How the Heck Do I Get started?

By Christopher Saeger

This is an attempt to set down some of the questions that I consider when I start to design. If you find this messy, you should see what really happens!

Immersion: The point of immersion is to get a good feel for and a comprehensive view of the performance issue you are considering. You may gather a lot of information here. But paradoxically, you are gathering it to strip it to its learning essence later. Answer following questions

What is the performance (or social) issue?
What differing perspectives exist about the issue?
Who are the people involved (workers, managers, suppliers, customers)? What are the procedures, what are the underlying systems?
What documentation currently exists? What are the rewards and punishments?

Imagine: This step asks the question, What if it was only a game? Take what you gathered in immersion and group it into some headings:

What are the people/roles?
What are the playing pieces?
What are the rules (written and unwritten)?
What are the processes and systems?
What are the probabilities and risks?
What is the length of this game?
Where is the game played?
What are the prizes?

Integration: In this step you are connecting the “real world” game to other games. As you develop your answers to the questions above begin to think about what games come to mind.

Is it negotiations and bluffing that remind you of card games?
Is it a step-by-step process that makes you think of movement on a board?
Is it a journey with perils reminiscent of chutes and ladders?
Strategies like monopoly?
Differing degrees of power as with chess pieces?

You get the idea. Be open to many ideas in this step. Your game will probably be a combination of many other game ideas. As you think about the game, consider the learners.

How does their knowledge and experience affect the level of the simulation?
What are the most important roles for the players to take on?
How are they likely to react to games or simulations?
How concrete an experience do you need to provide?

Implementation: From Imagining and Integration you will have some ideas. It's time to take get some news print and begin to sketch out a game board. Grab some poker chips, coins, or whatever's handy and put them to work as game pieces. Alternatively you might decide to get out a deck of cards and being to layout the play. As you experiment, think about how the play affects the players? Are they just gaming or does the play begin to engage them with the learning outcomes.

Once I have the game concept at this level its time to flesh it out a bit and play with friends to get some reaction. This is also the time to think more about the role of the facilitator. In the initial testing you are trying to answer the following questions:

Is the purpose clear?
Are the instructions easy to follow?
Do the players indicate that what happens in the game matches their experience of the world?
Does the simulation game experience allow players to make connections to their work?

Next Steps: Then comes the full development effort. This can involve writing of facilitation guides, participant materials, game pieces and possibly game boards. I will save these for another time.