Game Night
While I was home for Thanksgiving, I had all of my favorites: turkey, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, pumpkin pie, etc. Some other holiday traditions (at least for my family) include watching football, skirting potentially awkward political discussions, playing games, and telling the story of when I was a baby and learned to crawl, how I tried to eat the food out of the dog’s dish in the kitchen. I still assert that it’s a logical assumption on my part, since the dog and I were both quadrupeds at the time.
But I was reminded of the different ways that people learn when we decided to start playing board games. My Aunt Carol is the official Game Master at the Young Thanksgiving. She almost always shows up with one new game to play (along with several classic favorites). This year’s new entry was Qwirkle, a Mensa select game. Fancy.
As Carol read the instructions aloud, I noticed my aunts, uncles, and cousins watched and listened with varied levels of interest. Carol felt she had a handle on it. My college-aged cousins wanted to get started and learn as we went. My youngest cousin needed assistance, and I joined him after the game was already underway. I skimmed the written instructions and looked at the graphical examples of game play given in the booklet.
Without getting into game specifics, we played it wrong the first time. Totally wrong. We all interpreted the instructions in different ways, then debated who was right and wrong about their interpretation, and finally reached consensus about how to do it right. We all had to hear it, read it, view examples, and ultimately play it and get it wrong, before we got it right.
In all the courses, I have worked on at NogginLabs, clients are sometimes leery of letting their learners fail. They fear their emotional response, I suspect. Failure is scary and people might get turned off on a course and miss the important messages and behavioral changes inside.
While we felt silly for playing the game wrong, we started a second round of it right away and had a terrific time. I highly recommend the game, especially for a family with a wide range of age groups. It was fun and challenging but everyone could play. I also recommend letting your learners fail and do it again. We’re pretty good about letting them do a “second round” right away. And I promise they’ll have fun the second time too. Happy Holidays!
