When it comes to maximizing the strength and potential of our learning and development project teams, we can find a lot of inspiration and potential strategy in an unlikely place: online collaborative gaming. Video games such as World of Warcraft create a unique and vibrant culture of collaboration that we can directly relate to our professional experience with project teams. In this session, we will look at learning and development project teams through the lens of collaborative online gaming and unpack the ways we can leverage gaming culture and perspective to improve our approach to psychological safety, change management, problem solving, and design thinking.

In this session you'll learn how collaborative online gaming culture can provide unique perspectives and strategies for building stronger, more successful learning and development project teams. You'll explore how gaming culture can both support and undermine psychological safety, and how we can apply lessons from the virtual world in a professional context to improve the way we communicate and how we respect, respond to, and actively listen to others' ideas and expertise. You'll learn how gamers incorporate change management and flexibility into their collaborative game play and problem solving, and what we can learn from them about adapting on the fly to changing priorities, new leadership, and a learning and development world that keeps on moving just when you think you've figured it out. You'll delve into the strategies gamers often use with group problem solving and design thinking to challenge assumptions and routines, adapt their approach, and create new solutions. You'll also explore the concept of leadership and what we can take away from a culture where everyone can lead and no one is obligated to follow. You'll examine what traits make a good gaming leader, how gamers build an environment of trust, and what gaming leaders do to cultivate and maintain trust and reputation. You'll also learn how good verbal communication, clear feedback, and an open approach to constructive criticism can increase collaborative gaming success, and what learning and development project teams can learn from communication in an online, virtual environment that typically comes without a filter. You will also delve into the reasons gamers work to understand their group members, play styles, and preferences, and examine the benefits of understanding how other people work. You'll learn about the potential rewards of uncovering the hidden talents and interests of your learning and development project partners, and why our project members are always more than a name, a job title, and an assignment.

In this session, you will learn:

• How gaming culture exemplifies the importance of psychological safety in learning and development project teams
• How gamers' use of consistent change management illustrates the ways learning and development can adapt to constant change without losing purpose
• What learning and development project teams can learn from gamers' use of design thinking for challenging assumptions and testing new solutions
• Why verbal communication, clarity, and honesty are important skills to hone and develop in collaborative game play and learning and development project teams
• What makes good project leaders and how they create and cultivate a culture of trust and confidence
• Why project partners are our greatest resource, and how learning and development can adapt gaming elements such as character building, skill development, and armor to leverage each others' skills beyond a job title

Technology discussed in this session:

Gaming systems from Blizzard, SquareEnix, and Riot Games (discuss only), virtual communication platforms such as Webex, Discord, and Zoom (discuss only)