PLAY FOR PERFORMANCE: August 2005

Guest Gamer

An Interview with Ron Roberts

This column features interviews with outstanding designers and users of interactive experiential activities. This month's guest gamer, Professor Ron Roberts (www.corporateteambuilding.com and www.act-games.com ) is a FBCG (Full Blown Creative Genius). He is President of Action Centered Training and ACT Games, and has invented over 35 big and small games.

Ron holds 5 patents and uses his games to teach teambuilding, communication, leadership, strategic planning, change management, and process improvement. He has his Master's Degree in Counseling Psychology and previously owned a Counseling Center for 12 years where he specialized in family counseling. He teaches Organizational Communication, Leadership, Negotiations, Management Competencies, and Public Speaking at Penn State University.

Ron has been featured in CNN Live and local affiliates of ABC and NBC. He has appeared in Newsweek (The Tips Section) and Games Magazine. He has also recently appeared on QVC Shopping Network where he displayed and sold one of his many games. Ron is currently in the middle of writing a new book on teambuilding as well as a comedy-based manuscript for potential movie production about the same topic.

Ron is married and has four children and two step children, whom he regularly uses as guinea pigs to test his games. He and his wife, Diane, live outside of Philadelphia.

PFP: Ron, what would you say is your specialty area?

Ron: Interactive experiential activities that accelerate learning including (but not limited to) board, card, and teambuilding games in both regular and giant sizes.

PFP: How did you get into designing and using games?

Ron: In my first four years of working as a trainer, I was mostly involved in running paintball and whitewater rafting programs. Then I noticed there was a definite lack of focused games that taught the average middle aged out-of-shape manager teamwork, communication, leadership, and strategic planning. So in 2000, I invented, tested, and implemented giant games which were very successful. All of my friends said that these giant games would make incredible board and card games. In 2001 I initiated my first patent and created, manufactured, and distributed my board games. Since then I have now gone into creating customized games especially for corporations and educational institutions based on specific learning outcomes and content.

PFP: How long have you been designing and using games?

Ron: I actually started designing my first game late in 1999 and have created almost 49 more of them since then.

PFP: Where do you use games?

Ron: I use games in every aspect of education and training. I use games in all of my training in soft skill areas such as communication, teamwork, leadership, change management, strategic planning, and process improvement. I use games in my college courses at Penn State University where I am an Adjunct Professor of Management. My students turn out to be great guinea pigs and they really have a blast learning experientially. I have created a 12 week series of games for my Management 321 course on leadership and motivation called the Leadership Factor. In this contest, eight teams must accomplish difficult, embarrassing, and strange tasks that take them outside of their comfort zone and force them to come face to face with their own leadership styles and motivation factors. The first week they are required to memorize and recite the 600 word soliloquy of Kennedy's inaugural address. They get points off for every error and the whole class is amazed at how difficult this is when conducted in front of the entire group. The second week they must make up a song (with music) about teamwork, communication, and leadership. This is usually the low point of the course for them and the most embarrassing experience of all. But something funny happens afterwards during the remaining 9 weeks: They are all able to perform at levels they never thought possible. Introverts open up and extroverts go completely off the charts. Teams coalesce and creativity soars. What a thrill it is to use experiential exercises and watch young people grow!

PFP: How do your clients respond?

Ron: My corporate clients love the game because it helps them to meet their objectives, learn a great deal, and have fun at the same time. Management is even more excited with this type of training because, from an ROI point of view, they get better returns as there is less need for repetitions and higher retention among learners.

PFP: How do your participants respond?

Ron: Participants use one word to describe this type of training: “energized”. This type of training energizes them because it holds their interest, gets them involved mentally, emotionally, and physically, and allows them to have fun while learning. When people laugh and experience increased bonding during a training program, it has a subtle and powerful impact on their positive sense of well-being.

PFP: What advice do you have to newcomers about designing games?

Ron: I could talk about this topic all day because there are many things that game inventors learn over a period of many years. Let me share some of the most important rules that I have learned:

1. Always, always, always test your games repeatedly. Test your game on all kinds of people from different cultures and ethnicities, logical, emotional, young, old, brilliant and not so brilliant.
2. Keep on reworking the game play until every glitch is removed. If you think something is a small problem, another more detail-oriented person may think it is a big problem.
3. If you are designing a game for commercial distribution, make sure that your game is new and original. Most distributors don't want a newer version of an old game.
4. Make sure that you have clear parameters for beginning, middle, and end of game play.
5. Make sure the rules are easy to understand and to follow. Otherwise, you will lose the interest of the players very quickly.

PFP: What do you think is the most important characteristic of an effective facilitator?

Ron: It's the ability to motivate, energize, uplift, and lead the training in a way that seems less direct and more transparent. Obviously this characteristic includes the ability to ask questions rather than tell participants, and the ability to create experiences in which teams solve the problems rather than having the answers laid out in front of them. One of the big differences between a superior facilitator and a good facilitator is the ability to differentiate between the situation for giving extra advice and the situation for letting the group struggle through to success.

PFP: What are some important characteristics of a good participant?

Ron: A good participant has the ability to dive in head first into any experience, demonstrating leadership, and letting others lead. The ability to act as a unified team is another characteristic of a group of good participants. Outstanding communication skill is a gift that few participants possess. The ability to plan strategically and to execute effectively is another valuable trait possessed by good participants.

PFP: What types of games do you use most frequently?

Ron: Whenever I implement games, I try to focus on the power of conflict between big and small teams and the innate issues that come up when teams are trying to compete and cooperate at the same time. By allowing the actual team members to create their own competitive spirit, I am always assured that they will compete at a level that is satisfying and realistic without the challenge being either being insufficient or overpowering. I have also found that if I can get the entire group to experience a process breakdown and perform less than favorably in a training game, the learning becomes much more embedded in their neurological pathways than if the game is just fun.

PFP: What is your favorite game?

Ron: My two favorite games are both home-grown: One is called Pass The Chicken and the other is called What Goes Around, Comes Around. Pass The Chicken is a process improvement game where teams pass dozens of different squawking animals around as quickly as a possible. What Goes Around, Comes Around is a big team, small team integration game where the task is simply to pass a beach ball around a circle as many times as possible.

PFP: Do you have any book recommendations?

Ron: Any book by Thiagi and any book that I should write in the near future.

PFP: What is your prediction about the future of training games?

Ron: Without a doubt, the future of games is very positive. The use of games of all kinds is growing at exponential rates in corporate training. There are many reasons why. First, they help learners absorb and assimilate more information more quickly and with greater retention. Secondly, the younger generation is demanding more experiential and interactive learning formats.

Games and other interactive learning formats are now making their way into every form of learning no matter how abstract or difficult the content. Learners have forever changed dramatically and whether the change appears to be for better or worse, we must also change.

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Jolt

Memory Test

Here's a quick jolt that helps participants discover basic psychological facts about our memory.

You can conduct this jolt with any number of people in about 10-15 minutes. You don't need any special supplies other than paper and pencil.

Brief participants. Tell them that you are going to administer a memory test. You will read a standardized list of words. Participants should listen carefully to these words without writing them down. Later, you will test to see how many words each participant can recall.

Present words. Read the following list of words. Pause briefly between one word and the next. Do not change the sequence. One of the words (night) is repeated three times.

• dream
• sleep
• night
• mattress
• snooze
• sheet
• nod
• tired
• night
• artichoke
• insomnia
• blanket
• night
• alarm
• nap
• snore
• pillow

Administer the recall test. Pause for about 10 seconds. Ask each participant to take a piece of paper and write as many of the words as he or she can remember. Pause for about 40 seconds.

Explain your intent. Reassure participants that you are not interested in finding out how each person performed on the test. Instead, you are going to use the test to explore four basic principles about memory.

Debrief. Here are four important principles about memory. Explain each of them, using data from participants' performance on the test:

• Primacy and recency effects. Ask participants to raise their hands if they recalled the words “dream” and “pillow”. Explain that people remember the first and the last things in a series. Most participants will have written dream and pillow because they were the first and last words in the list.
• Surprise effect. Ask participants to raise their hands if they recalled the word “artichoke”. Explain that people remember things that are novel or different. Most participants will have written artichoke because it is different from the other words in the list.
• Repetition effect. Ask participants to raise their hands if they recalled the word “night”. Explain that people remember things that are repeated. Most participants will have written night because you repeated it three times.
• False-memory effect. Ask participants to raise their hands if they recalled the word “bed”. Reveal that this word was not on your list. Explain that the brain closes logical gaps in what it hears, sees, or reads, frequently remembering things that did not take place. Most participants will have written bed because it logically belongs to this list (even though you never read it).

Encourage action planning. Ask participants how they would use these four principles to help them remember new terms and ideas in the training session. Give examples such as, "To compensate for the primacy and the recency effects, pay particular attention to ideas presented during the middle of the training session. Make use of the repetition effect by repeating these ideas to yourself several times."

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Design

What's the Score?

Here is the first law of improving human performance: People do what gets measured.

The scoring system in a game determines what is measured (and rewarded). By modifying the scoring system, you can influence what is learned.

Most people take the rules of a game too seriously. I encourage you to treat them in a playful manner and change them to suit your needs. Remember what James Carse said: “Ordinary people play within the rules of a game. Creative people play with the rules of a game.”

Let me show you how simple it is to change the scoring system in a game. To illustrate this procedure with concrete examples, let me take a simple game for five players. In this game, the players choose a key phrase (example: simulation game). Each player writes down different words by selecting and rearranging letters from the key phrase. (Sample words from the key phrase, “simulation games”: sin, mule, steam, animal, gasoline, magnate, and limousine) At the end of a time limit, the players compare their lists.

Given this bare-bones set of rules, let's see how many different scoring systems we can come up with.

• Quantity wins. Players score one point for each word (irrespective of the number of letters in the word).
• Length Matters. Only words that have at least four letters score a point. Or, players score as many points for each word as the number of letters in it. (Example: in gets 2 points and nostalgia gets 9 points.) Or, the number of points for a word progressively increases depending on its length: 2-letter words get 3 points, 3-letter words get 6 points, 4-letter words get 10 points, 5-letter words get 16 points, and so on.
• Longest Word. Find the longest word among the players' lists. The player with the most number of words of this length is the winner. In case of a tie, count the number of words that have one letter fewer. Continue this process until a single winner is identified.
• Highest Bidder. After selecting the key phrase, players bid by specifying the most number of letters that their longest word will contain. Bidding continues until only one player remains. She wins if she can come up with a word of the specified length within 10 seconds. If she cannot, she is eliminated and the bidding begins again among the remaining players.
• Time Management. Players have a time limit of 10 minutes. Or players have a time limit of 2 minutes. Or 15 seconds.
• Memory Test. Players cannot use paper and pencil. A nonplaying participant writes down the words called out by different player, and keeps this list hidden. Players take turn calling out new words. A player is eliminated if she repeats an earlier word, hesitates too long, or comes up with a word that cannot be formed from the letters in the key phrase. The last surviving player wins the game.
• Beyond the Obvious. Players take turns calling out different words. A reporter writes down these words on a flip chart. This activity is stopped after 2 minutes and the list is displayed for all players to see. During the next 2 minutes, each player writes individual lists of words that are not included in the common list.
• Hall of Fame. Players review the top 10 highest scores earned by the previous teams. The five players work jointly as a team and attempt to establish a new record.
• Topical Expertise. Select a topical area (example: training). Only words related to this topic score a point. In case of dispute, the majority of the other players decide whether a word should be accepted or not.
• Uniqueness Wins. Players write their individual lists and compare the words during the scoring period. Each word gets 6 points minus the number of players who wrote the same word. Example: If all five players wrote guns, each player scores 1 point. If only one player wrote gnus (referring to the African antelope), she scores 5 points.
• Uniqueness Loses. Each player writes five words that can be formed from the letters in the key phrase. A player's score equals the number of people who wrote the same word. Example: If all five players wrote guns, each player scores 5 points. If only one player wrote gnus, she scores 1 point.
• Self Appraisal. After the key phrase is selected and a time limit is determined, each player writes down a goal for the number of words. You score zero if you fail to reach your goal. If you reach your goal exactly, you get 2 points for each word. If you exceed your goal, you get 2 points for each word up to the number specified in your goal and 1 point for each additional word. (Reduced points for exceeding the goal is a punishment for underestimating your ability.)
• Creativity Wins. Each player forms an artificial word from the letters in the key phrase and provides an appropriate definition (example: megamilton—a person who has a way with words). After all players have displayed their word-definition combinations, each player votes for the best one. No player may vote for her own creation. The creator of the artificial word receiving the most votes wins the game.
• More than Words. Players construct a sentence using words that can be formed from the letters in the key phrase (examples: Ants sting men or Agouties eat gelatinous legumes). The creator of the sentence that contains the most letters wins the game. Alternatively, after all players have displayed their sentences, each player votes for the best one. No player may vote for her own sentence. The creator of the sentence receiving the most votes wins the game.

Remember, different scoring systems reward different types of behaviors and encourage different types of learning. You should carefully choose the scoring system to achieve your training objective. For example, if you want the players to think creatively, you should avoid giving them points for generating long lists of common words. Instead, you should use either of the last two scoring systems in the list above.

Follow-Up Activities

1. How many words can you come up by rearranging the letters in the phrase simulation games?
2. How many more alternative scoring systems can you come up with?
3. How can you use more than one scoring system in playing this game?

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99 Seconds

Draw a Hand

99 Seconds is a special type of training session in which the presenter makes a brisk, self-contained presentation that lasts for less than 99 seconds. For more information about this efficient training strategy, see the Tool Kit section of the April 2002 issue of PFP.

Although it is difficult to conduct a truly interactive exercise within 99 seconds, the April 2002 article lists some alternative strategies and gives examples. Here is another interesting 99 Seconds interactive exercise.

Place an index card and a pencil on each seat (to avoid wasting time distributing these items).

Ask everyone to draw a hand on the index card within 45 seconds. Pause while participants complete this task.

After 45 seconds (it doesn't matter if some of the artists are still working on their masterpieces), begin debriefing. Instead of conducting a discussion, present the major learning point this way:

How many of you looked at your hand or your neighbor's hand to draw the picture? Most of you did not. That is because we prefer to work with a mental picture even while the real world is staring in our face. We think with these mental pictures and we frequently base our performance on these mental pictures. Psychologists call the act of creating mental pictures generalization, abstraction, or concept acquisition. I call it stereotyping.

It does not matter if you draw a picture of a hand based on your mental picture. However, it does matter if you come up with a company policy based on your mental picture of a female employee. This is because your mental picture could be stereotypical and distorted and, therefore, your policy may not produce the intended effect on the wide range of people it is supposed to affect.

When was the last time you ignored reality and worked with a mental picture? Was your mental picture distorted?

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Event Alert

NASAGA 2005: Play Learn Perform

What is NASAGA?

The North American Simulation and Gaming Association (NASAGA; website at http://nasaga.org/) is a dynamic network of professionals, educators, military personnel and students exchanging ideas, designing, implementing, and evaluating games, simulations, and other experiential activities to improve individual and organizational performance. NASAGA's primary mission is to facilitate the use of simulations and games and to collect, develop, and spread information about the principles and procedures of interactive, experiential approaches to education, training, and performance improvement.

What is NASAGA 2005?

NASAGA 2005 is the 41st annual NASAGA Conference.

Experience the spectacular colors of a New England autumn during NASAGA's annual conference. “Play Learn Perform” is the theme—a blend of interactive activities and fun designed to help everyone be more productive on the job, in teams, and within their community. Come to Manchester, New Hampshire and experience a pre-conference, interactive concurrent sessions, dynamic keynote presenters, a banquet and dancing, as well as informal networking and professional development!

This year's conference features the NASAGA Training Game Design Certificate and an optional visit to the Browne Center for Innovative Learning.

Pre-Conference: October 5, 2005
Conference: October 6 - 8, 2005
Location: Manchester, New Hampshire.

Why you should attend NASAGA 2005?

Select and attend one of these full-day pre-conference workshops conducted by leading experts in the field (additional fee required):

• The Thiagi Group (Sivasailam Thiagarajan, Matt Richter, and Raja Thiagarajan)
• Scott Simmerman and Randy Hollandsworth
• William Wake and Les Lauber

Participate in Wednesday evening Opening Reception and New England Contra Dance.

Learn from keynote presentations by Clark Quinn, Ron Roberts, and Dennis Meadows.

Choose from twenty concurrent sessions such as

• Online Simulations for the Instruction of Interpersonal Communications — Randy Hollandsworth
• Bring Your Brain! Using Cranium to Energize, Icebreak, and Review — Katrina Kennedy
• Juggling and the Meaning of Life — Rob Peck and Sivasailam “Thiagi” Thiagarajan
• Get a Clue with Teambuilding Treasure Hunts — David Blum
• Harnessing the Power of Video Games for Education — Stefan Gunther
• Training To Imagine: Improv Designs for Inspired Training — Kat Koppett

Earn NASAGA's Training Game Design Certificate by attending a pre-group workshop and selected concurrent sessions. Receive a game-design manual and participate in on-line follow up. (Additional fee required.)

Visit the Browne Center for Innovative Learning, an outdoor education facility associated with the University of New Hampshire (includes bag lunch, transportation, and choice of Orienteering, Initiatives, Low Challenge Course, or High Challenge Course). (Additional fee required.)

Attend the closing program (Keynote presentation, benefit auction, dance, and more).

Hotel Information:

Radisson Hotel Manchester
700 Elm Street
Manchester, NH 03101
Phone: 603 625-1000
Conference Rate: $119/night
Reservations Code: NASAGA

Room rate and availability cannot be guaranteed after September 13, 2005.

For more information and registration, visit http://www.nasaga.org/conf_2005/ .

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Book Announcement

Thiagi's Interactive Lectures

A New Book by Thiagi

Thiagi's Interactive Lectures offers readers 27 well-tested interactive lecture activities capable of turning any stand-up presentation into true two-way communication.

This book explains how to

• effectively combine lectures and games in your training session
• blend new techniques with your existing style to create successful programs
• create engaging workshops that entice your learners and give them the tools they need to succeed.

From the inside front cover

The juxtaposition of the words “lecture” and “interactive” might at first appear an unlikely pairing, but Thiagi has manage to pull off an intellectual sleight of hand in Interactive Lectures so that the unusual word association makes perfect sense. While admitting that lectures are “probably the most ridiculed training technique,” Thiagi provides a solid argument for taking a second look at the method. He offers the readers seven well-tested interactive lecture frameworks capable of turning any stand-up presentation into true two-way communication by incorporating highly motivating game elements and stimulating activities. The book offers specific guidance on how and when to use the games and activities provided in the book along with step-by-step instructions for their application and blending in the classroom. In addition, icons throughout the book refer the reader to a full set of handouts that are included in the appendix section of the book.

From the outside back cover

Here's what three best-selling authors have to say about Thiagi's new book:

If you ever thought a lecture could never lead to learning, then Interactive Lectures will open your eyes. With easy-to-follow steps, Thiagi helps you discover that there is life beyond the usual death by lecture. You'll use this guide again and again. I know I will. —Mel Silberman, author of 101 Ways to Make Training Active and editor of The ASTD Training and Performance Sourcebooks

Thiagi, the master of interactive teaching-learning has made magic…again! With amazing dexterity, he has pulled a multitude of exciting learning activities out of a very few pages and created new life for otherwise dull lectures. I love his handouts. They alone are worth far more than the cost of this volume. Bravo, maestro…and thanks for tools that liven up our lectures, our learning, and our lives. —Harold D. Stolovitch, co-author of Telling Ain't Training and Training Ain't Performance

Don't just read this book—use it. Use it when you speak in front of audiences of thousands, hundreds, or just two. Use it in staff meetings. Use it when you design e-learning courses. Use it when writing proposals. No matter how you use it, this book will help you double your speaker evaluations and let you uncover the very essence of interactivity. —Clark Aldrich, author of Learning by Doing and Simulations and the Future of Learning

Thiagi's Interactive Lectures is now available from The Thiagi Group's online store.

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Pithy Saying

Words and Pictures

Both of these statements are true.

For example, when you want to describe the horrors of war, you may use a lot of words to capture the reality and evoke appropriate emotions. You can do it much more effectively and efficiently by showing a photograph showing of death and destruction.

How can a word be worth 10,000 pictures? That's because a picture shows just one specific instance of a concept or an idea. For example, the picture of my car is just a picture of a beat-up Honda Odyssey. If I want to communicate the general concept of an automobile, I have to show you pictures of different makes, models, colors, and sizes of cars beginning before the Model T. Instead, I can use the word “car” and invoke the generic concept of automobiles.

Effective training games should include both pictures and words. Our game boards and cards and slides should include text and illustration. Also, we should ask our participants to respond by drawing pictures saying words and writing them.

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