Working in Groups

I regularly participate in #lrnchat. 

From their website: "#lrnchat is an online chat over the social messaging service Twitter. #lrnchat is on Thursdays at 8:30-9:30pm ET/5:30-6:30pm PT. Participants are people interested in the topic of learning from one another and who want to discuss how to help other people learn in formal, informal, social and mobile ways. The official Twitter account is @lrnchat"

For the week of February 20, the topic for #lrnchat was "Working in Groups".

Here are some of the questions that we discussed as a group and my responses to each question. 

@lrnchat: Q1) In groups you participate in, what makes them work better? #lrnchat

• A1) Trust, collaboration, clear goals and willingness to convince or be convinced #lrnchat
• A1) I work best within groups that work towards a common goal and leave their roles and egos outside the room! #lrnchat

@lrnchat Q2) What leads to better group performance? #lrnchat

• A2) Goals, specific timelines, planning key deliverables and establishing communication protocols = better performance #lrnchat
• A2) Taking calculated risks, allowing everyone to ‘shine’ and investing in that moment/effort completely = better performance
• A2) Recognizing and appreciating diversity and finding a way to make different skills and talent count = better group performance 
• A2) Lack of clear communication is perhaps the weakest link in a group performance. Not a weak person but a weak process. #lrnchat

@lrnchat: Q3) What impedes group problem-solving? #lrnchat

• A3) When groups start to solve ‘people’ rather than ‘problems’!  #lrnchat
• A3) “Solutions” impede problem solving. The group should not arrive with solutions instead they must generate them together. #lrnchat

@lrnchat: Q4) How does emotional intelligence help working in groups? #lrnchat

• A4) Emotional intelligence can help in better communication and in understanding the fine print :)  #lrnchat
• A4) Emotional intelligence can also help the group moderator add some organized chaos to the discussion. #sayyestothemess #lrnchat

@lrnchat: Q5) What other practices foster group problem-solving? #lrnchat

• A5) Time, attention, abilities, processes, spaces, roles and responsibilities and communication foster group problem solving #lrnchat
• A5) Trust, fun, appreciation, recognition and implementation of the solutions fosters continued positive performance #lrnchat
• A5) Leaving the problems and discussions in the room and not bringing it back to work or home fosters group problem solving #lrnchat

@lrnchat: Q6) How can better group problem-solving be facilitated? #lrnchat

• A6) Facilitator must stay neutral and objective and have a structured process to help group arrive at solutions #lrnchat
• A6) Read this somewhere: Facilitators must be in control, but not controlling #lrnchat

If you like the questions and my responses, you can check out the transcript for the complete chat. There were some fantastic insights shared by the group. You are welcome to join us next time! There's lots to learn and share.

What Makes Me Happy At Work?

"What Makes You Happy? Training 2014 Conference & Expo and keynote speaker and happiness guru Shawn Achor wants to know." 

I won't be able to join Shawn at Training 2014 Conference & Expo, February 3-5, 2014, in San Diego but I'd like to thank him and the organizers for this opportunity to reflect and share my version of 'what makes me happy at work'. I just submitted the following as my 'response' to the survey question, "What (specifically) makes you happy at work? What are you doing and what are other people doing?". 

What makes me happy at work?

This list is partly what I do and partly what others do. But at the end of the day, I know that I am responsible for my own happiness. And the way to begin is to be happy.

I am happy at work when I...

• am happy with myself and the direction of my personal life.
• exercise, meditate or listen to good music before I start work. 
• begin work with a positive mind and feel open to taking up challenging tasks and additional responsibilities.
• feel grateful for the day and know that I will be able to accomplish something significant and important.
• am motivated to accomplish meaningful, interesting and creative tasks every day.
• work with supervisors, colleagues and clients who smile often, enjoy an intellectual discussion and are open to convince or be convinced by others.
• receive positive feedback and reinforcement for a job well done and developmental feedback when I go wrong.
• receive time, attention and encouragement to focus on my own professional development and participate in continuous learning.
• get to reflect on all my experiences, publish a blog and receive encouraging reader comments.
• feel I have impacted the world (or a part of it) in a positive way.

PS: Judging by Shawn's TED talk, I am sure there will be several happy people at the end of his keynote address! 

Why Training Should Be More Like Candy Crush?

Candy Crush Saga is the most popular game on Facebook, iOS and the Android Play Store. It is a simple match-three puzzle game. But it is more than that... as every Candy Crush player lives to tell. 
I am far from being a facebook gamer but I started playing the game this December. My objective was to understand and analyse the reason behind the game's astounding success and try and identify some parallels between good games and successful training. And I wasn't disappointed. This candy is addictive! But I wish all training was.

Here's why training should be more like Candy Crush:

1) Levels: Life is not a straight line. If it was, it would have been boring. Levels and challenges make the game interesting. When you complete one level, there is another one waiting to be explored. Following a training path with pre-defined levels would be a good way to progress in one's career. Just-in-time and just-enough are two principles that can help create these levels of training.

2) Lives: The game has limited resources. There is a default number of lives available. This scarcity of lives makes one appreciate the resources that are available and play in a more optimum manner. All training should be more sensitive to the availability of real-life resources and establish that we need to make the most of what we have. Less can be more.

3) Special Candies: When more than three candies of the same colour are matched, the game produces special candies. These special candies have special effects and can help you quickly get the required score. You can also spin a wheel to grab special candies that help you accomplish challenging goals. All training should ensure such short-term benefits, rewards and achievements. These rewards are the motivational factors that help us achieve our objectives and continue on.

4) Obstacles: Obstacles or blockers appear in some levels. They are designed to make the level more challenging and in that sense make it unpredictable. All learning could benefit from including real-life obstacles and problems that add variety and challenge to the learning process.

5) Ask Friends: This is my favorite bit and perhaps the most meaningful. Candy crush is a game you play with friends and family. When stuck on any level, you can request your community of friends for extra lives. You also need friends to help you unlock new levels (or you can buy new levels). This is so unlike most training. Most training is formal and is designed to be from one (instructor) to many (students) Instead, it should be more social and informal and allow for many-to-many relationships. Training should be designed in a way that makes you want to interact and seek support from your network of 'friends' aka experts or colleagues. This social support and community collaboration should help you move ahead in the training path.

Well, everything said, the game is fun. Period. The visuals, the sound effects and the motivating voice, all make it very likable. And because you can start and stop anytime, almost anywhere you are, you tend to think about the game often! Being age and gender neutral also takes it a longer way than most other games. 

There are many things to learn from games such as Candy Crush. But gamification of learning is more than just building games into learning. It is a systematic process of using specific strategies that are based on the principles of gaming. 

Gamification expert, Yu-Kai Chou has developed a framework called Octalysis that presents eight core drives of gamification. It is an actionable framework that can help developers 'gamify' games, products and campaigns. Chou's Level 1 of Octalysis framework includes the following eight drives:

1. Epic Meaning & Calling
2. Development & Accomplishment
3. Empowerment of Creativity & Feedback
4. Ownership & Possession
5. Social Influence and Relatedness
6. Scarcity & Impatience
7. Curiosity & Unpredictability
8. Loss & Avoidance

These drives are plotted in an octagon shape and represent the side of the brain they appeal to. The right-side appeals to creativity, social aspects and self-expression. The left-side appeals to logic, calculation and ownership.

According to Chou (@yukaichou), every successful game appeals to one, if not more, of these core drives. Further, each drive is associated with specific game mechanics and tactics. Here, you can see some interesting examples where Farmville, Facebook and Twitter are plotted on this framework.

Some other useful resources from Chou include:

• Beginner's guide to gamification 
• Framework for actionable gamification for Accenture 
• Comprehensive list of gamification cases with ROI

I think Chou's framework has a place in the learning industry and everything else that involves motivational factors - intrinsic or extrinsic. As learning designers, we can use this framework to 'gamify' our learning intervention and identify aspects of design that are likely to make most impact. Yes, training will have core requirements including performance improvement and developing job skills. But if we are looking at gamifying our learning, this is an actionable framework that can help us score our game-based learning design and assess which drive is being used and to what extent. 

PS: If you are into Candy Crush, here's Chou's analysis of Candy Crush using the Octalysis framework. Some of my friends claim they see candies in their dreams :) I will eagerly wait for the day when people see good training in their dreams and can't wait to get back to it!