We have been playing #seriousgames on our online innovation training workspace this week with four UK Utilities and a major Tier 1. You may think this is churlish BUT ...more and more people getting involved in game-based learning from board executives to business consultants....Why ? Well, it's a great way to convey insight and experience to people, in line with 'learning by doing'. Also by its very nature, playing games is far more engaging than a stack of slides.

We all know innovation is complex involving an understanding of principals, but also a wide array of commercial, communication, negotiation and soft skills. There is no point in simply learning abstracts from various textbooks. Contemporary methods need to overcome this challenge and deliver information and learning in a multifaceted way.

At +ADD Strategy ...The innovation partner, programmes are innately personal, interactive. We focus primarily on digital in-person training providing feedback for tasks and challenges, developing journals and projects in teams. We play serious learning games to explore ideas and develop broader concepts of innovation practice.

Serious innovation play offers a chance for everyone to get involved, share opinions and ideas on the actions and options on the table and actions taken. Also, students love to get involved in a good story. which helps people connect with the learning experience and their peers. Real-life interactions enable learners to interact and work together in a safe space, experimenting with different approaches without repercussions.

Our games are designed to work in the context of the theory of constraints with students tasked to realise innovation plans for new developments with limited time, money, and access to people and resources.

Considering research, opportunity validation, co-design, Intellectual property, collaboration, financing and much more; the games require people to use a wide variety of actions across an end to end process which stretches thinking and helps with commercial considerations and awareness of the need to think about aspects fo the whole process from the early stages to avoid issues later down the line.

While many everyday scenarios may not offer so much variation in one single experience., the learning games also drive the use of diverse skills in information recall, data/pattern recognition, communication, quantitative skills, as well as working under pressure and complex problem-solving.

Finally, like any good learning experience, our games offer reflection, providing both tangible team results review and fun informal competitive comparison as well as a level of self-reflection. A key like any good game is to play it more than once.

This opportunity enables teams to build confidence and ‘expertise’ forged from learnings associated with the game. We actually use our game as both an abstract play ….and in planning tool for real projects delivered by students on our programmes.

Our learning games are available in multiple formats and custom games can be created on request.

If you would like to learn more about our learning games for innovation and broader accredited and assured training offers, please get in touch with Paul Sutherland our senior partner - paul@addstrategy.co.uk.