What could be the emerging global tsunami in education and corporate learning that is going to save the world!

How do you handle it when you live in the land of ‘disruptive high tech innovation’, and, due to a long running industrial dispute, you find yourself jam packed, on a very slow, early morning train to Tel Aviv? On the one hand, you are in a tightly enclosed space, like a proverbial ‘sardine in a can’, with at least, an hour’s wobbling journey to endure. On the other hand, you are scheduled to attend a one day cutting edge workshop, in the ‘city that never sleeps’, with one of the global leaders in this amazing developing technological space called ‘enterprise gamification’.

You adapt to the situation, of course! Doing the best you can with what you have!

Out comes the Ipod, tuning into recording of the Dalai Lama, as part of a discussion panel, at the Happiness Conference held in 2011, in Sydney, Australia. Sadly, my home country, despite its natural wealth, fabulous lifestyle and affluence has one of the highest youth suicide rates in the world. The panel of experts, along with His Holiness were discussing, why might this be so and what could they do about it?

Everything happens for a reason, my role was to find and fulfil it!

Whilst many factors were discussed, one of the key points raised in the conversation, was the impact of our materialistic and evidence based Newtonian World, on children’s education.  How science, rationality and reason have become the educational core, and how children are being taught to aspire mostly towards academic and material success.  His Holiness raised the point that the real sources of Happiness are more heart centred, intuitive, and abstract and are also about being part of a community and a well functioning family. 

He suggested that for children to lead happy lives, they need to have a sense of meaning and connection in their lives. That they require more than sensible explanations for things, more than a single parent home, more than a secular and material focus in their young lives!

“Education and knowledge by themselves do not bring inner peace to individuals, families or the society in which they live. But education combined with warm-heartedness, a sense of concern for the well-being of others, has much more positive results. If you have a great deal of knowledge, but you're governed by negative emotions, then you tend to use your knowledge in negative ways. Therefore, while you are learning, don't forget the importance of warm-heartedness”. Dalai Lama

What really amazed me was that he talked a lot about Facebook, and the role of social media in enabling young people to form their own, new kinds of warm hearted ‘communities’. Where they are free to fully express and be themselves, and make a stand, without any of the major family, school or social imperatives and injunctions!

As I finally made my way to the Checkpoint Building, in downtown Tel Aviv, where my workshop was being hosted, I wondered about how this might apply, or not, to the workshop I was about to attend?

Having spent the best part of my 20 year career in the corporate learning space, I was curious as to how enterprise gamification might fit into the whole field of experiential learning? Perhaps not only as an adaption of ‘learning by doing’ principles, but possibly the next evolution might see the integration of experiential learning and social media practices in ways that we may have never expected?

How might it serve as an alternate way of learning that was more in tune with His Holiness’s criteria for Happiness?

So what did I learn?

Some Gamification Facts that I didn’t know previously:

-   We spend 3 billion hours a week playing online games.

-   Average player age is 37 years old: it costs a lot to buy video games (now)

-   The ‘Warcraft Game’, (pictured) has the second largest Wiki, (80,000 articles) after Wikipedia, globally.

-   97% of youth are playing computer or video games!

-   The ratio of social to competitive players is greater than 3:1.

What really attracts people to games is that they like to ‘try out stuff’, have fun and enjoyment whilst totally engaged in pursuit of mastery!

They like to operate autonomously and not be at the effect of any ‘real life’ consequences when they make a mistake, or fail to achieve one of their virtual missions!

This sounded very familiar to me, and I searched my mind to find where exactly I had heard these very same points, yet in another context?  Of course, from Dan Pink, who states that people are motivated by purpose (doing something meaningful, like saving the planet), mastery (be the best gamer on the global score board) and autonomy (I am playing my own game, even if I am part of a gaming community).

"Reality is broken” says Gaming Master Jane McGonigal, 

(see http://janemcgonigal.com) “and we need to make it work more like a game. The best hope we have for surviving the next century on this planet? Games”! 

Her goal for the next decade is to try to make it as easy to save the world in real life as it is to save the world in online games.

(http://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_better_world.html)

She explains that there are four key reasons why people love to game:

1. Creates urgent optimism.
2. Weaves a social fabric.
3. Results in blissful productivity.
4. Creates epic meaning.

She also says that gamers become super empowered and hopeful individuals.

Our facilitator then questioned the group:

“What if we harness the energy and the passion people expend on games to solve some of our major corporate, community and global problems?

“What if people could be enabled to engage and feel like that in organisations, about their day to day work?” 

“How would that impact on productivity, innovation and overall organisational performance?”

Great questions to chew on!

Reflecting back as to how I started the day, I then asked myself:

“How will our clever children evolve and adapt their successful virtual world discoveries into real world solutions, create warm-heartedness and really save the world?”

One in which their urgent optimism permits mistakes that are not perceived as failures, finds a deep sense of well being and profound connection points where they excel and be blissfully productive. Where they can embrace meaning, feel a sense of belonging, experience warm-heartedness and contribute to something greater than themselves!

I don’t know about you, I am joining the emerging global tsunami that is changing the face and nature of education and corporate learning on an unprecedented scale. 

I am looking to see how I can contribute, as a corporate trainer, facilitator and curriculum designer, towards Jane McGonigal’s unique and surprisingly deviant vision for saving the world!

The Paradox of Indispensability | The Paradox of Indispensability - London Business School BSR

Great article that reinforces the need need to take time to think about the important things and to make sure we do them, and not get caught up in 'hurry-sickness'.

The Paradox of Indispensability | The Paradox of Indispensability - London Business School BSR

What is the core ingredient for executive team effectiveness?

I have found that trust is the lever that creates great teamwork, hard to build, easy to lose! We don't seem to talk enough about it, so here are some simple tips that will help build it!

http://smartblogs.com/leadership/2011/07/19/lead-change-post/

Thriving in Chaos, introducing the flux mindset

This is an absolutely exciting must read, it reinforces and validates the need to flow with chaos and to embrace a disruptive and deviant mindset!

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/162/generation-flux-future-of-business

Startup Nation Factory by Innovation Israel

A Fun animation that illustrates the Start Up Nation Factory

What is more critical for a successful business transformation, being a change or an adaptive leader?

The balance point between certainty and uncertainty, stability and instability, complexity and simplicity is moving faster and more often that it has ever done previously. 

Coupled with the increasing incidence of ‘Black Swans Events’, those improbable and unexpected events that provide extreme impact and result in unprecedented consequences, have created the conditions for us to re-examine the way we, as organizational development consultants  approach business transformation and change.

Change Programs Don’t Work!

My thirty years of corporate consulting experiences has led me to believe that organizations and cultures don’t really change, not because they don’t want to, it’s because they usually can’t! Too often I have seen CEO’s and OD consultants suggest that there is something ‘wrong’ about their organizational culture, and then embark on a costly, complex, culture change program, that attempts to ‘fix’ it! The result is often a mixture of frustration, denial and blame, usually around the timing, the change programs’ focus, structure or implementation, or ‘wrong’ consulting advice or even the ‘wrong’ consultant!

Working with 'what is' and 'what could be'!

The first step is to work towards deciphering the current organisational culture, through simple, accessible and focussed dialogue processes, rather than complex, prescriptive, tools based processes that are consultant dependent. This approach engages and involves the people, who work in the organisation, and understand it in all of its manifestations and possibilities. By doing this we have made a positive first step towards understanding, at a very deep level,  ‘what is’ as well as ‘what could be’.

What you resist persists!

We can then assess what key factors drive the culture, and then, again through simple and focussed dialogue processes, that involve the people, determine how to stimulate and unleash more of the possibilities and positive energy and reduce more of the negatives. Rather than focus on solving business issues and problems, the real work gets done when determining what the real adaptive challenges are and developing Innovative new ways of solving these problems.

Adapting and evolving is not changing!  

Nature has taught us that Disruption can be both destructive and creative, and that, without it, nature’s eco-systems do not adapt, and reach new thresholds.  Once we understand that an organisation is also an inherent eco-system, that also requires adaptation, then we can create the ‘safe space’ to create Intentional Disruptions.

This stimulates the adaptive process and, if well led, can enable the organisation and its people to become passionate about solving its problems in surprising, imaginative and innovative ways.

What can you do to be a more adaptive leader and ensure that business transformation initiatives that you are involved with, deliver what they promise?

Shai Agassi Launches the Electric Car Today, in Israel, read his Inspirational Note to his Team

Better Team,

Steve Jobs said that "while most people live within the boundaries of the world we know around us, very few people actually get to set those

boundaries, by not accepting them". When he mentioned those few people, he was talking about YOU.

Four years ago, we promised the president of Israel, mr. Shimon Peres, that by today we will have serially produced electric cars that would drive in the streets of Israel. It seemed like an impossible dream. Today we delivered those cars to people who will be driving electric cars daily as their only vehicle. We had to move mountains to get to this day, and we did. Yet we have many more mountains to move.

I'd like to take this chance to remind you why we embarked on this journey. We did so not because we search for riches, even though those riches will find us. Not because we want to end something, even though we most likely will. Not for political motivation or environmental bias, even though we will help the environment and most likely change geo-politics. No, we did so, because ever so rarely a simple idea resonates with so many people, with so much power, simply because we all know it is the right thing to do.

Since no single person can solve a problem as big and deeply rooted in our society, we have to offer every person a proposition that will better their own life, an option for them to switch. We will do so by relying on people's free will. And in the words of Carlos Ghosn: "the car will be a great experience - a fun car to drive". And Indeed the Fluence ZE is a fun car, just as he promised. We salute our friends and partners at Renault for their great achievement. 

We have teams spread around the whole world, in Israel and Denmark, Paris and Palo Alto, Melbourne and Tokyo, teams of people who worked relentlessly over the last 1,500 days to deliver a complete system that no one has ever seen before. I thank every one of you from the bottom of my heart! We started from a white paper, full of ideas and many unknowns. While we have delivered most of that white paper, we still have more to do to prove our system works. We will only get better with time.

I also want to thank those who invested the company and stayed true to their commitment and trust. To Idan, our chairman, the entire board and every investor, big and small, we promised not only to make the world a better place, but to build a great company we can be proud of, one that will be profitable and growing. 

And I want to thank your families, I know the days we passed and the days ahead will take us away from our loved ones in the name of our mission. Remember we are all working for our kids, because we promised them we will be saving their world. And we do as we promised.

Finally, as I was driving into today's ceremony, I asked my son how he summarizes our achievement over the last four years. His words ring so true. "Dad, today is just the beginning". we have not accomplished our mission, we are just starting now. I am so proud of you! And I am sure you feel just as I do today.

Isn't this a great beginning?

Shai