses and independent sales professionals. Visit her web site at www.VeronikaNoize.com, or call her at 360-882-1298.

PROGRAM DETAILS
Guest Speaker: Christine Martell, MS
Topic: VisualsSpeak Workshop
Description: Christine Martell, Principal of VisualSpeaks LLC, will present an interactive tool designed to bridge the right and left sides of our brains, making learning faster, more interesting and more effective. Through this experiential process, you will learn how to offer your clients new ways of gaining perspective and insights, and provide them with a richer set of data from which to base critical decisions. See how answering questions through images and pattern can unlock a different set of stories than words alone. These techniques can be used to increase individual or team performance and communication, leading to fast and insightful outcomes.

Bio: Christine Martell is an accomplished consultant, public speaker and artist with more than 25 years of professional experience. The VisualsSpeak tool she developed has been used by corporate trainers, independent consultants, small- and medium-size businesses, global corporations, non-profits, educational institutions, and organizations focused on intercultural communications.

Christine earned a bachelor of fine arts in textiles in 1982 at the Rhode Island School of Design. Over the next decade, she worked primarily as a product artist, exhibiting and attracting awards for her work in a wide variety of venues across the United States.

In 1995, Christine made the transition from a product artist to a process artist, concentrating on helping others to discover the value inherent in the process of creating art. She served as a facilitator at the Penland School of Craft in North Carolina, where she developed ways to help art students reduce their creative anxiety and counseled them on issues related to classes and student affairs.

Christine earned a master’s degree in education from Portland State University in 2004, where she researched the benefits of visual communication as a training tool. She holds certificates of completion in a variety of training & development topics including intercultural training, multi-media and Web-based training, and management of training.Christine started VisualsSpeak in 2005 as a way of bringing the VisualsSpeak approach to a broad range of audiences. She is passionate about opening up the whole person so people can really be appreciated for who they are, and feels she is throwing life lines to people who really need to discover new openings. You can visit her website at http://www.visualsspeak.com/.

COST: $15 for guests and non-member coaches; free for chapter members and ASTD-Cascadia members.

REGISTRATION:Pre-registration not required

LOCATION
SCOTTISH RITE CENTER, 709 SW 15th Avenue , Portland, OR 97205

Hope to see you there.

You are invited to attend!

If you are going to be in the Portland, OR area this Tuesday February 12, Christine will be presenting for the local SIETAR-PDX (Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research) group. Please feel free to drop by. This event is free and open to the public.

Christine will be showing how the VisualsSpeak ImageSet can be used to increase cultural awareness and cultural competency. She will also speak about how the tool can be used in other applications such as strategic visioning, diversity training, and team building.

This session will be hands-on and experiential. Bring your questions.

Hope to see you there!

Date: Tuesday February 12, 2008
Start Time: 6:30 PM Potluck snacks and drink
Where: The Intercultural Communication Institute (ICI)
8835 SW Canyon Road, Suite 238
Portland, OR 97225

For directions using Google Maps

Christine Martell, Principal of VisualsSpeak LLC, will be presenting at the VizThink 2008 conference in San Francisco, California. The Conference is being held January 27-29 at The Westin San Francisco Market Street.

Christine will be facilitating twice. On Monday January 28 her session is titled “What Makes Visuals Speak?” and on Tuesday in the morning General Session she will be one of three facilitators taking the “VizThink Challenge”.

VisualsSpeak will have a booth at the conference. Stop by and say hello.

Christine will be facilitating an audience of three hundred attendees

Before I give you the details, you should know that VizThink has thrown down the gauntlet. On Tuesday morning (1/29/08) in the General Session, Christine will be one of three facilitators “put on the spot” to facilitate a process where a real-world problem about a real-world organization in front of a real-world audience (That’s a lot of reality folks) is presented to the Facilitator Three. Hold on there’s more.

The real-world problem is being held secret from these three passionate Visual Communication specialists so that we can see the stuff they’re really made of. I have it on good authority that VizThink has engaged the services of the NSA, FBI, CIA AND the Boy Scouts (Hey, they’re kids. They can hack in their sleep) to develop a specially encrypted program to keep safe the offending real-world problem to be solved by these out-of-this-world facilitators.

Now here is where VizThink made their big mistake. The other two facilitators are inviting about 18 people in total to participate in their sessions. Thus leaving Christine to facilitate the remaining THREE HUNDRED PLUS attendees (At this time there are 350 people attending). For those of us in the VisualsSpeak Community who know Christine, we scoff at this challenge. If they had asked her to facilitate an audience of three thousand maybe we would have raised an eyebrow. But three hundred…where’s the challenge in that? She could do that standing on her head. Hey, I’d like to see that!

Provide your Input and Make a Difference

If you are attending the VizThink 2008 conference we encourage you to attend the Tuesday morning General Session.

This will be a chance for you to see:

• How visual communication tools and techniques can be utilized to solve the problems your organization faces
• An array of visual communication processes being used in one spot
• What types of processes might be appropriate for your company

And this is a chance for you to use your expertise to help another organization. What goes around…

The Sessions

What Makes Visuals Speak?

Monday, January 28, 2008 from 1:30pm - 3:00pm
Christine Martell

In this session we’ll explore the elements that make visuals speak. We’ll start the conversation with photographs, exploring not only the story, but also the visual language elements that reveal less conscious aspects of what we are saying. By using a set of tested photographs, we will quickly delve into an in-depth conversation of how to utilize visual elements to their fullest. You can expect to come away from this experience with a greater understanding of how to effectively use visuals to uncover strategic vision for individuals, groups and organizations.

This session will be experiential and fun. No drawing required!

VizThink Challenge

Tuesday, January 29 from 9:00am - 10:30am
Jamie Nast, Christine Martell, and David Sibbet

Often, it’s not about the tools we use, but the process we go through to come up with visual thinking solutions. This segment is designed to show just that, and we’ve got three great people to help us with that including Jamie Nast, Christine Martell, and David Sibbet. We’re going to put these three leaders on the spot by bringing them up on stage and presenting them with a real world communications problem. They’ll have never seen it before and have no time to prepare. Their job, with your help, will be to come up with a visual thinking solution, and we’ll look at how they approach it and what they come up with. However, they won’t be in it alone. Each of the tables in the audience will work on the problem too. This segment promises to be a fascinating look into the similarities and differences between visual thinking approaches.

If You Want to Attend the Conference

There is still space available if you would like to attend. This is shaping up to be a great conference with representatives from major companies, great facilitators, international participation, and networking opportunities galore.

To sign up and receive a discount use code FCCM1 by registering here.

Christine Martell, Principal of VisualsSpeak LLC, will be presenting at the Society for Intercultural Education Training and Research (SIETAR) USA Eighth Annual Conference in Kansas City, Missouri. The Conference is being held November 7-10, 2007 at The Westin Crown Center Hotel.

Christine will be facilitating in three sessions.

Thursday, November 8 from 3:15 - 4:45

Exploring Multiple Perspectives on Conflict Using Photographs

Christine Martell

This session will explore the meaning of conflict, conflict resolution, and conflict management in personal, professional and global contexts. Using photographs and the stories that emerge from them, we will explore the similarities and difference in how individuals and groups interpret these concepts. When we see multiple perspectives clearly, we will begin to seek avenues to come together in new ways.

Friday, November 9 from 8:30 - 10:00 am

Community, Collaboration and Conversation: The Art and Practice of Blogging

Michele Martin, Christine Martell, Rob Pusch

There are more than 15.5 million active blogs around the world, with some 1 million new posts per day. The best of these are fueled by passion, authenticity and immediacy–elements that also feed our most courageous conversations. In this session, you’ll learn how this new medium is transforming how we communicate, collaborate and connect with one another. We’ll examine the the six pillars of blogging and what makes blogs unique as online communication tools. We’ll also explore the continuum of ways to participate in the blogosphere and how you can use blogging for professional development, to create community and to forge a personal or organizational brand. By the end of the session you’ll have a new perspective on the world of blogging and a host of practical tools and tips for becoming a “conversation architect” using this exciting new medium.

Christine is joined by Michele Martin from The Bamboo Project and Beyond the Glass Ceiling and Rob Pusch who will be the person leading the Communication effort for the board starting at the conference.

Saturday, November 10 from 3:15 - 4:45 pm

What Makes A Culturally Competent Professional Association?

Christine Martell ,Andy Reynolds, Peggy Pusch, Ann Marie Lei

This session will explore the factors that contribute to organizations becoming more welcoming and inclusive. Using photographs, participants will explore how we can collectively create more effective associations.

Christine is joined by Andy Reynolds the incoming President of SIETAR-USA, Peggy Pusch the Executive Director of SIETAR-USA, and Ann Marie Lei from the SIETAR-USA advisory board.

I love technology, so I was excited to see there was a range of presentations at the North American Simulations and Gaming Association (NASAGA) conference covering a wide swath of possibilities. I’m not a fanatical online gamer, nor do I develop a lot of e-learning, but I spend a large portion of each day at the computer. I get really antsy when my internet connection goes down.

Design Instant Online Flash Games

Raja Thiagarajan’s session was hands down my favorite of all the technology sessions. Why? Because Raja’s session was designed with the learning first. The technology merely served the learning objectives. I learned:

• How engaging simple flash games could be
• Which type of game to select for what type of content
• How to login and access the software
• How to create games through the admin interface

I immediately saw how I could use this to aid stickiness after a training by emailing a link to participants to play a game around the key points. I could see using them in a webinar, or other online engagement.

It was an interactive session about an interactive method. YES! I know it took a lot of effort for Raja and the others behind the scenes to get the software running on all the computers, but it was totally worth it. People were highly engaged, clustered around the computer screens.

I have played the shell games on the Thiagi group site in the past, but I never thought I could create them and use them. Now I know how easy it is.

Playmotion

I missed the keynote session on Playmotion, since I got talking with a colleague. I did see the demo of it before the evening auction. It appeared to be some kind of interactive projection system. You could stand in front of the floor-to-ceiling screen and interact with whatever was projected.

Some examples were that smoke would respond to dancers, puzzles that could be solved by hitting the letters into the boxes, balls that would bounce. The possibilities for interactive full body learning were huge. I just kept seeing all the little kids in schools being freed from the confines of their desks….and actually engaging the way most kids like to engage.

This is the type of technology that would be great for VisualsSpeak. The ability to move the images around is so vital to the process for many people. I would love to be able to create huge interactive vision maps.

NASA’s Distributed Observer Network (DON)

Even the title of this session is an indicator of it’s complexity. This session was in two parts. In the first part, Tom Cuddy described a bit about the challenge of creating a simulation environment for the complex process of taking care of the shuttle. Allowing engineers to explore on the computer and especially try things out, makes a lot of sense. Particularly after the Challenger and Columbia disasters.

I did learn there is some kind of core code you can purchase from game developers that you can use as a head start for a simulated environment. What that is or what it really means is lost to me as a non-programmer. Being married to an electronic engineer, I am accustomed to nodding and saying un-huh as I listen to complex descriptions of the inner workings of electrons and the codes that command them.

Despite a moody electrical system, Tom and Tate Srey were able to get the simulation running on computers and we were able to play with it. Being able to move part of the shuttle’s tanks around and look at them from different angles was interesting. Why I would want to do that is a bit lost on me, but I’m not the target audience of engineers. I certainly can imagine my husband and his software guys spending hours analyzing and creating any number of theories to test using this simulation.

Ian Bogost: Future of games in learning

Ian spoke after dinner, before the silent auction. As a professor from Georgia Tech, he had a well constructed argument laid out. It started with assumptions people make about the value of games, possible ways of looking at the value of games, and moved to propose a new set of assumptions.

Clearly, Ian has worked to develop his presentation, and it was engaging to listen to in the moment. The slides were well designed. He did not read them to us.

I remember the overall message, that games can be engaging and educational. I remember he plays a lot with his kids and they love the Animal Crossing game. I remember persuasion being a key to these new designs his company is developing.

I can’t remember any of the details. Why? No handouts. We were sitting in a darkened room after dinner and I wasn’t prepared to take notes. Notes for me are a way to convert audio to visual. I many never look at them again, but they anchor learning for me in the moment.

Another thing that happened was Ian showed screen after screen of visuals from the games. They were well done, but in fairly rapid succession they became a form of visual overload. I remember thinking they were compelling in the moment, but the concepts didn’t stick.

I enjoyed Ian’s presentation and I remember enough of it to feel I got value from the experience. He was a good speaker, his content was developed and thought through.

There has to be a better way

There were a number of other technology demo sessions. Not just at this conference, but at a number of others I have attended recently. Here is the formula:

• people sit in rows of chairs or at tables
• presenter tells audience how cool their new interactive engaging e-learning or game is
• show screen after screen of what some of the screens look like
• if the audience is lucky, there may be a branching choice the audience gets to call out for them to select

Now I realize most conferences aren’t in computer labs. Even those that suggest bringing laptops suffer from unreliable wireless and slow connections. I know handouts with a lot of images are hard to produce and quite expensive to print, especially in color.

Still, there has to be a more effective session design. Even when I was interested in the product being showcased, very little stuck. About all I remember is that it was interesting. I can’t even remember why.

This leads me to some questions for those of us making presentations:

• How can technology sessions about interactive designs be done interactively?
• Can you get beyond the technology challenges?
• Can we apply the interactive principles in the products to the demos and the sessions used to showcase them?
• How can we manage the visual overload of showing multiple screens of visual interfaces?

What have you seen work?

Technology Overall

I really appreciated the inclusion of all the technology at the conference. There was learning in all the sessions, even if it wasn’t exactly what the presenter intended.

Exploring the magic in games and simulations

Peggy Pusch joined me to facilitate a session where we mined the wisdom in the room. We worked in four table-groups. Each table had a VisualsSpeak ImageSet that contained 200 images.

To start out, each person had a 12 x 18″ piece of construction paper. We asked:

What makes games and simulations magic?

Each person selected images that spoke to the question. After looking at some of the visual language displayed in the arrangement of images, each person had the opportunity to share the story of their image.

Each group was then asked to create an image together, making sure to include wisdom from everybody. They could use a larger white piece of paper, or the construction paper for a background. Markers were available for those who wanted to add words.

These are the notes from each group as they were explaining their process. Here is what they came up with:

Group 1

General reaction words
CHAOTIC, ALL ENCOMPASSING, LIGHTHEARTED

Bottom: the complexity and the patterns, using simulations and games to simplify the process we are trying to understand.
Process is to the left, stepping into someone’s shoes, process that you are trying to identify with, different perspectives coming in, pattern of the game to demonstrate what you are trying to address–like walking into someone else’s shoes.
Process at a different level: Learning–everywhere, everyone,–trying to understand, stretching.
Strive to reach the stars and clouds and to have a whimsical, magical approach to an uplifting experience

Process: Decisions on the use of the color were unanimous and then they started placing images; some were linear and some were floating, an organic process that ended up with the final picture. (I expect the left brain people will sneak in and sort it out and get it organized.) This has been a very balanced group, going from left to right brain.

Group 2

End result: it gets people out of their comfort zone and changes them, puts them in a new role, looking at themselves differently, successful results but also having fun.

Tied it together: gaming is a spiraling process and it is an outward movement that has a core…we started with fun and engagement and moved outward . Other growth happens. Some of the dynamics are similar whether they are connecting individuals or large groups of people, leading to uplifting thoughts, and ideas and perpetuating growth to your company environment and co-workers, The picture flows from the center through the spiral.

Inspiration: Training will still have impact down the road. Whole metaphor is a spiral “life is like a box of chocolates,” you are never sure of what you will get. it can spiral out of control as well as lead to deeper learning. Tried, in building the image, to eliminate the distractions, the games and simulations focus your attention and there is a need to avoid the distractions.

Went through the chambers of achievement.

Group 3

Looked first at the process: simulations and games start from the trainers and facilitators who work them through. We are hoping to take something from here to use as we climb up the hill. We see that old and broken things can be fixed and new things can emerge from them. Always good to have a trick up your sleep.

Link to the organization. Conflict between the people who are going through the training and those who did not when they bring back what was learned to the organization. With all training, there has to be a way to measure it. This allows people to work through an alternative experience. Simulations can clean up the messes that have been created. It is fun, It is diverse. There is a bottom line impact and variable success. Trainers/Facilitators only start people down the path. There are wide horizons and you/they do not know what you/they are going to get but they will discover what that horizon is.

Group 4

Only group that did not come up with a pattern, an organization of space.

Process: We started with where we were before we started the individual assignments. We had lots of stuff around the side, everyone put something in and then we “edited” and it was not until the end that it became a cleaner space. Very chaotic at the beginning…did not know where it was going to go.

Interplay of themes, different ideas that mixed in with other ideas. Simulations and games provide an opportunity to have a much closer look at the common and ordinary to grasp the extraordinary. Juxtaposition of lots of things to reach some order. A process of enjoying and learning. Variety of experiences, always provides surprise and engages all the learning styles. It needs a safe environment and individuals have to trust each other. Starts out as a closed flower and opens us.

Group engagement in a good group means people come together and join. Have to play different roles, sometimes contrived and others real, have awe and wonder that gives value.

The unexpected, sometimes we think that what happens is unexpected but can link to things that are familiar so it is not always unusual and strange.

In the center, the ooh and ah of the experience.

Conclusions:
Very possessive about my original images and then I had to give up things to the interest of others. Hard to let go but it got more creative. Have to put it in play with other people

Expected to keep and add on to what we have but we ended up ditching a lot of the original pictures because while I liked what I had on my own, it did not fit with the group.

Looked for themes that they all carried out and picked each others’ pictures that they liked.

So what is the magic for you in games and simulations?

Christine Martell, Principal of VisualsSpeak LLC, will be presenting at the 2007 ASTD Chapter Leaders Conference in Alexandria, Virginia. The Conference is being held October 25- 27, 2007 at the Hilton Alexandria Mark Center.

ASTD

Increasing the Cross Cultural Effectiveness of Your Chapter

Christine Martell and Kelly Orehovec

What makes a professional association culturally competent? How do you attract and retain a widely diverse membership? ASTD-Cascadia is finishing the second year of a multi-year initiative exploring diversity in our chapter. This session invites you to share our collective experiences and explore what we need to do as chapter leaders to ensure we are welcoming to all workplace performance professionals, while developing competencies within the chapter’s leadership.

Day 2 concurrent sessions at North American Simulations and Gaming Association

The second day began with Yael Schy using Improv to explain systems change. We’re all facing organizational change on a continual basis, so she told us about how we can encourage people to become more flexible. We then got to watch audience members in Improv Action. My favorite was the demo at the end where four people got up and took turns leading each other through a variety of dance explorations (more like getting each other to do strange but wonderful things).

Morning sessions

Access the Magic Through Photographs

I presented a session with Peggy Pusch, which I will be writing a post about soon. Peggy left for Cyprus two days after our presentation, and I can’t open the file she left for me with all the notes from our session. So after Peggy returns and I get another file, you’ll get to see and hear about all the great things we discovered together.

Creating Unbeatable Volunteers

I really wanted to clone myself so I could also attend Matt DeMarco and Margee Wolf’s session Make it Magnetic: How to Attract and Keep Unbeatable Volunteers. I do a lot of work with professional associations, so I know what it is like to work with groups of volunteers. As a newcomer to NASAGA and a volunteer in the form of a presenter, I was warmly welcomed by Matt. He made sure I had what I needed, knew where my room was, and he told me what to expect when I got there. He checked in with me again after my session to see how it went.

The game helps people to realize it is these seemingly little things that make a big difference to volunteers. Set up as a board game, designed for the American Farm Bureau Federation, the gameplay is designed to show both the helpful and not helpful behaviors coordinators can use with their volunteer workforces. I heard Matt talk about the possibility of creating a version of the game for a more general audience. Matt, DO IT. Most every organization that utilizes volunteers needs help with this!

Afternoon Sessions

Understanding Systems Thinking through Interactive Games

Ron Roberts from Action Centered Training, Inc shared a new game he has designed that helped us explore competitive versus collaborative gaming. It’s a slide checker game, where the rows on the board slid, and there were four teams with checkers. A triangular die controlled the movement of the checkers, and a square die controlled the movement of the board.

In the first round we were in four teams of two playing competitively. I was really lucky to be matched with a math wiz, since I don’t think quickly enough to play a game like this well. We were able to not only play for the benefit of our own team, but to create set-backs for the others. Because the board pieces could slide each term, you couldn’t really strategize ahead of time. You had to come up with a solution in the moment of your turn. One team won after 20 minutes or so.

In the next round we played cooperatively. This was much more fun. We worked together to get all the pieces off the board, which we did in a little over half the amount of time.

A couple of things were interesting in this process. Three out of the four groups accomplished the task faster working cooperatively. The other group suffered from analysis paralysis in the cooperative round.

I was also really interested to see how the people at my table were able to switch from competitive to cooperative almost instantly. Even though it took a totally different strategy, they could shift their behavior in a moment. I suspect this is a result of playing a lot of games, but it’s also a skill that is very helpful in cross-cultural communication. It got me thinking about the value of adding games to some of the cultural training programs I do.

Another thing I greatly appreciated was although Ron is a college professor and very much wanted to share the theoretical understanding of our experience, he was very realistic about the NASAGA audience. He knew people just wanted to play the game, and kept his slides to a minimum. At the same time, he had detailed handouts for those of us who were interested in them.

Hammer it Home: A Metaphorical Toolbox for Trainers

Brian Remer from the Firefly Group facilitated a session using three different ways to engage participants through metaphor. Each table had a stack of index cards. Every person was asked to list one idea per card to answer what makes learning magic? After gathering a healthy stack, Brain redistributed them so each person had three. We ranked them by how much we liked them, then walked around the room trying to trade for ones we liked better. After returning to our tables, we then worked as a group to identify the three ideas we liked best from all of our options.

During the next segment, each of the three table groups in the room focused on learning one technique and demonstrating to the rest of the groups. We all focused on displaying the themes from the first exercise.

My group received a bag of disparate props, which had to be used for something other than what they were designed, in a skit. Every prop and every person had to be a part of it. We got there, but it really stretched our abilities to make connections and associations.

Another group got to select from a whole table full of objects which would represent the concepts they discovered about the magic of learning. The third group did a similar thing, but used comics as the vehicle for association.

Brain created a great handout for the session which includes much better and more detailed descriptions of these activities, as well as a number of others. It also includes worksheets for exploring why you might use metaphor, when to incorporate it, cautions in using it, and ranges to consider in the strategic use. The packet finishes up with a bibliography and resource suggestions. You can download this handout from the Firefly Group site.

Other posts about the conference:

NASAGA 2007: Pictures everywhere, NASAGA 2007: Games, games everywhere , Game night at NASAGA 07 nasaga2007

North American Simulation and Gaming Association conference in Atlanta

After the concurrent sessions ended for the day, we took shuttle buses to a local training facility, the Knowledge Development Center for a reception. There were people eating, talking, listening to music and playing games. Everywhere.

Later in the evening, the organized gameplay started. I chose to play Lifeboats. We played on five boards with up to six people per board.

The game has wooden boats and crew, along with cards that are used for voting. You vote to spring leaks in boats and to move boats forward toward the destination islands. Your crew is divided up between boats, and one person has to jump out to swim to a new boat every turn. You have Captain cards you can use to try to get control over a decision. But if someone else plays one at the same time, both lose the card without getting to decide. All in all, it is a very effective set-up for conflict.

This game isn’t about conflict resolution, or conflict management, it’s about getting to experience conflict in action. Lots of opportunity to experience power.
I played with five men. They seemed nice. Several had ties to the Peace Corps. I have a tendency toward cooperation. I assumed I was with others who were be similar.

Yea, right sure.

They ganged up and started killing off my crew members. Suddenly, it seemed more desirable to be a bit more aggressive. By the time they had systematically killed off all but one of my crew members, I wanted to kill things. And do things like randomly sink boats for the revenge factor.

Les Lauber facilitated the games. He taught us how to play and made evasive and therefore somewhat evocative comments to us as we were playing.

Some players were wondering how the game could be used for training. Les was particularly effective at debriefing and helping us understand how to call out the various parts of the game and link them to common experiences in organizations. We looked at several factors:

• How well we separated the people from the problem
• What were the sources of conflict
• How we could reframe the problems

We also got a list of principles reflected in Lifeboats. Here is mine.

People who feel they have been punished unfairly often react aggressively.

Hey, I didn’t know I’d want to kill little wooden pegs before!

Other posts about the conference
NASAGA 2007: Pictures everywhere, NASAGA 2007: Games, games everywhere
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