Jim Lunsford speaks about "Serious Games for Leader and Team Training" at the 2012 Serious Play Conference ABSTRACT: Leadership, like most individual skills, is a combination of art and science. Although the best process to develop strong, adaptive, leaders is a repetitive cycle of selected study, constant practice, and quality reflection, traditional leader education and training relies almost solely on the instruction of science. Carefully designed and developed serious games provide the means for leaders, of all experience levels, to practice key cognitive skills in a dynamic and sometimes stressful environment. When individual reflection is facilitated by an expert coach, the ability of the leaders to better understand the consequences of their actions and why they occurred improves significantly. This process enables leaders to experience the art as well as the science of leadership in the classroom before practicing it for the first time within an organization.

1. Serious Play Conference
Serious Games
For
Leader and Team Training
August 23, 2012
© 2012 Decisive-Point, All rights reserved.

2. Objective
Provide an overview of what I think makes a
“good” serious game an effective tool for
Leader and Team Training
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3. Overview
• Training must be a continues cycle of study, practice and
reflection.
• Complex or abstract concepts become tangible when using
a serious game
• Use of the game promotes improved visualization of events
with respect to time, space, distance, and capabilities.
• Students can experiment and make bold decisions without
suffering catastrophic failure.
• Experience can be rapidly repeated.
• Games can dramatically and effectively link cause and
effect.
© 2012 Decisive-Point, All rights reserved.

4. My “Ah-hah” Moment…
CGSC, Spring 1998
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5. “Decisive Action” Exercise - 1998
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6. DA - PE 2 Combined Obstacle Overlay
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7. DA - PE 1 Combined Obstacle Overlay
DA - PE 2 RED Situation
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8. DA - PE 1 Combined Obstacle Overlay
DA - PE 2 BLUE Situation
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9. “Decisive Action” Exercise - 1998
RED – Student Group 1 BLUE – Student Group 2
Task: Seize TABRON Task: Defeat the III Red Corps
Purpose: To establish a shorter Purpose: To set the conditions
line of communication for offensive operations
Instructions to Both Groups:
1. Both sides will fight using U.S. doctrine
2. 6 hours to plan, 5 hours to “fight”, 1 hour for AAR
3. Before Battle: Quick briefing on estimate of situation and plan
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10. Attacker’s Most Likely and Dangerous Courses of Action
BlueG2_ECOA.wmv
BLUE Intelligence Officer
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11. Attacker’s Plan
Red_COA_Short.wmv
RED Commander
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12. Results of “First Battle”
• Students were very shocked to discover their plans were so
predictable.
• During the next 4 battles, they made every effort to out-
think their opponent.
• I discovered the great learning benefit of fighting “Blue
against Blue”.
• I realized that I was a mediocre instructor and a mediocre
officer within a mediocre system. We were great at process
(science of war), but weak at applying the science (art of
war).

13. Another REDFOR Group…
Play A301History.wmv
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14. How does a person become a
strong leader or an effective
team member?
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15. Like any skill training, it must be cyclic.
Study
Science
Art
Reflection Practice
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16. Where do most leaders and
teams expend their efforts?
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17. After all, we have a wealth of experience.
Study
Science
Art
Reflection Practice
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18. What is a better model for
continued growth and success?
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19. Conduct quality practice and allocate more time and
energy for selected study and critical reflection
Selected
Study
Science
Critical Quality
Art
Reflection Practice
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20. Findings
• An effective training approach supported by a
“good” serious game can dramatically improve
leadership and team skills.
• Time spent learning to play the game is almost
always wasted time!
• Use crawl, walk, run, approach to increase training
performance.
• Emphasize process over outcomes.
• The game must rapidly and continuously engage the
students
• Task repetition with additional factors increasingly
difficult situations is critical to success
© 2012 Decisive-Point, All rights reserved.

21. Findings
• Instructor interaction should take place during the
exercise, as needed, to highlight problems, coach
before continuing further.
• Require students to be responsible for much of
their learning
• Create and inject compelling problems as needed to
force student actions.
• Simple videos introduced at the right time can
create powerful effects.
• No matter how good the game, the teacher will
make or break the quality of the learning experience
© 2012 Decisive-Point, All rights reserved.

22. ®
Jim Lunsford
President
Decisive-Point
816-584-2882 (Direct)
816-584-2883 (FAX)
jim@decisive-point.com
www.decisive-point.com
© 2012 Decisive-Point, All rights reserved.