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Episode 152

February 16th, 2022

152:Facilitating the ‘board game’ with Janek Panneitz

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    Intro

    There’s no room for frivolities like board games in the boardroom… Right?

    Not so, says Janek Panneitz! Janek is a facilitator, trainer, moderator, and a certified board game superfan and, as with so many guests on this podcast, has found a fascinating way of joining dots between his professional and personal passions.

    Janek has been exploring and experimenting with the serious implications and effects board games and game mindsets can have in professional settings and how we can harness these learnings to create better workshops.

    We discuss his flourishing experiments, the mechanics of bringing game mindsets into workshops, and how professional identities are an act of role-playing.

    Pull up a seat at the table, choose your figurine, and let’s play!

    Find out about

    • Why there can be a disconnect between problem-solving for fun and for work
    • The three layers that make up a board game and a gamified workshop – and how to use them in your designs
    • Why converging our expectations is essential for the success of a workshop
    • How a lack of context can sometimes be a boon to your workshops
    • Why it’s better to aim too high than too low in your aspirations for a workshop
    • The surprising ‘flattening’ power of board games in established hierarchies

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    Questions and Answers

    01:05When did you start calling yourself a facilitator – if you do? 02:19How do your sessions change if you are wearing your facilitator, trainer, or moderator hat? 06:58Can you share more about your background in organisational psychology – and how board games interact with that? 09:39What does self-determination theory mean, in simple words? 12:48What’s your theory for how a site like Wikipedia has developed, grown, and maintained itself through voluntary contributions? 18:03How much of what we bring to board games reflects who we are in private and at work? 21:50What makes a board game night – and a workshop – fail? 25:23Even if you have set expectations about an activity, how can you account for the different personalities that engage in playing a game? 30:15To what extent is gamification an act of manipulation? 32:10What are the other two layers that make up good board games and gamified workshops? 01:22 What happens when we translate our behaviour in playing a game to our behaviour in the ‘real world’? 06:29Janek discusses how we can play different roles in games and life – and why it is a good thing. 09:15Where does this inertia and resitance to change come from? 13:27Does this also come back to the differences between our private selves and professional selves? 16:14The merits of challenging a group. 22:22Can you tell me about the method that you’re developing for translating projects into board game formats? 27:56Is it fair to say constellation theory informs this method, too? 32:33This feels like a whole new way of thinking and doing that we could learn… but we aren’t. Why do you think this is? 35:44How do the people we’d call ‘alpha players’ in board games affect workplaces?

    Links

    Website

    Meetup group

    Connect to Janek

    On LinkedIn