Today's Business Lessons
Why video games work
One
of the biggest challenges in business today – especially when it comes
to the younger crowd – is engagement. “Young kids today have serious
attention deficiency problems.” I have heard parents say this, I have
heard teachers whine about this, and I surely have heard business
executives complain about this. And then there are the books. Some
authors say that when information is overly abundant, attention will
become a scarcity.
I am a little skeptical when it comes to this. If kids do not have
the ability to focus, then try to explain why you cannot pry them away
from their video games, and why they would stay for hours in front of
the screen with fixed and full attention.
I was invited to speak to all the high school students of a
prestigious school. I spoke to them for an hour and 15 minutes, moving
my way through the thousands of kids sitting on the floor of their
gymnasium. I had their attention, and they did not want me to stop. I
had to stop, because I was exhausted. I had to tell stories, move
around a lot, show video clips, make them laugh, make them think, and
engage them to participate in movements so I could have their
attention. The use of PowerPoint slides at that moment would have been
suicide. In other words, I had to be like a character in their video
games, presenting lessons through storytelling and also engaging them so
they participate in the entire presentation process.
Video games are big serious business. The video game industry is
bigger than Hollywood. The reason why video games are so popular and
effective is because they engage players in an open-ended fashion, and
they create an experience. Video games also invite gamers into the
creative process – which is the main reason the players stay engaged.
Here is a question that has bugged me over the years: Students are
not machines, yet why do many schools still behave like factories
straight out of the industrial era?
Kids today are extremely creative, and schools have the tools to make
them creative. But do educators, parents and business executives know
how to engage today’s generation?
I attended a lecture presented by Tim Elmore in Atlanta a few months
ago, and he was right on spot when he said that parents and educators
need to deal with a generation of kids who:
• Grow up with touch screens – unlike their older siblings who started with keypads.
• Expect to use portable devices in the classroom.
• Will not be conditioned to merely sit and watch or listen, but will want participation and interaction.
• Are less patient than older generations and are
comfortable learning from screens (in some cases more than from real people).
As a trainer I notice that my younger participants behave differently
from those who are older. This is why I have to constantly revise and
try out new things to make my presentations relevant and engaging.
It’s a brand new world out there, and we all have to learn how to
adjust to the young. The future belongs to them, and it is my
responsibility to pass on my values and knowledge as I train them, but
this would not be possible if I do not know how to engage them first.
I have to change, and I have to learn from them. It is a very
humbling experience but one that is extremely rewarding. God has a
wonderful way of balancing the energy of the young with the experience
and patience of the old.
Video games? Social networks? Digital stuff? They are not going
away, and I have the young to teach me how to teach them. We keep on
learning, we keep on reinventing, and we keep on innovating.
Albert Einstein was right all along when he said that: “Education is
what remains when one has forgotten what one has learned in school.” So
keep on learning.
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