It's a game of skill: playful learning through board game design

This chapter explores and reflects the potential for Organisation and Human Resource Management/Development (OHRM/D) to utilise teaching strategies from other disciplines. It discusses the adaptation of an activity originating within the arts and design sector (specifically a combination of experience and communication design) - designing board games - as an innovative method to allow small student groups to explore appropriate subject-specific processes in a creative and playful way. Here the board game is proposed as a visual analogy that facilitates analysing and communicating organisational processes, while also linking to using games as part of teaching (and learning). Through talking through this activity step-by-step, we not only demonstrate this approach as a teaching method in the OHRM/D context, but also give guidance on how this activity could be integrated into the reader’s own curriculum.

In a discussion section, the advantages of this approach are considered, such as links to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development’s (CIPD) ‘Profession Map’ as it models an activity that could be used to add value to organisations by, for example, engaging employees with a gamification aspect, and could therefore be considered a potential enhancement of students’ employability skills. Possible critiques that could be levelled at it, such as addressing concerns for students (and teachers) who don’t consider themselves ‘creative’, are also discussed.