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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
© 2012 Decisive-Point, All rights reserved.
August 23, 2012
Objective
Provide an overview of what I think makes a
“good” serious game an effective tool for
Leader and Team TrainingLeader 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 events • 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
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DA - PE 2 Combined Obstacle Overlay
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DA - PE 1 Combined Obstacle OverlayDA - PE 2 RED Situation
© 2012 Decisive-Point, All rights reserved.
DA - PE 1 Combined Obstacle OverlayDA - PE 2 BLUE Situation
© 2012 Decisive-Point, All rights reserved.
“Decisive Action” Exercise - 1998
RED – Student Group 1Task: Seize TABRON Purpose: To establish a shorter line of communication
BLUE – Student Group 2Task: Defeat the III Red CorpsPurpose: 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
BLUE Intelligence Officer
BlueG2_ECOA.wmv
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Attacker’s Plan
Red_COA_Short.wmv
RED Commander
Red_COA_Short.wmv
© 2012 Decisive-Point, All rights reserved.
• 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.
Results of “First Battle”
• 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
© 2012 Decisive-Point, All rights reserved.
PracticeReflection
Science
Art
Where do most leaders and teams expend their efforts?
© 2012 Decisive-Point, All rights reserved.
Study
After all, we have a wealth of experience.
© 2012 Decisive-Point, All rights reserved.
PracticeReflection
Science
Art
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
© 2012 Decisive-Point, All rights reserved.
Science
ArtQuality Practice
Critical Reflection
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 learningtheir 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 LunsfordPresident
Decisive-Point
816-584-2882 (Direct)
816-584-2883 (FAX)
www.decisive-point.com
© 2012 Decisive-Point, All rights reserved.
