Our Approach
All of our games are, first and foremost, opportunities for experiential learning and development. Players are drawn in and engaged by the depth and richness of the game structure and content.
Stone Paper Scissors games are designed around the needs of the client. We will always ask the question "What Do You Want To Achieve?". Serious games are not 'one size fits all' games and we develop games to meet the client’s key question.
We have a library of existing game, some of which might already meet a clients needs, however, we will always review whether an existing game is fit for purpose before recommending it.
You can see a summary of how our existing might meet particluar areas of interest Click here
Our games always allow for facilitated time for post game analysis, review and evaluation so that everyone can, if they wish, come away with a reflection on their practice or personal development.
Our games connect with these four main themes:
Insight
Communication & Negotiation
Strategic Planning & Team Building
Education & Training
insight
One of the most valuable things that can be gained from serious games is the ability to generate insight into issues or problems. A game is a structured way of creating a useful conversation between participants, encouraging them to draw out their observations, insights and lessons.
Critical Thinking
Critical Thinking is a key element of games that generate insights, and it can be thought of as something more than merely problem solving, although that is an important part of the critical thinking process. In the insight generating games that provide an environment for practicing critical thinking skills we encourage the application of an understanding of the critical thinking model - putting it into practice in the game context.
Research
The game structure of a serious game provides focus for answering research questions, particularly in the area of qualitative research.
Click here to find out which of our downloadable packs can help with Gathering Insight
Communication & Negotiation
Communication
Responsible Communication is more than merely effectiveness and clarity. The concept takes in the principle that in any communication, you have to take responsibility for its progress and the degree to which you are understood. Skills such as active listening play an important role here, as does mirroring and summarising. A Responsible communicator fully owns their part of any misunderstanding and works proactively to ensure that both parties to a communication are respected and understood. Responsible Communication can be characterised by thoughtfulness and self-reflection. If the recipient of your communication has not understood, is it that they are stupid, or you have not understood their perspective enough to explain properly? Responsible communicators will take the latter view. Games that bring out opportunities to practice this test players' ability to make effective and responsible communications during times of (simulated) stress and confusion - just like the real world!
Negotiation
Negotiation is central to pretty much all organisational and political processes, and yet it is not always fully understood as a discipline. We have too little opportunity to practice negotiation so that when it comes up we have fewer negotiation strategies to deploy. Negotiation is not about 'winning' or having your way but an important route to a mutual agreement that might involve compromise, consesnus and good communication. That is not to say that they outcome of every negotiation reaches an optimum solution every time. By playing games involving negotiation we get to test out strategies in a safe environment - and reflect on what worked and what did not, for us.
Click here to find out which of our downloadable packs can help with Communication & Negotiation
strategic planning & Team Building
Strategic Planning games are a powerful tool for reviewing opportunities, challenges and risks within an organisation.
In particular they are able to bring together stakeholders and subject matter experts, to critically review plans and objectives.
Organisational Development
Engaging staff and managers across the organisation through a game is particularly good way to spread and strengthen understanding of organisational policies and structures, especially in the context of crisis and risk management.
Team Building
Team building games create an activity which highlights the importance of good communication, shows the the importance of planning before implementing a solution and usually provides challenges and problems that require the team to come up with a creative solution as a group.
This might also be in a time pressured or a low-information environment.
The joint working towards solutions to challenging problems engenders trust and cooperative attitudes between team members over the longer term.
Essential to any team building game is the reflective and analytic debriefing at the end - where the team if offered the chance to explicitly recognise what has been achieved for the team.
Click here to find out which of our downloadable packs can help with Strategic Planning & Team Building
"I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand".
Games and gameplay are widely recognised as a technique for achieving deep learning in a subject. Participants in games start to gain an intuitive feel for the problems and issues being covered in the game, be that an historical period or a contemporary crisis. Emerging gameplay can generate insights into the subject matter that might not have been as accessible or as readily understood merely by reading or listening.
Students (or indeed anyone seeking to widen their understanding of the world) typically gain:
Empathy for other people and their lives by sharing and exploring their problems from their perspective.
Understanding, by direct experience and role playing - 'learning by doing'
Examine in a practical 'hands-on' way critical decisions around issues.
Develop communication skills by practice and actively promotes critical thinking lively discussion of the issues.
Click here to find out which of our downloadable packs can help with Education & Training