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Ref: 527796-LLP-1-2012-1-ES-LEONARDO-LMP

WP2- Analysis of use of game based learning initiatives

NATIONAL REPORT

Country: United States of America

Author: Michael P. Carter, PhD

Date: 1 April 2013

Disclaimer: “This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.”

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Table of Contents

1. Introduction to the Report ............................................................................................3

2. Methodological approach to elaborate the report .........................................................3

3. Desk research ...............................................................................................................3

4. Major findings of the interviews ................................................................................. 26

5. Major findings of the questionnaires ........................................................................... 30

6. Major findings of the focus groups .............................................................................. 31

7. Conclusions and remarks ............................................................................................ 36

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1. Introduction to the Report

This report reflects years of practical experience building and managing companies and

international projects and teams within them, as well as months of homework on the

state of the shelf in international project management pedagogy and game-based

learning initiatives. The focus of the research was primarily on international project

management, international project management training, and game-based learning as

it is practiced in the United States, however, given the topic those consulted had, to a

person, global experience. The primary author of the report is Dr. Michael P. Carter,

principal at Twin Learning LLC, and those with whom he consulted are part of his

professional and, in some cases, personal network. Each was a seasoned international

project manager and some were serial entrepreneurs who have started, grown, and

sold entire companies spawned from their own vision.

2. Methodological approach to elaborate the report

We took the approach in our search for best practices and in our discussions with

experts in the fields of training, games, and international project management that

one manages things, but one leads people, so sought out those who might give us the

most insight into modern leadership practices and how one goes about learning them.

We spoke with both trainers and game developers with decades of experience to

understand what activities one could engage learners in to fruitfully support their

interest in becoming better managers of projects and leaders of teams.

3. Desk research

Game-based learning initiatives in professional contexts have a long history in the US,

particularly in the form of simulations. Many of efforts undertaken in the last four

decades have been documented in Simulation & Gaming (S&G), an interdisciplinary

journal of theory, practice and research that has served as a leading forum for the

exploration and development of simulation/gaming methodologies used in education,

training, consultation, and research. Published bi-monthly, S&G appraises academic

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and applied issues in the expanding fields of simulation; computer and internet

mediated simulation, virtual reality, educational games, video games, industrial

simulators, active and experiential learning, case studies, and related methodologies

(sag.sagepub.com).

Founded in 1969, the International Simulation and Gaming Association (ISAGA) is an

international organization for scientists and practitioners who develop and use

simulation, gaming (in the meaning of learning games) and related methodologies:

role-play, structured experiences, policy exercises, computer simulation, play, virtual

reality, game theory, debriefing, experiential learning, and active learning. Gambling is

expressly excluded from the interests of the organization (isaga.com).

One of the earliest initiatives at the national level in the US in this century is Serious

Games Initiative (seriousgames.org), a network of institutions, agencies, studios, and

individuals focused on games for learning and, more particularly, training and social

initiatives. The first meeting of the Serious Games movement was held in San Francisco

at the annual Game Developers Conference (GDC) in March of 2004 and was convened

by Ben Sawyer, whose work combining a higher education financial planning model

with a SimCity-like interface led to Virtual U.

An effort to pull together those focused on developing and sharing games for social

change convened a Games for Change at a Serious Issues, Serious Games conference in

New York in June of 2004 (gamesforchange.org). The event was organized with the

support of the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars and Serious Games

Initiative was by Suzanne Seggerman of Web Lab, Benjamin Stokes of NetAid, Barry

Joseph of Global Kids, David Rejeski of the Woodrow Wilson Center for International

Scholars and Thomas Lowenhaupt of the Queens Community Board. Both initiatives

thrive today, as does an annual Games for Health conference.

In October of 2005 the Federation of American Scientists convened 100 experts to a

National Summit on Educational Games to discuss ways to accelerate the

development, commercialization, and deployment of new generation games for

learning. Participants included: executives from the video game industry and education

software publishers, researchers and experts on technology and pedagogy, game

developers, representatives of user communities such as teachers and the U.S.

military, R&D funders, and government policy makers.

The Summit focused on four issues: video game features useful for learning and

aspects of learning that could be supported by video games, research needed to

support the effective use of games for education and training, market barriers, and

changes in schools that might be needed to take advantage of educational games.

http://sag.sagepub.com/

http://www.isaga.com/

http://www.seriousgames.org/

http://gamesforchange.org/

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Their conclusions at the time as to what stood in the way of bringing games and

simulations to learning included:

• High development costs and an uncertain market for educational innovations

make investments in developing learning games similar to commercial video

games too risky for the video game and educational materials industries.

• Organizations are slow to adopt new innovations, and make the

organizational and instructional changes necessary to make good use of new

learning technologies.

• While games may be especially good at teaching higher order skills, these

skills are not typically assessed in standards of learning-types of examinations.

• Data from evaluations is needed to show that learning games are effective.

The summit produced a full report and a learning science and technology R&D

roadmap.1

In the late ‘80’s Apple Computer’s Advanced Technology Group had several projects,

both hardware and software, targeted at developing the tools, platform, and content

most appropriate to practical training. SK8 (“Skate”) was an intelligent multimedia

authoring environment intended to be used to develop training materials and

simulations, for example, in the aircraft/airline industries. Use of simulations and

games in military and corporate training pre-dates these national initiatives. IBM, by

contrast, used simulated conversations for soft skills training; WICAT, among others,

prospered making training simulations.

In recent years, the discourse on game-based learning has become somewhat

confounded by the introduction of the notion of gamification, originally coined in the

context of services such as Bunchball. Founded by Rajat Paharia in 2005, Bunchball

provides a cloud-based software as a service technology platform to help companies

improve customer loyalty and online engagement using game mechanics. A classic

example of gamification is rewards programs, such as “frequent-flyer.” This use of

rewards, reputation systems, and game mechanics has spilled over into the training

industry, in part because of the extreme initial success of such social game studios as

Zynga, whose Farmville went from 0 to 50 million MAUs (monthly active users) in a 1 Federation of American Scientists (2006). Summit on Educational Games: Harnessing the power of video games for learning. Washington, D.C.: Federation of American Scientists.

http://www.fas.org/gamesummit/Resources/Summit%20on%20Educational%20Games.pdf. The Learning Federation (2006). Learning Science and Technology R&D Roadmap. Washington, D.C.: Federation of American Scientists.

http://www.fas.org/gamesummit/Resources/LST%20Roadmap.pdf

http://www.fas.org/gamesummit/Resources/Summit%20on%20Educational%20Games.pdf

http://www.fas.org/gamesummit/Resources/LST%20Roadmap.pdf

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matter of months, largely because it gave a generation of Facebook users something to

do on the platform. Now the movement to “gamify” communities, sites, and activities

has taken hold in the training, education, and consumer world, at least in the US. The

most explicit guide on how to apply game mechanics and principles of motivation

derived from games is Gabe Zichermann and Christopher Cunningham’s Gamification

by Design.2 The book is very explicit on notions such as engagement, i.e., loyalty, and

lists the metrics it is to be measured by as recency, frequency, duration, virality, and

ratings. It discusses in detail player motivation with respect to pleasure, rewards, and

time, dwelling on force, flow, reinforcement, intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation, and the

player’s progression to mastery. The authors go into game mechanics in depth,

covering pattern recognition, collecting, surprise and unexpected delight, organizing

and creating order, gifting, flirtation and romance, recognition for achievement,

leading others, fame (getting attention), being the hero, gaining status, nurturing

(growing). It cites case studies and even includes two tutorials, one on coding and one

on gamification platforms.

In looking for reliable knowledge and expertise that could contribute intelligence to

the effort to design and develop social games to develop international project

management competences, we reviewed two distinct literatures, the literature of

modern management and leadership, and the literature of games and learning.

In the former category, the literature of modern management and leadership, the

sources of most interest were those authored by leaders and managers who had

repeatedly successfully managed the growth of projects, products, and companies, and

lived to tell about it. For example, Steven Gary Blank’s The Four Steps to Epiphany3

shares basic lessons that the author learned over a quarter century as a successful

entrepreneur (5 IPO’s) and has tried to share as a mentor of startups and teacher at

Stanford and UC Berkeley business schools. He tries to explain the steps in a “customer

development,” as opposed to a “product development” model, including customer

discovery, validation, and creation, and company building. He goes into even greater

detail in the work he co-authored with Bob Dorf, The Startup Owner’s Manuel,4 and in

the last chapter details the metrics one should use to validate the direction things are

going in, better to decide whether to “pivot,” shift that direction. Blank and Dorf use

extensively the work of the Swiss business consultant Alexander Osterwalder and

2 Zichermann, G. & Cunningham, C. (2011) Gamification by design: Implementing game mechanics in web and mobile apps. Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly 3 Blank, S. (2005). The Four steps to the epiphany: Successful strategies for products that win. Cafepress.com 4 Blank, S. and Dorf, B. (2012). The Startup owner’s manual: The Step-by-step guide for building a great company. Pescadero, CA: K&S Ranch, Inc.

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management professor Yves Pigneur, Business Model Generation,5 which prompts

leadership to consider the building blocks essential to a successful company and, in

this context, to iterate to achieve appropriate product/market fit and establish the key

activities required to deliver that fit. A student of Blank’s, and a successful

entrepreneur in his own right, Eric Reis’ The Lean Startup6 seeks to guide leaders

through the process of continuous iteration on customers’ reactions to your ideas and

your product, from MVP (minimum viable product) forward. Ries, in effect, replaces

the “continuous improvement” of the Six Sigma era with “continuous innovation.”

In the second category, the literature of games and learning, we found and re-

discovered both classics and cutting edge works. We still credit James Paul Gee, now of

Arizona State University, with cutting the Gordian knot by demonstrating that good

game design is good pedagogy.7 Dan Schwartz has continued at Stanford the work he

and John Bransford began at Peabody School of Education at Vanderbilt University in

Nashville, Tennessee,8 and has co-authored a new work on assessment, one of keys to

motivation and engagement that Gee points to in games.9 Professor Schwartz’s co-

author and academic advisee, Dr. Dylan Arena, has simultaneously distinguished

himself as co-founder of Kidaptive.com, a company creating early learning games for

the iPad that assess players rigorously and report progress effectively.10

The study of games and how to make them are legitimate academic exercises, and

game degree programs are proliferating across Europe and the United States. Here in

the US, the classic textbook in game design, Rules of Play, was authored by Katie Salen,

then of the Parsons New School of Design, now of DePaul University College of

Computing and Digital Media, and Eric Zimmerman, game designer, entrepreneur,

artist, author, and academic who has been working in the game industry for nearly 20

5 Osterwalder, A. and Pigneur, Y. (2010). Business model generation: A Handbook for visionaries, game changers, and challengers. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. 6 Ries, E. (2011). The Lean startup: How today’s entrepreneurs use continuous innovation to create radically successful businesses. New York, NY: Crown Business 7 Gee, J.P. (2008). Learning and games. In Salen, K., Ed., The Ecology of games: Connecting youth, games, and learning. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, pp. 21-40. http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/chapters/0262294249chap2.pdf 8 Bransford, J. & Schwartz, D. (1999) Rethinking transfer: a simple proposal with multiple

implications. In A. Iran-Nejad & P. Pearson (Eds.), Review of Research in Education, Chapter 3, Vol. 24, pp. 61-100. Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association (AERA). 9 Schwartz, D. and Arena, D. (2013). Measuring what matters most. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Reports on Digital Media and Learning. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. http://dmlhub.net/sites/default/files/9780262518376_Measuring_What_Matters_Most_0.pdf 10 Kidaptive.com (2012) Leo’s Pad: Preschool Kids Learning Series! Palo Alto, CA: Kidaptive.com. Available on the App Store. http://kidaptive.com

http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/chapters/0262294249chap2.pdf

http://dmlhub.net/sites/default/files/9780262518376_Measuring_What_Matters_Most_0.pdf

http://kidaptive.com/

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years. Along with its companion reader, is still used in college game design programs

today.11 More recently, their textbook has found some competition in the higher

education market and the commercial game industry in the form of a new textbook by

Jesse Schell, professor of entertainment technology and game design at the

Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), and

founder and CEO of Schell Games, which has a companion deck of cards, each of the

hundred of which is a different lens on the game design process.12

In the human resources and training world, several works serve as how-to guides. Clark

Aldrich, designer of the seminal leadership simulation, Virtual Leader,13 has written

three books which detail best practices for the use of learning games and

simulations,14 and has even authored a text for undergraduate and graduate

programs.15 In his works he touches on how best to engage learners through narrative

and activities of escalating complexity. He walks his reader thorough the various

models that are the basis of training simulation, whether state-based or AI systems,

mathematical or work process systems, even community as the system for simulated

learning.

Clark Quinn, who participated in our focus group discussion, is the author of an

interesting book on mobile learning in the enterprise, Designing mLearning: Tapping

into the Mobile Revolution for Organizational, and co-author with Marcia Conner of a

useful guide to game-based learning focused on simulation games and role-playing

entitled Performance Engaging Learning: Designing e-Learning Simulation Games.16 It

was Clark who brought to my attention last year a tome written by Wills, Leigh, and Ip

11 Salen, K. & Zimmerman, E. (2003) Rules of play: game design fundamentals. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Professor Salen is also the editor of the collection cited above in reference to Jim Gee’s article. 12 Schell, J. (2008) The Art of game design: A Book of lenses. New York and Amsterdam: Elsevier Morgan Kauffmann Publishers, and, Schell, J. (2008) The Art of game design: A Deck of lenses. Pittsburgh, PA: Schell Games. 13 See, http://www.clarkaldrichdesigns.com/p/examples-of-simulations.html and http://www.simulearn.net 14 Aldrich, C. (2003). Simulations and the future of learning. New York, NY: Pfeiffer. Aldrich, C. (2005) Learning by doing: a Comprehensive guide to simulations, computer games, and pedagogy in e-learning and other educational experiences. New York, NY: Pfeiffer. Aldrich, C. (2009) The Complete guide to simulations and serious games: How the most valuable content will be created in the age beyond Gutenberg to Google. New York, NY: Pfeiffer. 15 Aldrich, C. (2009) Learning online with games, simulations, and virtual worlds: Strategies for online instruction. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. 16 Quinn, C. (2011). Designing mLearning: Tapping into the Mobile Revolution for

Organizational Performance. New York, NY: Pfeiffer. Quinn, C. & Conner, M. (2005) Engaging learning: Designing e-learning simulation games (Pfeiffer Essential Resources for Training and HR Professionals). New York, NY: Pfeiffer.

http://www.clarkaldrichdesigns.com/p/examples-of-simulations.html

http://www.simulearn.net/

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on the subject of role-based online learning and targets educators and trainers

“seeking to engage students in collaboration and communication about authentic

scenarios.”17 Drawing on their extensive experience and practice it aspires to be a

“comprehensive guide to the design, implementation, and evaluation” of the role-

playing approach to learning.

My favorite g4m3r is Jane McGonigal, who, while completing her doctorate at the

University of California Berkeley in performing arts and media, was also puppet master

on one of the most successful early alternate reality games (ARGs), I Love Bees, which

game she describes in an essay drawn from her dissertation in Professor Salen’s

collection, The Ecology of Games.18 Her recent best-seller, Reality is Broken, discusses

games she has made and played and argues that by drawing on play one can motivate

players to make positive contributions to the world.19 At least two of her games in

which we participated have done so with some success. World without Oil got people

thinking and describing how an oil shortage would impact their lives, and Urgent Evoke

had them encouraging social entrepreneurship. She reveals “four secrets” to making

ourselves happy, viz., satisfying work, the experience (or hope) of being successful,

social connection, and meaning, and argues that including these in activities can keep

people engaging in collectively accomplishing something that might never have

otherwise.

WORKS CITED

# Author(s) Publ Title Subjects Publisher

1 Aldrich, C. 2003 Simulations and the

future of learning

Simulation design Pfieffer

2 Aldrich, C. 2005 Learning by doing Comprehensive guide to

simulations, computer

games, and pedagogy in

e-learning and other

educational experiences.

Pfieffer

3 Aldrich, C. 2009 Learning online with

games, simulations,

and virtual worlds

Strategies for online

instruction

Jossey-Bass

4 Aldrich, C. 2009 The Complete guide

to simulations and

serious games

Simulations and games,

design

Pfieffer

5

Blank, S. 2005 The Four steps to the

epiphany

Product strategies Cafepress.com

17 Wills, S., Leigh, E. & Ip, A. (2011). The power of role-based e-learning. New York: Routledge. 18 McGonigal, J. (2008) Why I Love Bees: A Case study in collective intelligence gaming. In Salen, K. (Ed.) The Ecology of Games: Connecting Youth, Games, and Learning. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. 199–228. http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/chapters/0262294249chap9.pdf 19 McGonigal, J. (2011) Reality is broken: Why games make us better and how they can change the world. New York, NY: Penguin Press.

http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/chapters/0262294249chap9.pdf

10

6 Blank, S. & Dorf,

B.

2012 The Starup owner’s

manual

Step-by-step guide for

building a company

K&S Ranch,

Inc.

7 Bransford, J. &

Schwartiz, D.

1999 Rethinking

transfer: a simple

proposal with

multiple

implications.

In A. Iran-Nejad & P.

Pearson (Eds.), Review

of Research in

Education

AERA

8 Federation of

American

Scientists

2006 Summit on

Educational Games

Harnessing the power of

video games for learning

FAS

9

Gee, J.P. 2008 Learning and

games.

In Salen, K., Ed., The

Ecology of games.

Game design and

pedagogy

The MIT Press

10 The Learning

Federation

2006

Learning Science and

Technology R&D

Roadmap

FAS

11 McGonigal, J. 2008 Why I Love Bees: A

Case study in

collective

intelligence gaming.

In Salen, K., Ed., The

Ecology of games.

Alternate Reality

Games

The MIT Press

12 McGonigal, J. 2011 Reality is broken:

Why games make us

better and how they

can change the world

Structuring play,

learning, motivation

Penguin Press

13 Osterwalder, A. &

Pigneur, Y.

2010 Business model

generation

A Handbook for

visionaries, game

changers, and challengers

John Wiley &

Sons

14 Quinn, C.

2005 Designing

mLearning: Tapping

into the Mobile

Revolution for

Organizational

Performance

Enterprise mobile

solutions

Pfeiffer

15 Quinn, C. &

Conner, M.

2005 Engaging learning:

Designing e-learning

simulation games

Game and simulation

design

Pfeiffer

16 Ries, E. 2011 The Lean startup How today’s

entrepreneurs use

continuous innovation to

create radically

successful businesses

Crown Business

17 Salen, K., Ed. 2008

The Ecology of

games: Connecting

youth, games, and

learning.

Articles on games and

learning

The MIT Press

18 Salen, K. &

Zimmerman, E.

2003 Rules of play: game

design fundamentals

Game design The MIT Press

19 Schell, J. 2008 The Art of game

design: A Book of

lenses

Game design Elsevier

Morgan

Kauffmann

Publishers

20 Schell, J. 2008 The Art of game

design: A Deck of

lenses

Game design Schell Games

11

21 Schwartz, D. &

Arena, D.

2013 Measuring what

matters most

Choice-based assessment The MIT Press

22 Wills, S., Leigh,

E. & Ip, A.

2011 The power of role-

based e-learning

Simulation, role-playing,

learning

Routledge

23 Zichermann, G.

& Cunningham,

C.

2011 Gamification by

design

Implementing game

mechanics in web and

mobile apps

O’Reilly

From our past and most recent reviews of games that demonstrate good practices we

culled ten that had something of particular interest to the current effort. The

pedagogical approach that seems to offer the most interesting possibilities for learning

competences is, of course, the role-playing simulation that allows learners to be fully

engaged by learning from their mistakes. The better examples of this can be adapted

to the needs of the learner both in terms of competency and of level of proficiency.

Furthermore, the simulations that involve multiple learners, rather than simulated

colleagues, offer a richness of both content and interaction that is more likely to yield

results that are transferrable to the real world than ones in which the programmed

content is interactive but the vital component of communication among real

professionals is automated.

Title of the good practice Countdown: A Strategy Game for Project Teams

Country USA

Brief description of the good practice. Hybrid. Social (team).

Promoter of the initiative (person or

institution that developed it) Paradigm Learning

Target group

Project managers new to their responsibilities;

project managers who would benefit from a

refresher; project team members who need to

understand concepts, terminology, tools and

techniques.

Type of game used to implement the

initiative and its use Simulation

Contents included in the game

Countdown immerses participants in an intense

project that lasts seven simulated months. Small

teams of participants move through project

milestones, make critical decisions, communicate

with stakeholders and manage trade-offs — all

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under tight deadlines and shifting information.

Less than an hour into the game, teams work

with a Gantt chart, estimate potential delays and

costs, evaluate the critical path, assess project

risks and make important decisions as they drive

a project to success

Competences developed by playing

the game

Participants will understand the five key

processes of project management; the

constraints of time, cost and requirements; how

to use meetings and scope statements to clarify

project sponsors' expectations; risk evaluation

and contingency planning; using critical path

diagrams to determine completion goals; critical

behaviors and processes used by project

managers to guide success; effective personal

and team behaviors for controlling a project,

including communication, commitment and

conflict resolution; alignment of project

objectives with business value and ROI; the use

of key tools; and more.

Educational and pedagogical approach

Problem Solving: guides and motivates learners

to find solutions by pulling together information

and generalizing knowledge.

Learner Management: allows participants,

working alone or in small teams, to learn in their

own ways and at their own pace.

Integrating and Connecting: encourages

integration of new knowledge into the learner's

existing knowledge base and clearly connect to

the real world.

Number of users – players Project teams

Transferability – reusability Proprietary

Sustainability of the game Proprietary

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Impact (indicate quantitative and

qualitative indicators used to assess it) Proprietary

Evaluation (indicate the qualitative or

quantitative methodologies/tools to

implement it)

Would be something to emulate in form, not

implement.

Improvement areas

Further information/ Additional

Comments

http://www.paradigmlearning.com/products-

and-services/countdown-a-strategy-game-for-

project-teams.aspx

Title of the good practice Rocket. The Project Management Game

Country USA

Brief description of the good

practice. Why is it worthwhile to

be considered a good practice?

Highlight the strong points of the

good practice

Competitive team simulation that emphasizes simple,

fast, and flexible techniques for ensuring project

success. Dare to Properly Manage Resources model.

Promoter of the initiative (person

or institution that developed it)

Lou Russell, author of Project Management for

Trainers (2000) and HRDQ

Target group Professional managers

Type of game used to implement

the initiative and its use Simulation


At the heart of the game is a construction project – a

rocket! Project teams are faced with the challenge of

building to exact specifications, given only limited

knowledge and resources – and they’re expected to

complete the project both on budget and on time.

Rocket is based on the global industry standard,

Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK),

and it supports project management as defined by

the American Society of Training and Development’s

Certified Professional in Learning and Performance

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(CPLP).

Competences developed by

playing the game

Experience firsthand the skills required to manage

projects effectively;

Understand the various challenges of project

management;

Realize how to leverage personal strengths to

improve project communication;

Learn how to apply the DARE model of project

management

Educational and pedagogical

approach

Model-based simulation

Number of users – players Up to 16




qualitative indicators used to

assess it) Proprietary

Evaluation (indication the

qualitative or quantitative

methodologies/tools to

implement it)

Would be something to emulate in form, not

implement. Model worth investigating.

Improvement areas


Comments

http://www.hrdqstore.com/rocket-game-project-

management-training.html

http://www.hrdqstore.com/rocket-game-project-management-training.html

http://www.hrdqstore.com/rocket-game-project-management-training.html

15

Title of the good practice Superbetter

Country USA

Brief description of the good practice. Why is

it worthwhile to be considered a good

practice? Highlight the strong points of the

good practice

“SuperBetter helps you achieve your health

goals — or recover from an illness or injury

— by increasing your personal resilience.

Resilience means staying curious,

optimistic and motivated even in the face

of the toughest challenges.“


institution that developed it) Jane McGonigal, PhD and superbetter.com

Target group

People in recovery from illness or injury,

and people seeking to improve their life.


initiative and its use

Internet-based and/or mobile app social

game


Sample activities, quests, allies, power-

ups, bad-guys, future boosts, achievement,

and “Help! I’m Stuck.” Secret Lab.

Competences developed by playing the

game

Physical, mental, emotional, and social

strength.

Educational and pedagogical approach

Engage players in activities to make them

more self- and socially aware, provide

incentives and rewards to encourage them

to define and engage in activities to

improve themselves with the support of

their social network

Number of users – players Each plays with whomever they invite

Transferability – reusability Can be adapted to almost anything.

Sustainability of the game Requires only a site or an app

Impact (indicate quantitative and qualitative Players and their network really judge for

16

indicators used to assess it) themselves its value to them

Evaluation (indication the qualitative or


implement it)

Worked for me, and for my daughter who

had a bad fall and dizzy spells. Try it.

Improvement areas More neat stuff

Further information/ Additional Comments www.superbetter.com

Title of the good practice Diner Dash

Country USA

Brief description of the good practice. Why is

it worthwhile to be considered a good


good practice

The primordial time-management casual

game, engages players in sequences of

tasks of ever increasing complexity and

with higher order goals such as increasing

your efficiency and customer satisfaction,

prioritizing tasks, and owning your own

restaurant.


institution that developed it) GameLab and Playfirst

Target group

Casual games audience, i.e., middle-aged

women initially, and now a broad

demographic skewed, though, to older

rather than younger users.



Initially a browser-based Flash game, has

migrated to mobile platforms. Calls for

sequences of clicks/taps.


Conceit is that player controls, Flo, a

waitress and would-be restaurants who

seats customers, takes and delivers their

order, gives them a check and busses their

table. Affordances In the restaurants get

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ever more complex and exotic.


game

How to prioritize and sequence tasks

efficiently.

Educational and pedagogical approach Reward success, level by level

Number of users – players Single-player

Transferability – reusability

A relatively straightforward set of

mechanics that have been enhanced and

embellished to create an entire genre of

games. At the University of California and

Veterans Health Administration the

approach has been used for the

neuroscientific rehabilitation of victims of

traumatic brain injury.

Sustainability of the game

Requires addition of levels to sustain

interest.

Impact (indicate quantitative and qualitative

indicators used to assess it)

Games mechanics and metrics are explicit

in its reward system.



implement it)

Analytics built into the game provide all

you need for fine grained formative and

summative assessment of progress. Are

being adapted to clinical practice.

Improvement areas More diverse menus

Further information/ Additional Comments

http://www.playfirst.com/game/diner-

dash

Title of the good practice Paper Scrapers

Country USA

Brief description of the good practice. Why

is it worthwhile to be considered a good


An engaging team-building simulation that

explores project development, design and

implementation.

18

good practice


institution that developed it) Discovery Learning





Teams compete against one another to

design, build, and market a tower using

supplied materials. After construction, teams

present their structures and choose the one

that best meets specified criteria.


game

Participants learn the value of creating,

planning, implementing and selling their

teams’ respective project.

Educational and pedagogical approach Model-based problem solving.

Number of users – players 4-9



Impact n/a

Evaluation Trainer debrief

Improvement areas

Cf. infra., Sky Scraper. Materials setup has

gone from brown paper, newsprint, twine,

masking tape, pipe cleaners, straws, paper

clips, rubber bands, toothpicks, cotton

swabs, crepe paper and coffee filters to

simply spaghetti and miniature

marshmallows.


http://www.discoverylearning.com/p-14-

paper-scrapers.aspx; esp.,

http://www.discoverylearning.com/images/

http://www.discoverylearning.com/p-14-paper-scrapers.aspx

http://www.discoverylearning.com/p-14-paper-scrapers.aspx

http://www.discoverylearning.com/images/PreviewGuide/%20Paper%20Scrapers.pdf

19

PreviewGuide/ Paper%20Scrapers.pdf

Title of the good practice Skyscraper

Country USA




good practice

Team-building simulation that explores project

development, design and implementation.


institution that developed it) Lori Cook and John Olson

Target group Students of project management




Teams compete against one another to design,

build, and market a tower using supplied

materials.


game

Project integration, scope, time, cost, quality,

human resources, communications, risk

management and procurement.

Educational and pedagogical approach Experiential Learning Activity (ELA)

Number of users – players Small group

Transferability – reusability Evolving

Evaluation Anecdotal

Improvement areas

Has been adapted by the Agile community and

used as Tokyo Tower.


http://teaching-operations-

management.wikispaces.com/file/view/Sky_Sc

raper.pdf/98116357/Sky_Scraper.pdf

http://www.discoverylearning.com/images/PreviewGuide/%20Paper%20Scrapers.pdf

http://teaching-operations-management.wikispaces.com/file/view/Sky_Scraper.pdf/98116357/Sky_Scraper.pdf



20

Impact:

Title of the good practice Virtual Leader

Country USA




good practice

3D simulated conversations supported by an

artificial intelligence system that contributed

to the plausibility of the interactions.


institution that developed it) Clark Aldrich and his client SimuLearn




Contents included in the game Meetings, interviews with team, employees


game Influence, communication

Educational and pedagogical approach Practice interactions with virtual characters

Number of users – players Single player

21

Transferability – reusability Proprietary (dated)

Sustainability of the game Had tens of thousands of users in its time


qualitative indicators used to assess it)

Got outstanding reviews from corporate

customers



implement it) Our assessment based on our usage.

Improvement areas


http://www.clarkaldrichdesigns.com/p/exa

mples-of-simulations.html;

http://www.simulearn.net

Title of the good practice

Project Management Simulation: Scope,

Resources, Schedule

Country USA

Brief description of the good practice.

Why is it worthwhile to be considered a

good practice? Highlight the strong points

of the good practice

In this single-player simulation, students

make both quantitative and qualitative

decisions as they manage a critical new

product development project for a printer

manufacturer.


institution that developed it) Robert D. Austin, Harvard Business Publishing

Target group Project management students



In this single-player simulation, students

make both quantitative and qualitative

decisions as they manage a critical new

product development project for a printer

manufacturer. The students' primary objective

is to bring a competitive product to market on

time and on budget, ahead of the



http://www.simulearn.net/

22

competition. Faculty can choose from among

five distinct and realistic scenarios, each

designed to highlight specific learning

objectives.


Explores trade-offs among the 3 major project

management levers: scope, resources, and

schedule Illustrates importance of and trade-

offs associated with level, timing and type of

communication Shows the value of coaching

and training Examines importance of team

member morale on productivity Aids in

illustrating the concept of earned value

management Highlights importance of

appropriately timing changes in project

resource allocation Forces students to

navigate projects through uncertainty and

unanticipated events Illustrates the concept

that correcting problems early in the course of

the project provides significant benefit


game

Project Management, Operations

Management, Managing Resources,

Scheduling, Project Planning, Managing

Budget, Project Implementation, Team-

Building, General Management, Managing

Teams; Leading teams; Managing people

Educational and pedagogical approach Role playing simulation

Number of users – players 1

Transferability – reusability Published ($37.50)



qualitative indicators used to assess it) Used in business school courses.



The simulation contains administrative tools

which allow for real-time reporting of student

23

implement it) decisions.

Improvement areas


Comments

http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/product/3356-

HTM-ENG

Title of the good practice Project Integration Management Simulation

Country USA

Brief description of the good practice.

Why is it worthwhile to be considered a

good practice? Highlight the strong

points of the good practice

Player assumes role of project manager in

charge of a software localization project and

so work with a team in several different

countries.


institution that developed it) Double Masters

Target group

This simulation is designed for project

managers who want to practice applying

project management concepts from the

PMBOK® Guide - Fourth Edition.


initiative and its use Role-playing simulation


Narrative and interactions with international

team members


game PMBOK® standard competences

Educational and pedagogical approach Simulation-based learning

Number of users – players 1

Transferability – reusability $150


http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/product/3356-HTM-ENG

http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/product/3356-HTM-ENG

24


qualitative indicators used to assess it) n/a



implement it)

Product provides player with detailed

scorecard assessing their performance.

Improvement areas


Comments

http://www.doublemasters.com/products/

products_pdus.php

http://www.pmi.org/PMBOK-Guide-and-

Standards.aspx

Title of the good practice Earned value simulation

Country USA




good practice

This earned value exercise has teams

experience role playing from the perspective

of the project manager, sponsor, vendor,

team member, and functional manager in a

dynamic project environment.


institution that developed it) Successful Projects

Target group

Students of various project management

and educational levels can experience this

simulation at different levels. Lower level

students can learn about project roles and

project communication. Experienced project

managers, and those studying for their PMP

exam, can practice earned value terminology

and formulas.


initiative and its use Role-playing simulation

Contents included in the game The project kicks off with baseline

information about how the estimate and

http://www.doublemasters.com/products/%20products_pdus.php

http://www.doublemasters.com/products/%20products_pdus.php

http://www.pmi.org/PMBOK-Guide-and-Standards.aspx

http://www.pmi.org/PMBOK-Guide-and-Standards.aspx

25

budget were determined. The project

manager has to negotiate for adequate

resources. The sponsor is in a hurry. The

team members career interest effect what

they want to do on the project. And other

typical project challenges are part of the

game.


game

Explain how a network diagram’s

information can convert into a planned value

line chart; Chart the earned value (EV) and

actual cost (AC) against a project’s planned

value (PV); Describe a project’s status based

on charted variances; Filter important

project information from excess

informational noise as it relates to project

status reporting; Describe common conflicts

as they pertain to the project team member

roles.

Educational and pedagogical approach Role-playing

Number of users – players Team


Sustainability of the game n/a


qualitative indicators used to assess it) n/a



implement it) Instructor facilitated

Improvement areas

Should be turned into an online multiplayer

simulation.


https://www.successfulprojects.com/

PMTopics/CostMgmt/tabid/126/Default.aspx

https://www.successfulprojects.com/%20PMTopics/CostMgmt/tabid/126/Default.aspx

https://www.successfulprojects.com/%20PMTopics/CostMgmt/tabid/126/Default.aspx

26

4. Major findings of the interviews

In our seeking out those whose advice we thought would be most helpful we reached

out to those whose work has been innovative and whose lives have been spent in an

entrepreneurial culture, one that attacks problems as opportunities and generates

creative solutions. The literature that has grown up about this culture emphasizes lean

and agile, applying those terms to projects and companies alike. Business models are

preferred to business plans. As Steve Blank, serial entrepreneur and investor, is wont

to say, paraphrasing the 19th century Prussian general von Molthe, “No business plan

survives first contact with a customer.” The emphasis, then, on the business side, is not

to design the definitive offering and invest the time and money it takes to implement

it, but rather to engage potential customers before designing or building anything,

then test with those customers a minimum viable product (the simplest

implementation of your concept), then iterate on the design, development, and testing

of your offering as quickly and cheaply as possible until you have something that gets

traction in your chosen marketplace. Blank cites as one example the $5.2 billion

company Iridium, spun out from Motorola in 1990 to provide ubiquitous mobile voice

services which, when it had finally built and launched the 72 satellites its service

depended on was woefully out of date and out of touch with the mobile industry and

was forced to declare bankruptcy. Blank preaches, instead, that those who make

things for others must “get out of the building” and see what potential customers

want.20

In this entrepreneurial culture, development no longer follows the traditional waterfall

model (requirements, design, implementation, verification, ship), but is rather a

cooperative, iterative process that requires collaboration among the core team,

stakeholders, and would-be customers. Currently the most aggressive model for such

development in the technology industry is dubbed agile, after the Manisfesto for Agile

Software Development issued in 2001,21 and applied not only to software development

but to project management as well with the Agile Project Leadership Network’s

Declaration of Independence in 2005.

We spoke at length with a veteran of agile development who has been on the

forefront of major technology waves, working with worldwide distributed Hypertext

systems at a worldwide software provider, the launch team at the first commercial

web magazine and an early member of one of the first social media platforms team. He

speaks frequently on the importance of Agile, Rails and the Cloud, both from a

business and a technical perspective. We discussed with him the implications for

20 http://steveblank.com/2010/11/01/no-business-plan-survives-first-contact-with-a-customer-–-the-5-

2-billion-dollar-mistake 21 agilemanifesto.org

http://steveblank.com/2010/11/01/no-business-plan-survives-first-contact-with-a-customer-–-the-5-2-billion-dollar-mistake

http://steveblank.com/2010/11/01/no-business-plan-survives-first-contact-with-a-customer-–-the-5-2-billion-dollar-mistake

27

leaders, teams, and company culture of adopting such an approach. From his

perspective, a well-functioning agile development process creates a code base that is

concise, flexible, malleable, and well tested so that changes based on users

preferences can be done very economically, in days, not months. But, more

importantly, with respect to project management, he points to good communication

between team members as being the most important aspect of the methodology. The

popular metric for this in the parlance of the software development industry is the

“bus number,” the number of people who would need to “get run over by a bus” for

the project or company to fail. The lower the bus number, the less common

knowledge among the project team and the more fragile to project has become.

Over the course of the last several months, we have had extended conversations with

an entrepreneur who has focused her career on making the world a better place for

entrepreneurs. She was a founding team member of a seed venture capital firm where

she focused on Strategic Communications & Founder Services. Prior to that, she

founded a business that focused on increasing the efficiency & effectiveness of small

businesses. She has worked in the venture capital industry for ten years and was

previously an analyst in the CEO’s office of a major British bank’s Manhattan office.

She sees as the key to effective learning on demand knowledge that is actionable by

the learner. Though an MBA herself, she crafts resources and programs that allow

fledgling entrepreneurs, would-be leaders and team members to acquire the

knowledge or skill they need when they realize they need it. For a manager who has

never given a performance review, a tool to properly plan one is an invaluable aid to

their successfully giving one. Access to experts in a timely fashion serves the same

need. Hearing a venture capitalist explain what he looks for in a team, what indicates

to him whether or whether not to risk investing informs founders on how to go about

shaping their team. Curated news and trending offers an opportunity for someone to

focus on what they need but not lose track of the market they are chasing and the

competition they are up against.

There is a burgeoning “EdTech” industry in the US that is fueled in part by angel

investors and incubators such as an edtech incubator based on the Y-Combinator

model, which emphasizes training teams to refine their message and engage in

aggressive customer discovery. Having graduated three cohorts comprising 29 startup

companies, most of whom have gone on the acquire additional financing and traction

in their market, the founders of this incubator, themselves not educators, have learned

valuable lessons not only about the difficulties of introducing disruptive technology

into the education market, but also on the dynamics of team building. Prior to the

edtech incubator, one of the co-founders worked at a major search engine company

managing special projects such as strategic deal development and negotiation, internal

28

cross-functional troubleshooting and managing tricky partners and helped guide its

non-profit foundation during its formation and made its initial set of grants. Prior to

that he played early roles in sales and business development at four start-ups that

went public, and one that was acquired. In prior lives he was a science researcher and

software engineer working on high speed parallel computing, radio astronomy and

high energy physics, a software analyst for advanced aeronautics, and a systems

engineer at a workstation start-up.

In the tradition of Silicon Valley’s mantra, “move fast and break things,” he is a great

proponent of learning by doing, learning the right way by making mistakes. He

encourages the entrepreneurs to prepare for customer or prospect encounters, but

not expect them to go the way they would like at first. By and large he and his co-

founders preferred to see teams that had experience in both product development

and in working in the classroom. Often they encountered both in one person, for

example the former Special Education teacher who had programmed his own solution

to address the problem of keeping all the stakeholders in an Individual learning

program apprised of the state of the process (goalbookapp.com). Perhaps the most

important value that the incubator added to the process, besides their network of

angels and investors, was a network of educators they grew to test the products their

cohorts were producing. For important as are the pitch days that end a cohorts term,

where each company has four minutes to present their business to potential investors,

the educators day scheduled for the mid-term gave the companies the chance not only

to present their business to potential users and customers, but to get detailed

feedback on what those teachers and students and administrators thought was good,

and what was not so good, and what was lacking in their offering.

Among those designing and developing games targeting learning is a brilliant

neurologist who works with disabled American veterans. His speciality is the

neuroscience of cognitive rehabilitation and the treatment of victims of traumatic

brain injury (TBI), individuals whose ability to remember things in the short-term and

to handle distractions has been compromised by shock to their brain, more specifically,

the pre-frontal cortex.

He has led the design, development, and therapeutic application of two games, both

now provided to patients on the Apple iPad. Both games help patients practice

exercising their short term memory with the object of increasing the load that their

working memory can support while executing a task. In addition, both games introduce

distractions and disruptions during the execution of the tasks so that the patient must

interrupt their execution in order to address the distraction or disruption and then

return and complete the task successfully. The therapy is effective both because in

practicing these behaviours in an authentic context the patients are able to increase

29

their brain’s capacity to handle increased workloads and fend off events that

compromise that ability and because the patients are taught and practice strategies to

achieve these ends. Strategies include setting goals in the context of which the tasks

can aligned and such mindful techniques as “stop, relax, refocus” when confronted

with an interruption.

The therapeutic intervention is based on games for two reasons. First, the mechanics

and analytics integrated into the game provide fine-grained formative assessment

that allows the therapy to proceed with maximum efficiency with respect to progress

and to patient motivation. Second, the games allow the patients to practice and learn

from their mistakes in authentic contexts without fear of failing. The first game leads

the player from simple to more complex tasks: running a photocopy machine,

assembling materials in binders, connecting callers to the correct extension, to

managing the calendar, calls, and emails for the company CEO. In each context the

player begins with simple stimuli (e.g., three quantities of copies to produce, three

different colored sheets in the binder, three phone calls, and one each of a calendar

item or a call or an email to be sent), then distractions are introduced (e.g., a siren

outside, the CEO coming back with a thought unrelated to the assignment), then the

working memory load demand is increased. The second game begins as a simple

variation on classic time management games such as Diner Dash and Emily’s Taste of

Fame set in first person POV in a catering truck where customers appear and order an

item or items that the player must serve them. It then increases in complexity in

several different dimensions: number of items, number of customers, ingredients in

the item, steps in the preparation of the item (e.g., toasting bread), and keeping items

in inventory. Then the player is told that their goal is to open a restaurant and they are

asked to choose whether it will be a fast-food restaurant, or a slow-food (organic,

local) restaurant. That decision having been made, the player must then complete

tasks determined by their choice so as to cultivate future customers while beginning to

manage the process across three operations, the catering truck, a pie baking stall at a

farmer’s market, and an urban garden. So, the player must plant fruit in the urban

garden using either compost or pesticide, bake pies with crusts using canola oil or

Crisco, and serve items with either organic ham or Spam. Distractions and disruptions

range from a simple multiple choice question, to complex mazes and arithmetic

problems, all set in the context of the game and all introduced either during the

encoding or executing phase of the trial in such a way as to require the patient to

interrupt their process and return to it to finish it.

In some ways the games that the neurologist uses in therapy match the practices of

leadership coaches that work with startups. One we spoke with was an entrepreneur

who had worked as an investment banking analyst and co-founded an online

30

consumer health platform that drew more than 5 million monthly visitors where he

helped manage the development of powerful web and mobile technologies and

oversee the growing network of more than 2,500 leading health bloggers that strive to

help individuals live healthier, happier lives. Today, he helps others as the founder and

CEO of two personal and executive coaching firms in San Francisco, California. In one-

on-one leadership coaching he works with startup CEOs to prepare for meetings. He

advises his clients to consider who they are, who the others in the meeting are, and

what their intention is in the meeting, in order to be able to have the most influence in

the event. The goal for the leader is to frame clearly what the purpose of the project,

or team, or even board meeting, is and use that framework to maintain or return to

that purpose, in the event they get drawn off track in the course of the discussion. This

technique reflects the same view of intentionality as that built into the design of the

neurologists TBI games.

He feels strongly that a team needs to share responsibility not only for the function

they perform but the purpose for which their work is intended. He considers proper

delegation of tasks to be critical to the success of a project and coined the pneumonic

SAFER to describe the steps in an effective delegation: S for specify results, A for ask

for a paraphrase, F is feedback along the way, E is evaluate results, and R is for

recognize performance. The leader must clearly articulate the output of the task and

confirm by the team member’s paraphrase that it is understood. The leader should get

feedback along the way as to progress being made and issues that have arisen, the

when the results are submitted they must we evaluated and the effort and output

must be explicitly recognized.

He promotes the sharing of responsibility among team members by finding ways that

they can build trust. He uses a technique from Mike Robbins’ Be Yourself, Everyone

Else is Already Taken, the simple exercise of exposing some vulnerability, each in turn

finishing the sentence, “If you really knew me, you’d know … ” He considers trust to be

the lubricant on well-run teams.

With respect to time management, he cites the metaphor used by Joel Peterson,

Chairman of the Board at JetBlue Airways and a professor at the Stanford School of

Business, of a jar to be filled with sand, small rocks and big rocks. If you put too much

sand in the jar, there is no room left for the rocks. If you put the big rocks in the jar

first, then the small rocks, then the sand, you can fit all three. The moral, of course, is

to put important things first and the lesser things last.

5. Major findings of the questionnaires

The questionnaires were not intended for distribution to the US audience.

31

6. Major findings of the focus groups

Dr. Eilif Trondsen of Strategic Business Insights, Inc., himself a professional with

decades of experience in the eLearning world and former executive director of the

eLearning Forum, convened a group of seasoned experts in international project

management, human resources and training, and game based learning initiatives at SRI

International in Menlo Park, California, on the morning of 21 March 2013. Attending

the session, including Dr. Michael Carter of Twin Learning LLC, were:

John Boring, Founder of Accelerate Learning & Development, for over a decade helping

companies develop leadership capabilities in their front line managers, previously in

human resources at Atari, Netscape, and Portal Software, and in program

management at Apple.

Richard Clark, currently Senior Curriculum Developer at Kaazing, has developed

training and eLearning systems for Intrepid Learning Solutions, GeneEd, Hewlett-

Packard, Verifone, Chromatic Research, General Magic, and Apple Computer.

Parvati Dev, PhD, President and CEO of Innovations in Learning has 35 years of

experience developing technology solutions applied to life sciences learning and

research problems. At Stanford University she founded and ran an internationally

recognized learning technologies lab, SUMMIT, with numerous firsts in multimedia,

web and simulation for medical education. At Innovation in Learning, she has been the

PI for federally funded subcontracts for development of medical virtual environments.

Lance Dublin, co-founded one of the nation's first fully accredited 'University Without

Walls,' and built Dublin Group, a company which became a leader in improving

individual and organizational performance and implementing large-scale change. Now

an independent management consultant, international speaker and author based in

San Francisco, he serves clients world-wide, specializing in strategy development,

program design, and implementation for corporate learning, change management, and

organizational development initiatives. He is the co-author of the capstone book in the

American Society for Training & Developement's e-learning series, Implementing e-

Learning and has contributed chapters and articles to numerous other books and

professional publications. Prior to this, Lance was the founder, Dean, and later Provost

of Antioch University/West, an innovative accredited bachelor's and master's degree

program serving 1,000 students in the western states and Hawaii.

Renate Fruchter, PhD is the founding director of the Project Based Learning Laboratory

(PBL Lab), lecturer in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and

Senior Research Engineer thrust leader of “Collaboration Technologies” at the Center

for Integrated Facilities Engineering (CIFE) at Stanford University. She leads a research

32

effort to develop collaboration technologies for multidisciplinary, geographically

distributed teamwork, and e-Learning. Her interests focus on R&D and larger scale

deployment of collaboration technologies that include Web-based team building,

synchronous and asynchronous knowledge capture, sharing and re-use, project

memory, corporate memory, and mobile solutions for global teamwork and e-

Learning. In addition, she has established in 1998 a strong research effort focusing on

the impact of technology on learning, team interaction, and assessment. She is the

leader and developer of the innovative "Computer Integrated Architecture/

Engineering/Construction Global Teamwork" course launched in 1993, at Stanford,

that engages universities from US, Japan, and Europe.

Clark Quinn, PhD is a recognized leader in learning technology strategy, helping

organizations take advantage of information systems to meet learning, knowledge, and

performance needs. He combines a deep background in cognitive science, a rich

understanding of computer and network capabilities reinforced through practical

application, considerable management experience, and a track record of strategic

vision and successful innovations. He is a well regarded speaker and author on human

performance technology directions. Clark has been involved in the design,

development, and/or evaluation of a wide variety of educational technology for over

30 years. Projects in which he has led design include educational games, mobile

learning applications, performance support tools, online conferences, web-based

learning, effectiveness evaluation methodologies, and adaptive systems. He keynotes

both nationally and internationally, and is the author of numerous articles, chapters

and the books Engaging Learning: Designing e-Learning Simulation Games, Designing

mLearning: Tapping Into the Mobile Revolution for Organizational Performance, and

The Mobile Academy: mLearning for Higher Education.

Jim Schuyler, PhD, CEO of Red 7 Communications, a virtual company which provides

technology strategy, business systems and knowledge management services to startup

companies. Red7 has also developed a technical infrastructure for mixed-reality

technologies—massive real-world learning games—and Jim works with a team of

experts who provide guidance to clients on learning-game development. He is best

known as an e-learning pioneer, though he works in many areas of computer science.

From 2003 through 2010 he was Chief Technical Officer of the Dalai Lama Foundation.

Prior to that, he was VP Internet Technology & Development for Leapfrog Enterprises

and VP Distance Learning Systems at Knowledge Universe Interactive Studio. He has

spearheaded the creation and launch of many World Wide Web sites, has designed

and built around a dozen computer-based instruction and groupware systems,

founded or helped found a number of software companies, and served as a senior

technology executive in a number of companies.

33

Harry Wittenberg, currently a Senior Training and Organization Development

consultant to Autodesk, designs and delivers organizational development and team

building programs, has managed teams in the creation and implementation of

innovative learning programs both online and in the classroom, provided strategic

planning with business partners for the design of sales training and a management

coaching program, implemented enterprise-wide Learning Management Systems,

conceptualized, developed, and delivered a complete staff development offering for

school district administrators and teachers, and created an innovative web-based

human resources training program at such companies as Autodesk, Apple, Genentech,

Charles Schwab, and Pearson Learning.

The discussion was begun with introductions, then Richard Clark launched right into

defining the problem of international project management, “Good luck getting

everyone to blend, essentially. Yeah, they might work together but they work together

in very individual ways. And that’s a macro-level, and micro-level project management

is often like that. You have a lot of different constituencies and a lot of different ... I

don’t want to call them problems, but a lot of different activities going on that

interlock, and so learning to manage the macro, you’re also learning the micro and

could be a place to start. Actually, it’s how do you build these connections across

these very diverse groups and begin working effectively? And that then filtered

through the specific project management skills develops a lot of those strengths. It also

develops a lot of general leadership strategies.”

Harry Wittenberg then described the challenges which a mature but innovative

technology company facing trying to make things happen around the world. The

significance of good communication within a company and its importance in staying

competitive was testified to as he discussed the issue in the context of the company

for which he works, Autodesk, “a medium-sized company, about 7,000 people, but

we’re based in 44 countries around the world and about 110 offices … if you can

imagine that the technologies are built on localized efforts that have then become

globalized, so we buy a little place in Czechoslovakia, we buy a little technology in

Israel, we have thousands of low-level developers in Shanghai trying to get some base

stuff down and innovating and getting a whole new market if you will by virtue of what

we do. … So the whole virtual team thing. … How do different cultures relate to

business dilemmas? How do people relate to problems when they come up and

culture, and just your own personal preference, kick in. How do you translate that?”

Both he and Renate Fruchter of Stanford then discussed the implications of globally

distributed project teams, including not only the potential for mis-communication

based on cultural differences, but physical and mental fatigue resulting from time

difference and time shifting. Moreover, collaboration is a key element in Autodesk’s

34

future competitiveness. As Mr. Wittenberg put it, “Collaboration is a huge thing for

the company as a product, how designer and engineers, well, anybody in the design

industry whether it’s architecture, whether it’s product design, or 3D, because we

make the software for 3D games and movies. So project people working together and

collaboration is huge, and what we’re trying to get into is not just cloud-based service,

but how do we enhance the interaction between people that are building stuff that

have very different responsibilities? How do we move designs from one place to

another on site or wherever the work is being done and getting people to collaborate

more real-time? And we’re building all of these social technologies to make that

happen as part of the workflow, as part of the work process.” Autodesk shares the lean

startups’ obsession with the customer experience. “They recognize that human

experience, customer experience, is a key factor to success for us. So there’s a whole

new shift to customer experience now, not just in terms of you being interfaced, but

services, collaboration, how do you get things from one place to another faster so that

people can iterate faster and be able to produce whatever it is they’re doing.”

Dr. Fruchter listed her Stanford lab’s approach to project based learning research. “We

are going to look at the five dimensions of time, space, culture, discipline, and you

have also the process in a cultural aspect and I do that with the managing care or

marketing, the manufacturing person and character through cultures in technology.

But what we find is that even the fundamental stuff, if we don’t get that out of the

way, the rest of it doesn’t work, and it has to do with motivating and incenting the

relationship.” She then went on to discuss how much firewalls inhibited collaboration.

This led to a discussion of dependence and interdependence, and compassion. Jim

Schuyler, who was CTO to the Dalai Lama for a while, shared his view. “I worked for

the Dalai Lama in a direct way, and his approach is to bring people back to compassion,

so fun, new compassion. His story starts when you’re a baby you’re totally dependent

on your mother or your parent, and as you get older you get into these complexities

that we’re talking about. The complexities just flow things together, so sometimes the

technology gets in the way of feeling compassion, of understanding the person as

another human being.”

Clark Quinn evoked the research of Bob Altemeyer on collaboration and competition.

“Which actually brings up one issue slightly in the notion of nature is when you give

people simulations … A certain group, a small subset, when they’re given big

simulations and a chance to work together, they will become totally competitive,

group with other like-minded people and totally try to destroy, not work and play well,

with anybody else. And the only way in his research to help break that down is

essentially to go back to this compassion and show that when you get to know other

people individually, they’re not evil. They’re not awful. But they have to see other

35

people behaving in the ways that you want them to behave, and they have to

understand that their way isn’t the only way. So it’s part of that whole process.”

John Boring described his own approach to simplifying project management. “We

looked at all these complexities of the interactions and all that. How do you teach

intuition? I went, well, faster, cheap. Pick two. Okay. In software, schedule, quality,

features. Pick two. In their particular problem it was people, schedule, and money. Pick

two. So we always had them working off these three, but they can only pick two, which

always left one out which created issues for other people on the team which created

competition. So we literally had board games where we put five people around board

games, seven people in seven teams in the room, and beat the hell out of the

competition and then debriefed around that. But it required social. It required you

breathing the same air. I’m not sure how to do it with technology.”

Lance Dublin, however, testified to learning how to do just that on a global basis by

watching how his 22 year-old son learns as he is launching his own company. “… it is

that constant, small iteration, reaching out into communities, finding and finding and

learning and finding and getting feedback which the media, the tools, allow you to do.

Then I watch the ones he throws away. Doesn’t spend any time on Twitter. Complete

waste; it’s older people; it’s this linear approach. … And I said how do you use

Facebook? What happened? Because they’re searching for the keys to these rapid

loops of knowledge that he needs to move this company along. I said what do you use?

He said there really isn’t ... I use my phone; I use email; I use text, and I have a

network. So I said what do you mean? I’ve got this one group that knows a lot about

programming. ... And I said why is that? Because I don’t know anything about it. I just

admit that. I link them in because they want to help me. Because they’re humans and

I’m a kid and they’re a kid and I’m launching a program. He says now I’m hooked into

all these programmers, and they’re linked into each other and helping me because I

have knowledge I didn’t know anything about. So what else? Well I didn’t know

anything about finance. Well how’d you do that? Well I found one person and he

linked me to somebody else. It’s like the curation notion that we’re talking about on

the Internet. It’s like human curation is faster so far, he’s found, than any technology.

.... And I say are they all in the United States? He goes no, geography is irrelevant.”

Parvati Dev recalled a simpler, more traditional version, “I think back to something that

used to happen in these meetings years ago where you had to say something personal

about yourself, nothing to do with work. And you had to talk about your cats or

something that made you real to other people. This sort of forces an opening, travel,

but it still opens you up.”

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7. Conclusions and remarks

We don’t expect that what we took from the shelf and from our network will be that

distinct from the results of our colleagues’ research in their national contexts.

Wherever we turned the emphasis was on communication and how the lack thereof

was a certain indicator that the project or product or company was on the road to ruin.

As was focus, perhaps more critically for startups than more mature and diversified

enterprises, but part of the attraction of the agile approach is the discipline it takes to

segment massive efforts to reduce the friction associated by interdependencies.

While there is great enthusiasm in the corporate space to introduce competition

(badges, leader boards, etc.) into the training regimen, we would very much like to

emphasize that the real power of social games is their virality, and that as much

derives from the intrinsic satisfaction a player experiences in the games as from the

incentive to outdo a friend or colleague.

We also are finding more and more that succinct statements, even anecdotes, by

respected and experienced experts, if made available to learners at an appropriate

moment (“teachable moment,” “zone of proximal development”) impart a sense of

wisdom that they can associate with the intuitions they have been developing by

succeeding and failing at the task at hand.

So, in sum, we would like to see a role-playing simulation structured in such a way as

to be played as synchronously as possible to promote cogent communication among

colleagues and have the assessment and debrief exploit observations from world-class

experts. It is not so important that the underlying platform has as sophisticated

analytics as gamification platforms offer, nor that it have a global following in the

hundreds of millions as does Facebook, but rather that it ensure that those engaged in

the simulation are active in it with their colleagues while it plays out. That Socialcast

(acqui-hired by VMWare) has been successful in introducing a twitter-like

communication system into Fortune 10 companies like General Motors suggests that it

is possible to have, and therefore, simulate, the timely communication that social

media afford even within a traditional enterprise. This, it seems, might be the most

useful dimension that a social game for international project management could bring

to that community.

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