Stepaway Innovate Design and Play

Game design for corporate training, or game-thinking as Dr. Karl Kapp calls it, is important for instructional designers. Games are a tricky subject in corporate training and L&D. For some reason, work is not supposed to be fun. And games are fun. Games are what you play when you’re not working. So, bringing games into the workplace must be wrong, right?

Wrong.

I recently spent a week with a small group of professionals learning about innovation, play, and game design for corporate training in Florida. It was the inaugural StepAway.design event hosted by Dr. Karl Kapp, Kevin Thorn, and Deborah Thomas. These are three heavy hitters in the world of corporate training and L&D. If you are unfamiliar with them and their work, you should get to know them.

The experience falls into 3 main categories: Location, Design thinking, and game design for corporate training experiences. Stepaway was less of a conference and more of a small summit or retreat experience. The Great Escape was the perfect venue for just such a gathering. The LEGO Serious Play experience was more impactful than I was expecting and have new respect for those little plastic parts. And the main project that we all worked towards was designing our own card game. It’s a powerful combination for engaging attendees/learners.

Read the rest of the article here...