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Why Experiential Learning Makes a Difference
Nine Good Reasons Why Experiential Games & Simulations Make A Difference
- They enable learning to be enjoyable, challenging and stimulating, exploiting the most natural and effective process of learning through personal experience and experimentation.
- They enable participants to quickly realise their strengths and weaknesses in a relatively safe environment.
- Participants become motivated to learn the skills that were tested under simulated deadlines and apply them back in the work place.
- They graphically illustrate when the effective transfer of theory into practice occurs and an effective review enables participants to understand the process for success to be repeated.
- They enable participants to see and experience the gap between what they think they believe and what their behaviour demonstrates they truly believe. Once this contradiction has been confronted the way is open for real behavioural and attitude change to occur.
- They encourage participants to take risks and experiment with new behaviour.
- Participants often know more than they think they know. Games and simulations help participants to discover the underlying principles that make them competent. These experiences help them build confidence in their ability to correct their mistakes and improve their performance.
- They stimulate participants to ask more penetrating questions, about themselves, their colleagues and their organisation, that a more formal process would fail to trigger.
- They can produce powerful insights and high points, that were unplanned and unthought of, yet enrich the learning process well beyond the expectations of all those involved.
The Richer Test
It Should Be...
Relevant - The game must be relevant to the subject area and the delegates organisational life and culture.
Insightful - It should act as a catalyst enabling delegates to tell you what they have learnt and not you having to tell them.
Challenging - If it's not, it risks being patronising and the participants may switch off.
Honest - Games that blatantly entrap the players greatly dilute the learning points and appear contrived.
Enjoyable - When we are enjoying ourselves we automatically open up to varying degrees and this allows for feedback and disclosure, two of the most powerful learning ingredients.
Realistic - The experience needs to be built on a realistic foundation if the message is to be believed. Also the delegates need to go back into the real world and apply the lessons learnt, we owe it to them to ensure that what they take away can be used, is realistic and not pie in the sky theory for the perfect world scenario.
