Why use games in a sales and marketing learning environment?

Games are of course fun, and also provide opportunities to learn through their

• Engaging and competitive nature
• Provision of support needed by learners while learning something new, which in turn gives them a better chance of using that knowledge independently, known as scaffolded learning
• Serving up increasingly difficult challenges and providing opportunities for mastery of skills
• Ability to give immediate feedback including progress indicators such as leader boards
• The social aspect of learning

Games engage us in competition using progressive storylines and enable us to use our natural collective intelligence to achieve the best outcome.

A ‘serious game’ is a game designed for a purpose other than pure entertainment, such as experiential learning of business concepts and practices. Serious games can provide opportunities to teach, learn and apply the learnings in a low risk, realistic environment.

With a serious game initiative, the learning content is delivered in a game-based environment. Using serious games in your curriculum, you can motivate individuals to learn a task, while engaging them in a challenging and competitive game.

Gaming Design

Gaming principles can strengthen the impact of our learning solutions.

Games have a story and characters. The storyline in a serious game is the case study provided as a basis for the initial analysis, combined with the process of making decisions and reacting to the interim results to improve the starting position. As the game progresses, the story builds and new challenges are introduced, with the ability for participants to see their own progress compared to the starting point, and also compared to their colleagues in the game. The final debrief is also part of the storyline – that is, sharing back what worked, why decisions were made, and of course the “what-ifs” and “if-onlys”. This all adds to the drama and excitement of the game, and also the learning.

Don’t forget, games allow us to fail early and learn fast. When starting a new game, some amount of time is usually spent losing before you can progress. Failing big in the first round of a serious game can be game-changer, versus failing big in the last round, which can be a game-leveller. Opportunities for failing early promotes the application of learning and mindset change in a safe environment. Feedback loops are critical to the learning process.

Most games have multiple pathways to success. This dynamic enables different strategies to be at play in the same game, creating curiosity amongst the players in why decisions are made by others.

Game designers know the player must get hooked in the shortest possible time. Serious games need to be able to be started quickly.  The best serious games are meaningful and mimic real-life business scenarios, offering real-life challenges in suppressed timeframes.

LEARN ABOUT ACTANDO SERIOUS GAMES / BUSINESS SIMULATIONS FOR PHARMA:

• BRAND MANAGEMENT SIMULATION
  
• MULTICHANNEL MARKETING SIMULATION
• LAUNCH EXCELLENCE SIMULATION
  
• STRATEGIC MARKETING SIMULATION
  
• SEGMENTATION & TARGETING SIMULATION
  
• SEGMENTATION & TARGETING (LEVEL 2) SIMULATION
  

       

 

 

 

• TERRITORY MANAGEMENT SIMULATION
• REGIONAL MANAGEMENT SIMULATION
• SEGMENTATION & TARGETING SIMULATION
  
• SEGMENTATION & TARGETING (LEVEL 2) SIMULATION
  
• KEY ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT SIMULATION
  
• KEY ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT (LEVEL 2) SIMULATION
  
• NEGOTIATION SIMULATION
  
• CALL DETAILING / VIRTUAL VISIT SIMULATION
  
• COACHING SIMULATION

                   

 

Tips For Success

Here are a few tips when using serious games for mindset change and learning application:

1. Let the players explore and experiment working in teams to share their knowledge and experience while you facilitate and act as the guide-on-the-side. Human interaction is part of the learning and experimentation.
2. Understand that games will bring up technology challenges or resource obstacles, so make it part of the game. Life is not perfect and participants will learn to use what is available to solve the problems.
3. Experience the game yourself first, then learn how to facilitate it. Your enjoyment will translate into your messaging, and you will be more informed about how things work from a player point of view.

Set some expectations around behaviours and timeliness, to keep the game fair and moving forward.

 The Power of Play in Learning

Using serious games for learning, and mindset change can cater to different learning styles, thus helping more individuals learn decision-making, teamwork and specific process-oriented tasks.

Games have been shown to increase the retention of information, and provide opportunities for individuals to apply what they’ve learned. The lynchpin that determines the success of any training effort is engagement, and that’s where serious games excel.

Serious games bring to life the concept of learning by doing.

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If you are interested in our mobile learning solutions on digital channels, contact Actando.

The Actando Consulting Team