This is my gamification tool for use in offices, schools, and anywhere that innovation needs to take place.
Using the four roles Roger von Oech has identified in his remarkable deck of cards — The Creative Whack Pack (http://amzn.to/22pvi25) — we find a pretty comprehensive system for being innovative.
I’ve expanded von Oech’s tool by turning the four roles into “thinking hats”.
And now I’ve added a Guild System to the mix.
This is how it works.
Right click on this character sheet, and save it to your computer. Print a copy for everyone who will be playing in the guild system.
As a level 1 character, each person has 10 points to allocate across the four roles. You allocate them in this ratio… 4:3:2:1. This means 4 points go to one role. 3 points to a another role. 2 points go to another role. And 1 point goes to the remaining role.
It’s up to you and your self-knowledge to allocate the points according to your strengths in those roles.
So, for instance, I’ve allocated 4 points to the Explorer role, 3 points to the Judge role, 2 to the Warrior role, and 1 to the Artist role.
This point allocation reflects how I currently see myself. Of course, it’s pretty arbitrary. And isn’t a full reflection of reality. Cos in actual fact, I’m pretty strong in all four of those areas. But if I’m forced to make a fair allocation of points, I think that spread is representative of me.
The next thing I do is go to the bottom right of the picture, and trace over my dominant guild trait… in my case, the circle, representing the Explorer Guild.
I use a dotted line to go over the square, which is my secondary guild affiliation.
This bottom right diagram gives me instant visual information about my strengths in the room.
This worksheet is black and white, because I want it to be easily photocopied. In the actual workshop room, and the day-to-day reality of the business world, I’d make sure that I coloured my guild shape according to the four colours assigned by von Oech…
Blue for Explorer.
Orange for Artist.
Green for Judge.
Red for Warrior.
In the room, I’ll be handing out coloured cardboard, and people will be cutting a badge of the correct shape, in the correct colour. So we’ll all be wearing our Guild affiliations.
This makes it easy for everyone in the room to see who is strong in particular areas. So, if I need someone strong in the Artist role, I can easily look around the room and choose someone with an orange triangle.
The rest of the character sheet is pretty self-explanatory. The reason for the fields is to give the delegate a bit of self-reflection, a bit of actionable insight, and a bit of a nudge towards where they might want to go with their skills.
The little tick boxes in the bottom right quadrant of the character sheet are there for ongoing development. This system is a sort of meta-apprenticeship.
The way you advance is to do tasks. So, in my workshop on Tuesday, we’ll be doing tasks. After each milestone in the workshop, each delegate will get 5 experience points to add to their character development. Those points will be allocated in this ratio… 2:1:1:1. Whenever a particular column has ten points in it, that means the character has “levelled up”. You become a level 2 character. Every time you get 10 points in any column, you level up again. The ultimate goal is to level up to master level in all four guilds (that would make you a level 12 player).
—
You are absolutely welcome to use my system, and this character sheet. Please leave my Easel Empire details on the sheet, though.
And feel free to hire me as a process facilitator at your company. I’m more than happy to come and run sessions for you.
Hit me up on Whatsapp on +27741046386, or email royblumenthal@gmail.com.
