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Play
for Performance:
The Use of Games As An Educational
Strategy for Bank Employees
Elizabeth
Treher, Ph.D.
paBanker Magazine
October 2000
 Games
have a lot more to offer than a mere night of amusement
at the roulette table. In fact, when employed as learning
devices, games have no relation to Lady Luck but rather
act as proven and effective methods of transmitting complex
information. In test labs, currently operating at the
University of Connecticut, with the objective of determining
how people learn most efficiently, and utilizing ten disparate
learning vehicles as criteria, results are indicating
that information imparted by active involvement in game
playing is more quickly assimilated and is retained for
longer periods of time.
A
question then is can the banking industry, traditionally
more conservative than consumer marketing, manufacturing,
advertising, or other businesses with less acute fiduciary
responsibilities, benefit from game playing? Perhaps the
best answer comes from an examination of some Pharmaceutical
industry practices since the field is subject to perhaps
even more stringent compliance issues, and faces the same
problems of training employees in complex rules and regulations
needed to be grasped in order to achieve an informed and
productive work force.
Since
1998, a number of major pharmaceutical companies have
been training large numbers of employees in subjects relevant
to both drug manufacturing compliance issues and to complicated
matters and technical information involved in taking a
new drug from the laboratory to the launch of the product.
Much of this education has been accomplished swiftly and
efficiently by using board games. Not computer games,
not role-playing games but good old board games similar
to the Monopolies and Parcheesis of our childhoods where
we learned some rudiments of real estate and money management
while having fun.
Games
and Economics
According to a spokesperson for one of the companies,
the board games which allow participation of up to 16
persons at a time and can be played with or without a
trainer, are more effective than one-on-one computer training
efforts because many employees do not like the isolation
of that means of gaining information. Furthermore, team
play encourages practical decision making within a group
along with fostering the spirit of teamwork and competition.
Games
as a viable part of culture go back thousands of years.
At their worst perhaps, they were a major part of Roman
punitive system as well as popular leisure activities
during the time of the gladiators and of the struggles
between man and beast in the Coliseum contests. At their
best their effectiveness is epitomized by the rapidity
with which young children assimilate basic classroom precepts
through the classic games of pre-school and kindergarten.
In between, games were used in Elizabethan England, often
as a device for determining court rankings of specific
individuals and during the French Revolution when games
of all sorts were employed by masquerading insurgents
and revolutionaries. And of course, for centuries there
has been the game of Chess. Perhaps no better vehicle
exists for subtly and consistently allowing players to
grasp the precepts of logical thinking and planning ahead.
The
Learning Key, Inc., a company offering training and consulting
services to Fortune 500 companies, began to develop board
games for use as learning tools in 1997 for an international
pharmaceutical company which wished to provide continuing
education for employees on the issues involved in new
product development. The resulting product, The
Pharm Game®, has been so successful that it
has been used not only by the sponsoring company, but
by most other major drug manufacturers. The Learning Key,
realizing it had an effective and timely means of teaching
complicated or technical information, and realizing that
the financial industry had many similar compliance issues,
then worked with individuals at (the former) CoreStates
Bank. They researched and created a board game targeted
specifically at bank employees. The game, Big Buck$$™,
provides an involving and flexible means of teaching employees
about banking in the changing world of finance. Big
Buck$$™ provides an overview of world and
national economic environments, the forces influencing
the banking industry, the nature of key banking regulations
and modern banking services tailored to the current consumer
and financial climate. Game board sections move through
"Economy" through "Regulation" and
"Industry" to "The Bank," this latter
section can be tailored to the specific needs of individual
institutions. Banking institutions in Pennsylvania who
participated in testing the product have stated that the
game so engaged employees that often playing continued
during breaks. Recall of the issues covered was 33% higher
than other teaching devices.
Elizabeth
Treher, Ph.D., President and CEO. President and co-founder
of The Learning Key, Inc., Dr. Treher holds her doctorate
in Nuclear Chemistry. She was a National Science Foundation
Post-Doctoral Fellow and an invited member of the first
U.S. Delegation to China on Human Resources and Development.
Elizabeth developed Squibb College as well as Bristol
Myers Squibb's Center for Science Education, an organization
which continues to provide scientific and educational
training. She has held key positions at The University
of Southern California, Los Alamos National Laboratory
and at corporate institutions.
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