If we want staff to develop we must deliver the knowledge, skills and confidence they need to make improvements.
Effective training is the key to successful performance improvement. But engaging staff with training can be a challenge. Why?
When we’re young, we learn by playing. It’s noisy and its fun. Then we get older and we sit in a room and stare at a screen. Have we lost the vital ingredients that make learning fun and memorable?
We’d like to persuade you that board games can make learning and change more enjoyable and more effective.
Board games bring people together to discuss new information, share experiences and enjoy themselves. Games are the framework for a structured series of discussions that the players manage themselves. It doesn’t feel like training but it is. They will learn more, remember more and do more because they’re relaxed and open to new ideas.
You’ve read about ‘serious’ games in training, you may use them. But we bet most of them are digital and offer a solitary experience for learners; no dynamic and creative group interaction. We use board games to bring that learning experience back into workplace.
Games are portable, self-contained and don’t need a specialist facilitator. Your teams will learn more in less time, so the training will be more cost-effective. And it’ll be fun.
Of course, this isn’t just our opinion – many organisations are successfully using board games in their learning and development programmes. Our games are being played in hundreds of hospitals and care home helping staff improve patient safety. In the private sector McDonalds Restaurants uses one of our board games as the first step of their induction meeting. It’s an educational board game that helps new staff learn how to deliver a great customer experience, and it’s had a very positive influence. You can read a Case Study about the McDonalds Welcome Game here.