DESIGN THINKING & GAMIFICATION - A HOLISTIC APPROACH TOWARDS LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT

Design Thinking Process

“Design thinking is a human-centered approach to innovation that draws from the designer’s toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the possibilities of technology, and the requirements for business success.”-TIM BROWN, CEO, IDEO, California (One of the global pioneers in international design & consulting). Design thinking is a novel approach that can help business find highly personalised and contextualised learning and development solutions; and is the most basic practice in which a progressed society functions.

The Gamification in learning is a training approach to motivate participants to learn using game designs and game elements in learning environment. The goal is to maximise enjoyment and engagement through an active thought process capturing the interest of learners and inspiring them to continue learning.

Design thinking & Gamification (D&G) - transforms the learning process, by shifting the focus and gravity of the learning from the trainer to the participant. The roles are exchanged through careful planning and adopting the suitable training pedagogy from D&G. This process enhances the thinking process of the participant which elevates the dimension of participants-engagement (PE). PE captures the objectives of the training effectively and is then translated in the areas of work domains and business functions.

One of the latest advancements in Learning and Development(L&D) is to adopt the philosophy of D&G. This philosophy should be adapted to the organisation culture (OC) helping to achieve the vision and mission at a faster pace. In the conventional approach, the audience tends to be in a passive mode which reduces the engagement of the participant in learning. This disengaged learning is not sustainable over a longer tenure & intended actions are not reflected in their work domains as expected. At this juncture, D&G is introduced as a moderator technique to enhance the process of L&D which is sustainable and target centric.

D&G aids in the holistic process of learning & development as it touches upon 4 dimensions listed below.

1.Problem identification- The learner develops an aptitude to identify problems that are explicit & implicit. This helps the workforce to proactively solve the problems.

2.Human centric & empathetic approach- The learner experiences the problem through active involvement. The learner learns to critically think about the problem from a holistic dimension and understands the real cause of the problem. This brings in engagement between the learner and the problem identified.

3.Innovation- The critical thinking introduces a rigor in the minds of the participant that motivates them to explore possible solutions. High levels of engagement harnesses the individual's traits such as domain knowledge, critical thinking and collaborative skills. This synergy orchestrates into an innovative drive train that discover the most ideal solution to the problems identified. The next stage is to adapt the innovation and incubate the same in the organisation’s context.

4.Incubation & Testing- In this stage, the solution is simulated to the problems identified. The results are explored through this incubation and mapped against the desired results. The above process is iterated until the testing is successful.

This L&D approach is found to be sustainable from the following perspective.

Time - The research reports indicate that learning through D&G approach is sustainable over a longer tenure. It also reveals the fact that the learning is more impactful and desired results were achieved with high success rates.

Cost - Training using D&G is profitable from benefit point of view in CBA(Cost Benefit Analysis). The transformation process of L&D will incur additional cost to the L&D department but the far reaching benefits justify the cost associated.

High Collaboration Teams - Collaboration is one of the integral functions in D&G that leads to creation of teams in the organisation. Team members would be from interdisciplinary and multiple departments. This creates harmony in the organisation that develops the organisation culture.

Innovations - D&G will lead to future innovations that are profitable and sustainable for the organisation. This will add to the development of business portfolios, product portfolios and market expansion that brings in value. 

Author

Mr.Jackson D'Silva

Assistant Professor

XIME Kochi