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The request: ebbf members wishing to extend the “meaningful conversations” they enjoy during ebbf international and local events beyond those face to face encounters.
The ebbf answer: recent ebbf member Ravi Purushotma (whom you can also connect with on ebbf’s members platform) introduced ebbf to an online conversation technology and we asked a group of ebbf volunteers to join the 1st “ebbf meaningful hangout”.  So we have people joining the conversation connecting from far apart cities such as Lisbon, San Francisco, Madrid, Chicago, Lille, Belfast, Freiburg … testing how well it served our objective of enjoying / learning / sharing new ideas in our quest to find ways to contribute to a prosperous, just and sustainable civilization through our daily workplaces.
Ravi’s proposed theme was “how gaming can help us rethink the way we operate, train and educate in our workplaces” After viewing this inspiring TED Talk by Jane McGonigal.
Sharing some of the ideas and questions that came out from that 1st “ebbf meaningful hangout”:
Fascinating to see how using a “gaming” environment all the weight of tasks and chores is actually transformed into challenges you are eager to take on, as you enter the “gaming” mentality of overcoming the challenge to reach the next level. How can we get into that “gaming” mindset of wanting to get to the next level and wanting new challenges and looking forward to new tasks?
It goes beyond just gaming, this is really about using the arts and creativity. How is it actually going to solve the worlds problems? And the conversation then went onto offer current examples of games that are addressing issues from basic guitar learning apps, to language development games, to restructuring decision making mindsets.
Looking at the time dedicated to gameplay and applying it to the betterment of the world is a great use. Concerns: what are the assumptions? are we playing them because we’re bored? what kinds of motivations are we tapping into? How can we move towards an idea that we’re trying to sacrifice for the common good?
The clear winner is when the game is put into practice, when it does not remain detached from reality (remaining just a game) and is instead connected to a workplace challenge and to fruitful action. In games people have less inhibitions and are ready to experiment further even in the  usually stricter “guidelines” of our workplaces. Gaming needs some PR as it may be seen as not conducive to work, smartphones and apps are opening a new mentality.
The collaborative element of games is another key element: the example of the world of warcraft was often mentioned as a way to support individuals, to have teams working together to overcome challenges. The TED Talk video itself underlined the social fabric – we like people better after we have played with them, trust people who have played with us, who have followed the same rules to help us achieve an “epic goal”.
A good “game†would be one that has people collaborating, that does solve a practical problem one may face but also be contributing towards a broader purpose and that highlights the values that the team used to get there. Two categories of desired outcomes: – a “school learning†game that teaches you maths or other practical skills – other learnings that are not taught in school larger moral, spiritual learning and new game models which is what is being developed now.
Those highlights from the 1st “ebbf meaningful hangout” linked to the knowledge that at least three of the people involved in that call are currently re-programming our learning and creating new “games”, new educational methods made it an overall success and a tool that ebbf will from now open up to its membership to create regular online video conversations.
ebbf now aims to collect your desired next themes / questions / issues that you would like to see covered to: . create a schedule of “ebbf meaningful hangouts” . invite you and a team of “experts” to enjoy meaningful conversations on the topic . thus creating new ideas and solutions to your questions and issues that will be shared with the ebbf global audience.
So now it is up to you to decide:
which themes or issues would you like to see covered in the next “ebbf meaningful hangouts”?