Gamification and Education Design: How to Use Seven Learning Styles to Engage Each Generation in Your Organization
Monica Cornetti is a Senior Small Business Development Specialist and the owner of EntrepreNow!, a business training and consulting firm. She has more than 20 years experience in the corporate, non-profit, and academic sectors with an expertise in bringing excellence to organizations through leadership and training. She is the author of the forthcoming book What Were You Thinking?, and the acclaimed book Your Face Isn’t Finished Until Your Lipstick Is On: Rules of the Women’s Success Game.
I was very excited to be a guest on her show, “Gamification Talk Radio,” dedicated to the cutting-edge strategy for motivating and engaging employees. We talked about gamification and education design. Specifically, we discussed how to use these seven learning styles to engage every generation in your organization.
Listen to the full thirty-minute show on the player below, or listen to the segments you are most interested in by following the subject guides with time markers listed below. I’ve also provided a summary of each topic covered.
What are the Seven learning styles and why are they helpful to understand? 2:42
How people learn or retain information and knowledge is different. Two colleagues with different learning styles will have difficulty communicating and teaching each other things. If a manager understands the seven learning styles, they can identify their own style and the style of others to create games, curriculum, presentations and more, that target their specific audience correctly. This increases engagement. That’s what gamification is all about.
For a brief overview of each learning style, listen in at 4:30
1. Spatial Learners lean heavily on patterns and visual pictures to understand a concept. Use interconnected ideas rather than linear. Sequential processes are easier to digest for spatial learners. Bulleted lists don’t do it for this crowd.
2. For Linguistic Learners, use written words to explain a concept. Activities where they can read and write appeal the most. Spoken word can also be effective with this crowd.
3. For Intrapersonal Learners, use auditory information. A time of internal reflection best helps these learners retain information.
4. For Interpersonal Learners, use group dynamics to explain a concept.
5. Musical Learners use music as the trigger to remember new knowledge.
6. Bodily-Kinesthetic Learners use the bodily senses to ‘feel’ a concept.
7. For Logical-Mathematical Learners, use mathematics to describe a concept.
Training Styles in Organizations Used to be Very Different: 7:41
Monica talks abut how in the past, professional development training consisted mostly of manuals. Training materials were made to be reproducible. She gives a specific example of a woman she worked with who was amazing interpersonally but struggled with learning new software. When Monica would ask if she had read the manual, the woman would return the question with a blank stare. Monica realized she needed to walk her through the new information personally, step by step. The woman was then able to learn the new programs successfully. She raises the point that gamification fills the gap—it allows employees to learn by doing.
How Would Someone in Training and Development Apply the Seven Learning Styles in the Workplace? How can they Identify the Learning Styles of their Team? 9:12
- To identify the learning styles of your team, have a team meeting. Do a quick survey by asking your team casually how they like learning. Most people have two to three learning styles that they prefer. Then, look at your survey of learning styles and find the common denominator. There may be three different learning styles that are most common in the group. You can incorporate all three of those styles into your training program or presentation.
- If you don’t know your audience, you can start by asking the event coordinator what they know about the culture of the crowd.
- If you are unable to find out the learning styles of your audience, a good strategy is to sprinkle in as many learning style appropriate activities as you can. For example, include a PowerPoint presentation for your visual learners, have a group discussion for the interpersonal learners, give a three minute exercise for the kinesthetic learners, incorporate graphs for the mathematical learners, and provide a quiet time for reflection for the intrapersonal learners.
What are the Different Generations Currently in the Workplace? Is it Possible to Break Down Learning Styles by Generations? 11:42
There are currently four generations in the workplace: Traditionalists, Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y, which is also known as the Millennial Generation.
The generational makeup of the workplace is changing. There aren’t many Traditionalists left in the workforce and they are on their way out. Ten thousand Baby Boomers a day are turning 65. With their mass retirement, they are leaving many empty spots in the workforce. Because Generation X is a smaller generation, there literally aren’t enough people to fill the empty spots of the retiring Baby Boomers. What that means is that Generation Y needs to increase their leadership skills at a faster pace than what would be considered normal. The good news is, they want to.
Each Generation Has its Own Personality: 15:00
Imagine three circles overlapping—Social Events, Technological Events, and Political Events. Each generation has had different events happen in their formative years that define who they are, how they think, and their work style.
As a leader, you should leverage the differences between generations to bring the team together. Gamification is an excellent way to do this.
Generation Y Will Become the Majority in the Future Workforce: 18:46
Monica discusses the pushback she gets from Baby Boomers who feel that the younger generations should adapt to their way of doing things. She says that in her experience, when Boomers don’t appreciate what the other generations bring to the table, they tend to shut down. With Generation Y on their way to becoming the majority within the next decade, it is important for organizations to find ways to integrate the generations. They can use gamification for diversity training. When games are used to address biases, the training is non-threatening.
Removing the Lack of Understanding Helps Generations Work as Better Teams: 21:23
Increase understanding about different generations in your workplace. Understanding generationally different behavior prevents teams and companies from breaking down. It costs 2.5 to 3 times someone’s salary to replace him or her. Organizations can prevent attrition by helping employees develop in a fun way with gamification.
What Motivates and Engages Each Generation? 22:55
There isn’t really a cheat sheet when it comes to employee motivation across generations. There are tips to learn how to present information to the different generations more effectively in a way that they understand. Speaking their language will increase their motivation to learn. There are words that work more effectively for each generation.
One thing to look at is that universities are changing how they teach Generation Y. They are breaking courses down into meta-cognitive chunks that hit all seven learning styles. For example, a professor speaks, then shows video, then speaks again, then has students do an exercise on their iPads, and perhaps ends with a group discussion. While this requires less material for the teacher to prepare to present, it increases the amount of thinking that goes into presentations ahead of time. The audience needs to be evaluated more closely.
Generation Y likes learning with what we call edutainment. Generation X on the other hand, wants presentations to be quick and to the point. They want to be able to connect the dots of why they need to learn this information in the first place.
Gamification is Still So New. Is There a Recommended Resource? What is the First Step? 28:19
- Monica’s Gamification Talk Radio show is one great resource. Her platinum level guests include, gamification gurus, platform providers, and end users who will give you tips, tools, and techniques to add immediately to your leadership toolbox. You can listen to archived shows as well.
- I have a blog series on gamification, many blogs on generations, and a collection of resources that include videos, audio interviews and articles. That covers at least three of the seven learning styles!
If you have any questions for me about gamification or the use of gamification to engage the generations, I’d love to hear them! Also, if you’ve had the opportunity to incorporate these ideas into your organization, I’d love to know about it. Please leave me a comment, shoot me an email or find me on Twitter.
