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Jim Lunsford speaks about "Serious Games for Leader and Team Training" at the 2012 Serious Play Conference ABSTRACT: Leadership, like most individual skills, is a combination of art and science. Although the best process to develop strong, adaptive, leaders is a repetitive cycle of selected study, constant practice, and quality reflection, traditional leader education and training relies almost solely on the instruction of science. Carefully designed and developed serious games provide the means for leaders, of all experience levels, to practice key cognitive skills in a dynamic and sometimes stressful environment. When individual reflection is facilitated by an expert coach, the ability of the leaders to better understand the consequences of their actions and why they occurred improves significantly. This process enables leaders to experience the art as well as the science of leadership in the classroom before practicing it for the first time within an organization.
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Serious Play Conference Serious Games For Leader and Team Training August 23, 2012 © 2012 Decisive-Point, All rights reserved.
Objective Provide an overview of what I think makes a “good” serious game an effective tool for Leader and Team Training Leader and Team Training © 2012 Decisive-Point, All rights reserved.
Overview • Training must be a continues cycle of study, practice and reflection. • Complex or abstract concepts become tangible when using a serious game Use of the game promotes improved visualization of • Use of the game promotes improved visualization of events with respect to time, space, distance, and capabilities. • Students can experiment and make bold decisions without suffering catastrophic failure. • Experience can be rapidly repeated. • Games can dramatically and effectively link cause and effect. © 2012 Decisive-Point, All rights reserved.
My “Ah-hah” Moment… CGSC, Spring 1998 © 2012 Decisive-Point, All rights reserved.
“Decisive Action” Exercise - 1998 © 2012 Decisive-Point, All rights reserved.
DA - PE 2 Combined Obstacle Overlay © 2012 Decisive-Point, All rights reserved.
DA - PE 1 Combined Obstacle Overlay DA - PE 2 RED Situation © 2012 Decisive-Point, All rights reserved.
DA - PE 1 Combined Obstacle Overlay DA - PE 2 BLUE Situation © 2012 Decisive-Point, All rights reserved.
“Decisive Action” Exercise - 1998 RED – Student Group 1 Task: Seize TABRON Purpose: To establish a shorter line of communication BLUE – Student Group 2 Task: Defeat the III Red Corps Purpose: To set the conditions for offensive operations Instructions to Both Groups: 1. Both sides will fight using U.S. doctrine 2. 6 hours to plan, 5 hours to “fight”, 1 hour for AAR 3. Before Battle: Quick briefing on estimate of situation and plan © 2012 Decisive-Point, All rights reserved.
Attacker’s Most Likely and Dangerous Courses of Action BlueG2_ECOA.wmv BlueG2_ECOA.wmv BLUE Intelligence Officer © 2012 Decisive-Point, All rights reserved.
Attacker’s Plan Red_COA_Short.wmv Red_COA_Short.wmv RED Commander © 2012 Decisive-Point, All rights reserved.
Results of “First Battle” • Students were very shocked to discover their plans were so predictable. • During the next 4 battles, they made every effort to out- think their opponent. • I discovered the great learning benefit of fighting “Blue against Blue”. • I realized that I was a mediocre instructor and a mediocre officer within a mediocre system. We were great at process (science of war), but weak at applying the science (art of war).
Another REDFOR Group… Play A301History.wmv © 2012 Decisive-Point, All rights reserved.
How does a person become a strong leader or an effective team member? team member? © 2012 Decisive-Point, All rights reserved.
Like any skill training, it must be cyclic. Study Science Art Reflection Practice © 2012 Decisive-Point, All rights reserved.
Where do most leaders and teams expend their efforts? © 2012 Decisive-Point, All rights reserved.
After all, we have a wealth of experience. Study Science Art Reflection Practice © 2012 Decisive-Point, All rights reserved.
What is a better model for continued growth and success? © 2012 Decisive-Point, All rights reserved.
Conduct quality practice and allocate more time and energy for selected study and critical reflection Selected Study Science Quality Practice Critical Reflection Art © 2012 Decisive-Point, All rights reserved.
Findings • An effective training approach supported by a “good” serious game can dramatically improve leadership and team skills. • Time spent learning to play the game is almost always wasted time! always wasted time! • Use crawl, walk, run, approach to increase training performance. • Emphasize process over outcomes. • The game must rapidly and continuously engage the students • Task repetition with additional factors increasingly difficult situations is critical to success © 2012 Decisive-Point, All rights reserved.
Findings • Instructor interaction should take place during the exercise, as needed, to highlight problems, coach before continuing further. • Require students to be responsible for much of their learning their learning • Create and inject compelling problems as needed to force student actions. • Simple videos introduced at the right time can create powerful effects. • No matter how good the game, the teacher will make or break the quality of the learning experience © 2012 Decisive-Point, All rights reserved.
® Jim Lunsford President Decisive-Point 816-584-2882 (Direct) 816-584-2883 (FAX) jim@decisive-point.com www.decisive-point.com © 2012 Decisive-Point, All rights reserved.