{"id":3125,"date":"2018-01-25T11:52:52","date_gmt":"2018-01-25T10:52:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leapfrog.nl\/blog\/?p=3125"},"modified":"2021-11-05T15:16:06","modified_gmt":"2021-11-05T14:16:06","slug":"playful-design-for-workplace-change-management-at-playtrack-conference-2017-in-aarhus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leapfrog.nl\/blog\/archives\/2018\/01\/25\/playful-design-for-workplace-change-management-at-playtrack-conference-2017-in-aarhus\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Playful Design for Workplace Change Management&#8217; at PLAYTrack conference 2017 in Aarhus"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fusestudio.net\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/leapfrog.nl\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/laser_depfender_collab_0.jpg\" alt=\"Lase defender collab at FUSE\" width=\"1000\" height=\"668\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3132\" srcset=\"https:\/\/leapfrog.nl\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/laser_depfender_collab_0.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/leapfrog.nl\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/laser_depfender_collab_0-100x67.jpg 100w, https:\/\/leapfrog.nl\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/laser_depfender_collab_0-500x334.jpg 500w, https:\/\/leapfrog.nl\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/laser_depfender_collab_0-768x513.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>At the end of last year I was invited to speak at the <a href=\"http:\/\/interactingminds.au.dk\/playconf\/\">PLAYTrack conference<\/a> in Aarhus about the workplace change management games made by Hubbub. It turned out to be a great opportunity to reconnect with the play research community. <\/p>\n<p>I was very much impressed by the program assembled by the organisers. People came from a wide range of disciplines and crucially, there was ample time to discuss and reflect on the materials presented. As I tweeted afterwards, this is a thing that most conference organisers get wrong.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-lang=\"en\" data-dnt=\"true\" data-partner=\"jetpack\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Back in Utrecht after a wonderful time in \u00c5rhus attending <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/PLAYTrack?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#PLAYTrack<\/a>. The lectures were uniformly fascinating but the one thing this conference really got right was the ample time to reflect and discuss. Really elevates the experience to something more than the usual info dump.<\/p>&mdash; Kars Alfrink (@kaeru) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/kaeru\/status\/939088252019060737?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 8, 2017<\/a><\/blockquote>\n<p>I was particularly inspired by the work of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pz.harvard.edu\/who-we-are\/people\/ben-mardell\">Benjamin Mardell<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pz.harvard.edu\/who-we-are\/people\/mara-krechevsky\">Mara Krechevsky<\/a> at Harvard\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pz.harvard.edu\">Project Zero<\/a> \u2013 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pz.harvard.edu\/projects\/making-learning-visible\">Making Learning Visible<\/a> looks like a great resource for anyone who teaches. Then there was <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sesp.northwestern.edu\/profile\/?p=21181\">Reed Stevens<\/a> from Northwestern University whose project <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fusestudio.net\/\">FUSE<\/a> is one of the most solid examples of playful learning for STEAM I\u2019ve seen thus far. I was also fascinated by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.educ.cam.ac.uk\/people\/staff\/laverty\/\">Ciara Laverty\u2019s<\/a> work at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.educ.cam.ac.uk\/centres\/pedal\/\">PEDAL<\/a> on observing parent-child play. <a href=\"http:\/\/miguelsicart.net\">Miguel Sicart<\/a> delivered another great provocation on the dark side of playful design. And finally I was delighted to hear about and experience for myself some of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amosamos.net\">Amos Blanton<\/a>\u2019s work at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.legofoundation.com\/\">LEGO Foundation<\/a>. I should also call out <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sussex.ac.uk\/profiles\/235554\">Ben Fincham<\/a>\u2019s many provocative contributions from the audience.<\/p>\n<p>The abstract for my talk is below, which covers most of what I talked about. I tried to give people a good sense of: <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>what the games consisted of,<\/li>\n<li>what we were aiming to achieve,<\/li>\n<li>how both the fiction and the player activities supported these goals,<\/li>\n<li>how we made learning outcomes visible to our players and clients,<\/li>\n<li>and finally how we went about designing and developing these games.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Both projects have solid write-ups over at the Hubbub website, so I\u2019ll just point to those here: <a href=\"https:\/\/whatsthehubbub.nl\/projects\/code-4\/\">Code 4<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/whatsthehubbub.nl\/projects\/ripple-effect\/\">Ripple Effect<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In the final section of the talk I spent a bit of time reflecting on how I would approach projects like this today. After all, it has been seven years since we made Code 4, and four years since Ripple Effect. That\u2019s ages ago and my perspective has definitely changes since we made these.<\/p>\n<h2>Participatory design<\/h2>\n<p>First of all, I would get even more serious about co-designing with players at every step. I would recruit representatives of players and invest them with real influence. In the projects we did, the primary vehicle for player influence was through playtesting. But this is necessarily limited. I also won\u2019t pretend this is at all easy to do in a commercial context. <\/p>\n<p>But, these games are ultimately about improving worker productivity. So how do we make it so that workers share in the real-world profits yielded by a successful culture change?<\/p>\n<p>I know of the existence of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Participatory_design\">participatory design<\/a> but from my experience it is not a common approach in the industry. Why?<\/p>\n<h2>Value sensitive design<\/h2>\n<p>On a related note, I would get more serious about what values are supported by the system, in whose interest they are and where they come from. Early field research and workshops with audience do surface some values but values from customer representatives tend to dominate. Again, the commercial context we work in is a potential challenge. <\/p>\n<p>I know of <a href=\"http:\/\/vsdesign.org\">value sensitive design<\/a>, but as with participatory design, it has yet to catch on in a big way in the industry. So again, why is that?<\/p>\n<h2>Disintermediation<\/h2>\n<p>One thing I continue to be interested in is to reduce the complexity of a game system\u2019s physical affordances (which includes its code), and to push even more of the substance of the game into those social allowances that make up the non-material aspects of the game. This allows for spontaneous renegotiation of the game by the players. This is disintermediation as a strategy. <a href=\"http:\/\/wombflashforest.blogspot.de\/2015\/04\/intro-to-ludic-ecologonomy-pt-1.html\">David Kanaga\u2019s take on games as toys<\/a> remains hugely inspirational in this regard, as does Bernard De Koven\u2019s book <a href=\"https:\/\/mitpress.mit.edu\/books\/well-played-game\">The Well Played Game<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>Gamefulness versus playfulness<\/h2>\n<p>Code 4 had more focus on satisfying the need for autonomy. Ripple Effect had more focus on competence, or in any case, it had less emphasis on autonomy. There was less room for \u2018play\u2019 around the core digital game. It seems to me that mastering a subjective simulation of a subject is not necessarily what a workplace game for culture change should be aiming for. So, less <a href=\"http:\/\/gamification-research.org\/2012\/04\/defining-gamification\/\">gameful design<\/a>, more <a href=\"https:\/\/whatsthehubbub.nl\/blog\/2015\/11\/shifting-from-gamification-to-playful-design\/\">playful design<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>Adaptation<\/h2>\n<p>Finally, the agency model does not enable us to stick around for the long haul. But workplace games might be better suited to a setup where things aren\u2019t thought of as a one-off project but more of an ongoing process. <\/p>\n<p>In <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/How_Buildings_Learn\">How Buildings Learn<\/a>, Stewart Brand talks about how architects should revisit buildings they\u2019ve designed after they are built to learn about how people are actually using them. He also talks about how good buildings are buildings that its inhabitants can adapt to their needs. What does that look like in the context of a game for workplace culture change?<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<blockquote>\n<p><strong>Playful Design for Workplace Change Management<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p>Code 4 (2011, commissioned by the Tax Administration of the Netherlands) and Ripple Effect (2013, commissioned by Royal Dutch Shell) are both games for workplace change management designed and developed by Hubbub, a boutique playful design agency which operated from Utrecht, The Netherlands and Berlin, Germany between 2009 and 2015. These games are examples of how a goal-oriented serious game can be used to encourage playful appropriation of workplace infrastructure and social norms, resulting in an open-ended and creative exploration of new and innovative ways of working.<\/p>\n\n<p>Serious game projects are usually commissioned to solve problems. Solving the problem of cultural change in a straightforward manner means viewing games as a way to persuade workers of a desired future state. They typically take videogame form, simulating the desired new way of working as determined by management. To play the game well, players need to master its system and by extension\u2014it is assumed\u2014learning happens.<\/p>\n\n<p>These games can be be enjoyable experiences and an improvement on previous forms of workplace learning, but in our view they decrease the possibility space of potential workplace cultural change. They diminish worker agency, and they waste the creative and innovative potential of involving them in the invention of an improved workplace culture. <\/p>\n\n<p>We instead choose to view workplace games as an opportunity to increase the space of possibility. We resist the temptation to bake the desired new way of working into the game\u2019s physical and digital affordances. Instead, we leave how to play well up to the players. Since these games are team-based and collaborative, players need to negotiate their way of working around the game among themselves. In addition, because the games are distributed in time\u2014running over a number of weeks\u2014and are playable at player discretion during the workday, players are given license to appropriate workplace infrastructure and subvert social norms towards in-game ends.<\/p>\n\n<p>We tried to make learning tangible in various ways. Because the games at the core are web applications to which players log on with individual accounts we were able to collect data on player behaviour. To guarantee privacy, employers did not have direct access to game databases and only received anonymised reports. We took responsibility for player learning by facilitating coaching sessions in which they could safely reflect on their game experiences. Rounding out these efforts, we conducted surveys to gain insight into the player experience from a more qualitative and subjective perspective.<\/p>\n\n<p>These games offer a model for a reasonably democratic and ethical way of doing game-based workplace change management. However, we would like to see efforts that further democratise their design and development\u2014involving workers at every step. We also worry about how games can be used to create the illusion of worker influence while at the same time software is deployed throughout the workplace to limit their agency. <\/p>\n\n<p>Our examples may be inspiring but because of these developments we feel we can\u2019t continue this type of work without seriously reconsidering our current processes, technology stacks and business practices\u2014and ultimately whether we should be making games at all.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At the end of last year I was invited to speak at the PLAYTrack conference in Aarhus about the workplace change management games made by Hubbub. It turned out to be a great opportunity to reconnect with the play research community. I was very much impressed by the program assembled by the organisers. People came &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/leapfrog.nl\/blog\/archives\/2018\/01\/25\/playful-design-for-workplace-change-management-at-playtrack-conference-2017-in-aarhus\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">&#8216;Playful Design for Workplace Change Management&#8217; at PLAYTrack conference 2017 in Aarhus<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[248],"tags":[1192,526,247,19,1194,1196,259,410,478,168,1197,1193,1041,1195],"class_list":["post-3125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-talks","tag-aarhus","tag-adaptation","tag-conferences","tag-design","tag-disintermediation","tag-gamefulness","tag-games","tag-learning","tag-participation","tag-play","tag-playfulness","tag-playtrack","tag-talks","tag-values"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/leapfrog.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/leapfrog.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/leapfrog.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leapfrog.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leapfrog.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/leapfrog.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3125\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/leapfrog.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leapfrog.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leapfrog.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}