Gamification is often reduced to points, badges, leaderboards, or a PowerPoint version of Jeopardy. The activity may be entertaining, but entertainment alone does not prepare people to perform differently when they return to work.
In this episode of Lessons from Learning Leaders, I talk with Moe Ash about what meaningful gamification looks like when it is grounded in instructional design, behavioral science, and real performance needs.
Moe’s path into learning and development was anything but planned. Growing up in Cairo, Egypt, he struggled with public speaking and originally imagined a career with the United Nations. An unexpected experience at Model United Nations pushed him to speak in front of a room, and his later work with UNESCO gave him more opportunities to develop that ability.
A chance invitation eventually brought him into training, although he quickly discovered that his real interest was behind the scenes. Moe wanted to research, create content, build systems, and design the experience rather than spend all his time delivering it. That interest eventually led him to found The Catalyst, an instructional design company specializing in gamified learning experiences, simulations, business board games, and train-the-trainer programs.
Much of our conversation focuses on what gamification actually means. Moe describes it as using elements from games to encourage a learner toward a particular action, behavior, or outcome. The goal is not to make training look playful. The goal is to create a structured environment in which learners make decisions, experience consequences, solve problems, and practice something they will need to do later.
We also discuss why so many learning games miss the mark. A trivia game may help participants recall information, but it rarely shows whether they can apply a process or make a sound decision. When a game rewards speed, memorization, or collecting points instead of the behavior the organization needs, the design may be working against the learning objective.
Moe explains his PENTA framework for helping learning professionals move from an objective to a workable game concept. It guides designers through five areas:
Why: What should the experience help learners accomplish?
How: What mechanics, interactions, and structures will shape the game?
Story: What setting, characters, or conflict will give the experience meaning?
Experience: What will learners see, feel, and interact with?
Nudge: What will sustain participation and guide learners toward the intended behavior?
We also talk about systems thinking, the role of behavioral science, and why the most important part of a learning game may be what happens after it ends. A good design gives participants a way to take the reasoning, decisions, and behaviors they practiced during the game and use them in the workplace.
This conversation is a useful reminder that gamification should never begin with the question, “How can we make this more fun?” It should begin with what learners need to do differently and what kind of experience will help them get there.
Connect with Moe Ash
Visit The Catalyst to learn more about its gamified learning experiences, board game simulations, e-learning solutions, and public programs.
Connect with Moe on LinkedIn, where he regularly shares ideas about gamification, instructional design, behavioral science, and learning experience design.
Read The Eureka Experience, Moe and The Catalyst’s newsletter on learning design, gamification, and the realities of building learning that improves performance.
Visit Moe’s personal page for additional information about his work and projects.
Email: info@thecatalystexperience.com
Share this episode with a trainer, instructional designer, or facilitator who wants to move beyond trivia and build learning games that support real performance. Subscribe to Lessons from Learning Leaders so you do not miss the next conversation.
