Play/Game-Based Facilitation Technique

Why?

If we were to do a survey to any sample audience in a corporate world ((and also in educational institutions) on what challenges they are facing today, one would hear answers like information overload, distractions, change management initiatives, technology explosion, complexity, stress……. And how are organizations dealing with this – arranging training sessions, creating the latest learning material content accessible, arranging team outings/fun Events, creating employee engagement programs, etc. While all of these are important and need to be done, what should be understood is these do not address some of the underlying challenges. Here are a few. Standardized learning content does not cater to different learning capacity/absorption rates. Content would also have to cater to different kinds of learners – V(Visual), A(Auditory), R(Read-Write), or K(Kinaesthetic). Also, most people continue to use power-points with a lot of information, and retention rates are very low this way. Humans are social beings by nature and these should be taken care of in learning facilitation, Lastly, most organizations view play/fun as the opposite of work/learning, which is not true.

What?

Is there a facilitation method that addresses all of these? Yes, it does and that is the Play/Game-Based Facilitation technique. This uses a game/fun activity around the central theme of facilitation. It could be a board/card/activity-based game that has a good proportion of learning and fun

How?

The facilitator should first try to see the availability of existing games that fit the scenario. If not, they could customize any of the commonly known games/activities or design new ones by reading/researching. Once the game/activity is identified, try creating the necessary kits (maybe for a board/card game, the relevant material), for a digital game, the screen props relevant to the game display, and other relevant things. The next thing is to design appropriate team sizes for the audience. Ideal team sizes would be in the range of 4-6 people. Distribute the kits and ask them to play. After they complete the play, the facilitator needs to make each member/group reflect and share their insights/takeaways. This should be followed by the facilitator sharing their views/insights for the benefit of the entire audience.

Material Aids:

A writeup with photos embedded: https://bit.ly/EffChangeThruGames