Engineer Curiosity Using C3Softworks (Case Study)

When you are driving quickly down the highway and a billboard catches your attention what is your reaction? Do you slowdown in attempt to figure the sign out? Perhaps the print is too small to read in the three seconds you have before the sign passes and wonder what it is all about. Chick-fil-A has done an incredible job with this as they open in new markets. I bet your mind has jumped ahead and you’re already thinking “Cows!” Chick-fil-A introduces the cow images where the only thing on the bill board for several weeks is a cow. Later they add a few more words and finally they reveal that they are opening a new store in that city. Creating curiosity is an important part of learning and retention.

We have been using C3Softworks for over five years and have found that games are one way to engineer curiosity. In fact, researchers performed meta-analysis of data from about 200 studies with a total of about 50,0000 students and determined that curiosity did indeed have a significant influence on academic performance, about the same as conscientiousness (Association for Psychological Science 2011). C3 games from PRONTO! And BRAVO! allow us to teach content in a new and different way that is intriguing to our learners. The games provide opportunities for us to cover content multiple times in a short period of time which leads to greater retention.

When determining if a game is the right activity for your training program ask the following questions:

• How will this game allow for higher order cognition to occur? For example, what will l do to allow participants to discuss before clicking in?
• Which game would work best for my session?
• How will I get all participants engaged in the game at the highest level?
• How much time do I have for the game?
• How many questions will I use to cover that time?
• I prefer to have fewer questions and to thoroughly debrief each question and answer so it is a teachable activity.

Just as Chick-fil-A chooses to reveal their billboard campaigns piece by piece we can use a game piece by piece until completion by just doing one or two questions and then later in the session come back to it. Games are fun and competitive, in a good way. Games are one more Creative Training Technique that will help you teach twice as much in half the time.