The War For Mindshare

Virtual Worlds in Employee Communications The War for Mindshare:

Employees Are Overloaded With Information The Way It Is Today

The Corporate Culture Story Gushes From Management Like Water From a Fire Hose… But trickles out at the employee level like a garden hose The Way It Is Today

We must engage employees and nurture their aspirations and skill sets in a way that develops them as individuals. The Way It Is Today

The Changing Landscape

Recruits and Employees Under 35 Grew Up with Computers and Videogames The Changing Landscape

It’s a New Generation of Talent “… this generation is very different from the Boomers…they have systematically different ways of working…choose systematically different skills to learn and different ways to learn them, desire different goals…think differently about their careers, their companies and their co-workers, how they take risks, compete and fit into teams. And these differences are driven by one central factor: growing up with video games .” – John C. Beck/Mitchell Wade Got Game Harvard University Press

What are the most effective means of communicating with today’s employees? It’s a New Generation of Talent

Businesses have leveraged technology in every aspect of the enterprise … except learning. Time to Update the Thinking

Authorware and e-learning were a natural evolution – But… Employees under the age of 35 grew up with computers and game controllers Time to Update the Thinking

Baby Boomers See Virtual Worlds As Toys...

Younger employees see them as:

Puzzles to be solved

Connectivity platforms

Personal branding statements

Facts of life

Time To Update The Thinking

Today’s employees grew up playing videogames and show improved cognitive skills in areas such as visualization and mental maps

Time To Update The Thinking *P.M. Greenfield, Media & The Mind of of the Child (Harvard University Press 1984 *A.S. Oyen and J.M. Bebok “The Effects of Computer Games and Lesson Contexts on Children’s Mnemonic Strategies (Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 1996)

“… games are incredibly complex computer programs that lead the brain to new combinations of cognitive tasks and demand new levels of processing power.” John C. Beck & Mitchell Wade Got Game Harvard Business School Press Time To Update The Thinking

Studies show the retention benefits of “Learning by Doing”:

Interactive media are a more dynamic and effective way to train today’s and tomorrow’s employees

Best Practices approach Source: Forrester, “Online Training Needs a New Course, August 2000

When it comes to life and death learning, the pros use games and simulations… Best Practices approach

Best Practices approach People are more engaged mentally when they are participating

Traditional Media

No opportunity to experience by doing

Little “to do” but receive messages

Limited message choice limits empowerment

Learning is passive

Content requires logical, sequential thought

Interactive Media

Ample opportunity to experience by doing

Multiple tasks to allow learning by doing

Freedom to make choices enhances empowerment

Learning is active

Content can be accessed logically or randomly

Traditional meaning of literacy: The ability to read and write text at a competent level A New Way of Learning and Communicating Today: Visual literacy - the ability to read images, symbols, graphs, diagrams, artifacts and other significant visual symbols – now as important as being able to read text

Semiotic domains: “any set of practices that recruits one or more modalities (oral or written language, images, symbols, equations, sounds, gestures etc) to communicate distinctive types of meanings” James Paul Gee - What Videogames Have To Teach Us About Learning And Literacy - Palgrave Macmillan A New Way of Learning and Communicating

Virtual worlds acknowledge the audience’s learning orientation, engage them on an emotional level and Speak Their Language A New Way of Learning and Communicating