GovLoop

Getting Employees to Learn…Like Inmates?

“Let the inmates run the asylum.” – Thiagi

In the learning and development world, Thiagi is heralded as a hero when it comes to gamifying even the most arduous, technical topics.

Take, for instance, a bunch of lawyers that need to learn about civility in the courtroom or county codes. How do you spice up those otherwise onerous subjects?

That was the challenge facing Ruta Stropus, the Director of Recruitment and Professional Development for the Illinois Attorney General’s Office.

So how did she bring a bit of Thiagi magic to her classroom? Below are two examples:

Stump the Chump

First, with regard to the civility training, she broke the class into duos that responded to three questions:

Each pair was asked to listen carefully as they would be required to share their partner’s answers with others. From there, she asked them to connect with another pair or group of pairs and play a game called, “Stump the Chump.” Here’s how it worked:

Stropus found the activity to be highly beneficial as it allowed these lawyers to play the “victim,” creating a sense of empathy for each other, enabled authentic exchange with colleagues as well as action-oriented networking, and generated participant-based strategies for applying what they learned back in their professional settings.

Review Roulette

These same lawyers also need to know the civil codes for 11 counties in the Chicago area. If they don’t adhere to the jots and tittles of the law, they risk contempt or case dismissal. So Stropus designed a 2-3 hour session. The first involved more traditional training with SMEs from each county sharing a 5-minute overview of their county, focusing mostly on the differences and nuances that really matter.

Then “Review Roulette” kicked in. Instructions included:

Again, the participants are driving the learning process with a bit of competition to keep it engaging. I also imagine that every time they see those civil codes in the future they are reminded of that learning experience and associate it with <<gasp>> an enjoyable training session.

It turns out that lawyers don’t just argue to get people in and out of prison. They make for pretty smart inmates themselves!

Note: This blog is based on a workshop I attended at the Training Industry Conference and Exposition. Props to Stropus for an excellent session and no offense to lawyers (I have friends who are lawyers ;-).

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