Gamestorming for Life

Hello Gamestormer!

It’s been a while since we’ve shared a proper newsletter. I hope you’ve been well. The Brooklyn winter, so far, has gone easy on us, with recent exceptions: two snow-falls, 17” and 7” respectively. The city returns to 25% capacity indoor dining on February 14th; the industry needs it, many local mainstays have closed. In terms of vaccinations, New York recently improved to 32nd out of 50 states in percentage of population vaccinated.   The big story for Gamestorming since last writing has been the emergence of our Expeditions training. And it provides the topic for this little ramble. A question came up in yesterday’s session: Does Gamestorming work in offline settings? Until then, we only received this question in reverse. Gamestorming was published over 11 years ago. Most recent inquiries wonder if Gamestorming works online. I suppose we’ve been working virtually long enough that some people’s first exposure to Gamestorming has been online, which is to say they’ve never experienced it in its natural habitat. That got me thinking, how much our boundaries have blurred in the past year. Pre-pandemic, the blending of our home and personal lives may have been limited to a calendar integration, a happy hour or the occasional work-from-home day. The pandemic-induced work-from-home ordeal has nearly obliterated whatever work/life boundaries existed: we parent while we virtually meet; no more commutes; our offices are our couches and kitchens; the same for our gyms; and where we once showered and changed after a workout, we now wear the same outfit all day. As our personal and professional worlds overlap, it might not be surprising to hear another recent and frequent question: (How) can I use Gamestorming in my personal life? Our straightforward answer: of course; just treat you, your relationship, your situation as the project.

When we plan agendas we start with the end in mind and work backwards. What’s the meeting’s goal? Then choose a series of games where the output of one is the input for the next. Any game can be adapted for personal use with the right framing for your goal.

Here are a few to get you started:

Empathy Map Any situation, problem or solution likely involves another person: someone it might be helpful to understand more clearly. The Empathy Map can help here. After facilitating an Empathy Mapping session at a software conference, a father approached to tell me he chose his daughter as the subject of his Map. She had just moved to university and she wasn’t calling home as much as he had hoped. The map reminded him of the freedom and independence she might be feeling for the first time in her life. Ah!

Start/Stop/Continue Where the Empathy Map helps to create clarity and perspective, Start/Stop/Continue will help you take action in light of them. These two games might work well in combination.

Here, There & Everywhere This is new to the Gamestorming library. An Expedition after-action review revealed the need for a consistent closing game to crystalize learnings. So we developed Here, There & Everywhere. This practice easily translates to personal journaling or reflection. Each time you read a book, listen to your favorite podcast or hear a smart person say something:

1. Write it down (Here) Something that caught your attention, piqued your curiosity or, at the very least, you noticed 2. Detail how you will apply this thing in your life (There) How might you implement it at work or in your personal life? Imagine your future self doing it and the outcome it generates 3. Write down the underlying principle or insight that makes this bit of knowledge so effective and universal (Everywhere) This is its underlying principle absent context.

Let’s take the trend of blending in another, and likely, direction: the not so distant future when the option to return to a physical, separate workspace returns.  Have you started to prepare for an even more complex work landscape where teams are permanently split between remote and the office. It is difficult for me, from my home office, to see a post-it note on the conference room wall. This is a topic we are committed to exploring and helping you with, as it invariably unfolds. Where else do you see the lines blurring?

Here’s what’s new in 2021

Expeditions 2021: Join the Waitlist Expeditions for Q1 are sold out and our journey is just taking off. Read what Expeditioners are saying about their experience through their testimonials, here. If you would like to be a future Expeditioner, join us in Q2 or Q3 by signing up below: Expedition Waitlist

Research Project: You're on Mute In July of 2020, we launched a research project to understand the shift of meetings to the virtual space. We spoke to more than 20 professionals and gathered data from more than 450 participants through surveys, discussions and interactive worksheets. We will soon share the story of our experience along with insights and learnings for you.

Gamestorming Community Backpack As part of our Expeditions, we started a backpack of resources for Expeditioners to learn from. These have become avenues to start conversations and have participants contribute as well. We are working on making this accessible for our entire gamestorming community. Watch out for updates!

Happy Gamestorming! Until next time,