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Why Training Games |
By Mick Riley, President
Training Games, Inc.
When we were born, our parents taught us everything from potty training to riding a bicycle. They did it with love, determination and quite often, a game. In kindergarten, the teachers had a major problem overcoming our short attention spans and used games and other involving activities to teach us. Then something happened, gradually, as we moved through the school system. The teacher's first priority became getting through the lesson plan. Children became bored and teachers used grades as a yard stick as to how well we did in school. Even our loving parents rewarded us for good grades, and the learning became secondary. It got even worse in college. Professors held lectures and the end result was always how you did on tests and what your grades were. We (the students) were responsible to learn, however the professor was not responsible for teaching. We were under pressure to get good grades, not to learn something. We forgot the lessons we learned in childhood.
What did we really learn in school and college? We learned that school and learning was boring. The process of learning was tedious and monotonous. Learning or training is the key to everything in life. If we lose the desire to learn, we lose everything. In sales, there is a saying that goes, "Nothing happens until someone sells something". That's not true. Nothing happens until someone learns or is taught something. It is the basis for using our intelligence. Personal note: I am not saying that all teachers and professors fall into the above description, but enough to make the above scenario appear to be true to students.
What happens after school - we get a job. The first thing we do is learn the job. A trainer teaches us what we must know to do the job. The two most common ways that a business teaches an employee; make them read a manual or listen to a presentation. Both of these are boring and do not engage the employee in the material. Over the years, we have tried to improve this process but unfortunately we forgot the early lessons of our parents. They used games to involve us in learning something and keep our attention. What makes us think that we have outgrown this developmental model? The objective is and has always been to learn something new. We learn most of the things we will ever know before we reached the 4th grade. Learning requires motivation; you cannot have one without the other.
I was in corporate America for over 30 years and attended numerous training sessions for various reasons. As a manager, I had to set an example for the other people attending the training sessions by trying to be involved in the material. Most of the time, this was difficult. The material was presented in a one way process. Read the book, listen to the presentation, do the workbook. Nothing that involved us in the process, we were third party observers in the process. Even as a trainer, I was tied to the corporate paradigm for how to train. Our parents used games to teach us, not because they were fun, but because they worked. To use an old phrase, we need to get back to basics.
Training Games return us to that tried and proven method of teaching someone something. We get them involved and interested in the process. They have increased retention of the material and pay more attention during a game than they ever would during a presentation. Most of our games are team games for the same reason. As adults, most of our activities are done in teams. Our family is a team; our business is a team; our local work unit is a team. The interaction of teams also increases the effectiveness of playing a training game or the learning process. TRAINING GAMES – GETTING BACK TO BASICS!
At Training Games, we have several different formats of games. We use Excel and PowerPoint to create our games. To help make your selection process easier for you, here are the major differences between our games. Our Excel-based XF games are the most involved, giving you the greatest number of playing and control features. They are macro intensive games.
All of our PowerPoint games do not use the "questions database" that our Excel games do. Questions must be edited or entered directly on question slides. We have two types of PowerPoint games. Games without macros and games with macros; VBA macros are what allows us to give these games complexity and setup features. Our six-pack games do not use macros and are the simplest of our products. They do use custom animation, colorful graphics and engaging sounds to make the games more interesting. They are also the only products we have that can be used on an intranet or secured internet page. Our other PowerPoint games use macros and have an increased level of complexity and features. They include the PowerPoint Presentation game and the PowerPoint Board games.
Don't be afraid of the fact that we use macros to write our games. It is the only way to develop a solid, quality game. You will never see a macro. Macros are the automated steps that take place when you press a button in the game. The only thing you need to be aware of is to set your Trust Center or Macro Security level to allow macros to be used. Other than that, the macros are seamless when the game is used.
At Training Games we are committed to creating and providing you with the best training tools we can produce. As many of our customers have found out, our customer service is the best in the industry. We are committed to the idea of training games and stand behind all of our products. |
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