Month: February 2021

MY CURRENT RESEARCH QUESTION:

Using gamification, how can the mentoring experience be disrupted: re-framed & re-designed to provide wider accessibility and engagement?

MY PROJECT SUMMARY:

I am researching the mentoring experience both from a mentor and mentee perspective, with the aim of redesigning the interaction via a gamified framework. This aim has developed from what I have perceived as a gap in the mentoring process indicated in my research, where those interviewed were looking for direction/ next steps in their different journeys but lacked the mechanism to facilitate this. The framework this project is looking to develop is not aiming to ascribe answers to mentees, but to help them in generating their own, with or without the support of a mentor.

MY MOST RECENT INTERVENTION

The latest intervention I did, as detailed in my blog, involved an ideation/ testing session, where I mapped the findings from the research conducted so far and tried to apply them to a more structured framework. The initial idea was to create a physical board game, however, after several iterations and experimental attempts, the concept has evolved into a digital experience. Once this shift from physical to digital had ‘materialised’, the core design began to take form and make sense.

MY KEY FEEDBACK RESPONDENTS / EXPERTS TO DATE 

Product League (mentoring programme and my mentee)University experts and academics (both within CSM and outside)I began by questioning my mentees, colleagues and friends, from a variety of backgrounds and countries. These formed the initial basis of my feedback.

I also spoke to professional life coaches, self-development experts and a trained psychologist.

MY POTENTIAL GATEKEEPERS

The gatekeepers who currently have the most influence on my project are, interestingly, the very people I wish to apply my framework to. The personal nature of the information they need to share, in order to test the framework in the most effective way, is acting as a ‘gatekeeper’.

MY KEY FINDINGS SO FAR

Perhaps the key finding of my research so far, Is that people wishing to make a change (without knowing the exact direction) often have an internal blocker preventing them from addressing it. When testing the provisional framework created in my latest intervention, I found it helped to unlock this ‘mental block’. The experience enabled people to shape their thoughts and address some of the choices and decisions they were ignoring. I could clearly see that the gamification, with its more natural and less pressurised approach (compared to a conventional mentor process) helped to open people to their inner monologue.

MY NEXT KEY ACTIONS

The next step is to create an initial digital prototype which will then be user tested and refined. In parallel, I will also continue testing and adjusting the framework concept on a targeted group (graduating and recently graduated students).

STRENGTHS/OPPORTUNITIES IN MY PROJECT

Now the project is being digitalised, this increases the reach to a potentially global audience. There appears to be an appetite amongst many respondents, particularly given the current global environment, to make change, and therefore it is a great time to introduce a tool that supports this.

GAPS OR WEAKNESSES

I need to conduct further research to fully test whether the framework can be applied in various (sometimes very personal) scenarios and to decide whether this can be universal or needs to be applied to more specific use cases.

A key aspect of the gamification of the experience is making the process ‘fun’, so, whilst the core framework has been created, making it a more entertaining tool is something I am looking to further develop.

My bibliography is:

• Donald A. Norman – Emotional Design
• Edward de Bono – Six thinking hats
• Tom Kelley & David Kelley – Creative Confidence
• Phil Knight – Shoe dog
• Barry Schwartz – The paradox of choice

Sources/references for the near future:

• Henry Petrovski – Success through failure
• John Thackara – In the Bubble, Designing in a complex world
• Nir Eyal – Indistractable
• Nick Bolstrom – Superintelligence

It was as clear as a sunny day! A board game it is!

Let’s escape that digital world, I thought, and focus on more tangible, “real” things. Sounds about right nowadays, doesn’t it? In times when people are re-evaluating the way they are living, when grounding is such a trendy word, when everyone’s coming back to basics, looking in, facing towards self, you name it.. I guessed it was time for me to do so as well..

And there it was – the first prototype of the physical board game, ready to be tested. Humble and shy, but prepared. Prepared to face its first intervention!

And so it started: slow, but steady.

an autumn rain...

A few initial obvious tweaks needed here and there, rearranging some parts, yes!

starts pouring..

Let’s change this order, ok!

a lightening in the distance…

Some good potential side tracks, great!

a thunder now shakes the ground…

Oh that slightly bigger change will make so much sense!

and the cats and dogs are falling from the sky!

And then suddenly one big…

…BANG!

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Silence.

Soaked, in the middle of the intervention, it hit me (and not only me, but also hit the intervention itself!). Why a physical board game? Why? What am I trying to escape?

It took me no longer than 5 seconds to see it all in screens, like a reel ..following each other. Another 10 to draw them. 5 more to imagine the user interactions. And the gamification, and the story, and the characters, and the tone of voice, and even the colours! Ah the colours (they usually take longer to appear)!

And there I was, drenched and happy, finishing an intervention, seeing the blue skies. Satisfied with my decision to go digital. I found an inner peace for now, I thought, looking at the rainbow…

Using gamification, how can the mentoring experience be disrupted: re-framed & re-designed to provide wider accessibility and engagement?

An olive branch

A symbol of peace; something you say or do to show that you wish to make peace with somebody

Oxford Learner’s Dictionary

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Choosing an olive branch to represent my Golden Bough initially came as a surprise. However, the more I was avoiding thinking about it, in order to explore better options (see below on this), the more this one stuck. Interestingly, I still keep finding more and more reasons behind it.

The olive branch & me

Let me start from the most obvious point – well, the olive branch is literally a piece of nature. The inevitable connection between human and nature is something that moves me deeply. Regularly observing myself, I encounter new evidences on how important this union is. Going back to my childhood and my Macedonian roots, the olives have always been the border trees – the ones that are seen only when one gets close to the border or when they cross it. Back in the days – it was the physical border between Bulgaria and Greece, today – it is the border of my imagination. And of course that magical green colour, oh! It is there, but it is also not!

I noticed I sometimes tend to be a perfectionist. I struggle to leave things unfinished, or to start doing them at all, unless I am sure the result will be satisfactory (to my imaginary standards). So every now and then there is this internal war to start creating and enjoy the imperfection vs. “don’t bother now, it’s not going to be good enough”. With the olive branch, I would like to offer internal peace and allow the former side to win. At least for now.

Last, but not least, I would like to give some peace to my thoughts from the war outside – pandemic, economic crisis, politics, work.. Finding peace and quietness and comfort in my own mind is what I hope the olive branch will give me.

The olive branch & my project

To get through the second year of my studies, I believe I would need to develop further my patience and persistence skills. I am exploring the practise of meditation and building healthy daily habits to enable me test these boundaries.

I would also like to gain more in-depth knowledge on mentoring. I have been volunteering as a mentor for the past 3 months and I have built a network of other mentors and mentees. I would need to use the olive branch to further create peaceful connections with mentoring communities – to gather feedback and test ideas.

Applying the olive branch through the gamification prism, I want to explore the fundamental gaming principles, and methods for creating and testing games. Where winning or losing shouldn’t matter. Where the importance should be on the game. I am still to look for relevant literature and articles and to contact relevant stakeholders.

Last but not least, by answering my question, I would love to offer peace out to the world – more people finding help and inner peace by being mentors and/or being mentees. Maybe by trying to disrupt the mentoring process, I would be aiming to create a new, different type of relationship – more equal, more sustainable, more peaceful. Like an olive branch.