Training should not be just about delivering facts. Good gamification in training should consist of good storytelling. Studies show that learners comprehend and retain more through stories. Storytelling in training allows us to connect to the learner on an emotional level. Therefore, whenever feasible, weave stories into the instructional design and delivery of your courses.
When a story reaches our hearts, it takes hold of us, and we want to hear more. Your players will remember stories, especially stories with emotions attached, much better than they remember lists, numbers, or concepts.
Imagine that your operations department has a new process which will revolutionize the way your customers place orders with your company – reducing the time it takes to get your product to market by 25%. There are just a handful of problems that are creating some quality control issues.
You’re asked to create a training program or job aid to address those problems. You could start with flow charts, statistics, and time studies… OR you can create a Quest. Now, every problem becomes a challenge to overcome, a mystery to be solved. The focus is on the goal and if the team works together and makes the necessary sacrifices – everyone will be able to achieve that goal.
Giving your team a rational argument for adapting this new process, backed up with all sorts of numbers, is liable to put them to sleep. If, on the other hand, you link your efforts to an epic adventure – destroying the aliens, beating back the zombies, or even solving the mystery… they’re far more likely to remember – and act upon what you’re saying.
Stories help us to organize and remember information and tie content together. Our brains are hard-wired to think and express in terms of a beginning, middle and end. It's how we understand the world.
Because it's easier when you use our Starter Cards - you don’t have to start with a blank page… let’s learn some proven Techniques for Telling Tall Tales.
Follow this link to The Gamification Design and Implementation - A Starter Kit: http://bit.ly/GamificationStarterKit.
Experience the FREE Lesson 2: Dead Men Tell No Tales; It's Story Time - Create an Epic Adventure which gives you a ton of hands-on FUN as you craft an epic adventure.
How To: Draw a card from the yellow stack and use the challenge given you on the card to craft the storyline for your epic adventure. In your Gamification Design and Implementation - A Starter Kit is a Story Board Starter Worksheet designed to help you get underway in creating an epic adventure for the gamification of your training program. The seven steps are not numbered so that you can feel free to complete them in any order.
When you're finished with your worksheet, you're ready for some real fun—creating a gamified training program that is guaranteed to increase retention and understanding.
It doesn't matter if the story is epic (rescue the princess) or not so epic (Gather the Gems), but every L&D gamification project needs one. Stories are a powerful way to generate an emotional response to the central message—achieving the business and learning objectives you established in Level 1.
Remember, you don’t have to start with a blank page to draft your narrative. Use one of the story writing models on your Sententia Story Development Starter Cards, a public domain story, or try Rory’s Story Cubes for a whole new twist on story writing.
For more information on Sententia and Gamification Design please contact us at guru@sententiagames.com
About the Author: Monica Cornetti
Founder and CEO, Sententia www.SententiaGames.com www.monicacornetti.com
A gamification speaker and designer, Monica Cornetti is rated as a #1 Gamification Guru in the World by UK-Based Leaderboarded. She is the author of the book Totally Awesome Training Activity Guide: Put Gamification to Work for You, writes The Gamification Report blog, and hosts the weekly Gamification Talk Radio program.
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