The War for Mindshare:

Virtual Worlds in Employee Communications

Employees Are Overloaded With Information

The Way It Is Today

But trickles out at the employee level like a garden hose

The Corporate Culture Story Gushes From Management Like Water From a Fire Hose…

The Way It Is Today

We must engage employees and nurture their aspirations and skill sets in a way that develops them as individuals.

The Way It Is Today

The Changing Landscape

Recruits and Employees Under 35 Grew Upwith Computers and Videogames

The Changing Landscape

“…this generation is very different from the Boomers…they have systematically different ways of working…choose systematically different skills to learn and different ways to learn them, desire different goals…think differently about their careers, their companies and their co-workers, how they take risks, compete and fit into teams.

And these differences are driven by one central factor: growing up with video games.”

– John C. Beck/Mitchell WadeGot GameHarvard University Press

It’s a New Generation of Talent

What are the most effective means of communicating with today’s employees?

It’s a New Generation of Talent

Businesses have leveraged technology in every aspect of the enterprise…except learning.

Time to Update the Thinking

Authorware and e-learning were a natural evolution –

But…Employees under the age of 35 grew upwith computers and game controllers

Time to Update the Thinking

Younger employees see them as:• Puzzles to be solved

• Connectivity platforms

• Personal branding

statements

• Facts of life

Baby Boomers See Virtual Worlds As Toys...

Time To Update The Thinking

• Today’s employees grew up playing videogames and show improved cognitive skills in areas such as visualization and mental maps

*P.M. Greenfield, Media & The Mind of of the Child (Harvard University Press 1984*A.S. Oyen and J.M. Bebok “The Effects of Computer Games and Lesson Contexts on Children’s Mnemonic Strategies (Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 1996)

Time To Update The Thinking

“…games are incredibly complex computerprograms that lead the brain to new combinations of cognitive tasks and demand new levels of processing power.”

John C. Beck & Mitchell WadeGot GameHarvard Business School Press

Time To Update The Thinking

Studies show the retention benefits of “Learning by Doing”:

• Interactive media are a more dynamic and effective way to train today’s and tomorrow’s employees

Best Practices approach

Source: Forrester, “Online Training Needs a New Course, August 2000

When it comes to life and death learning, the pros use games and simulations…

Best Practices approach

Best Practices approachPeople are more engaged mentally when they are participating

Traditional Media

• No opportunity to experience by doing

• Little “to do” but receive messages

• Limited message choice limits empowerment

• Learning is passive

• Content requires logical, sequential thought

Interactive Media

• Ample opportunity to experience by doing

• Multiple tasks to allow learning by doing

• Freedom to make choices enhances empowerment

• Learning is active

• Content can be accessed logically or randomly

Traditional meaningof literacy: The ability to readand write text at a competent level

A New Way of Learning and Communicating

Today: Visual literacy - the ability to read images, symbols, graphs, diagrams, artifacts and other significant visual symbols – now as important as being able to read text

Semiotic domains: “any set of practices that recruits one or more modalities (oral or written language, images, symbols, equations, sounds, gestures etc) to communicate distinctive types of meanings”

James Paul Gee - What Videogames Have To Teach Us About Learning And Literacy - Palgrave Macmillan

A New Way of Learning and Communicating

Virtual worlds acknowledge the audience’s

learning orientation, engage them on an emotional level and

Speak Their Language

A New Way of Learning and Communicating

Virtual worlds engage students and provide a risk-free simulated environment

A New Way of Learning and Communicating

Modular, scalable platform can be leveraged across the company

for future learning and communications goals

A New Way of Learning and Communicating

Demographically relevant solution encourages participation

A New Way of Learning and Communicating

Digital media can be localized for global regions:

A New Way of Learning and Communicating

Introduce competition where appropriate (sales!)

A New Way of Learning and Communicating

Third Party Or

Build Your Own?

A New Way of Learning and Communicating

A New Way of Learning and Communicating

Third Party:

•No control – over data and/or IP•No control – over the environment•No control – over platform stability or maintenance

A New Way of Learning and Communicating

Proprietary:

•Control over everything

•Environment reflects values

•Scale the platform as needed

•Own everything in it