Free Mindset Matching Game with Customizable Content
It’s increasingly recognized that understanding mindsets is an important part of helping an organization succeed. Mindsets impact organizational culture, which in turn relate to how people interact, how they get work done, their risk tolerance, and their capacity for lasting change.
I’ve written previously on how to Understand the science of mindset to transform leaders and teams. In that article, I describe three mindsets that came out of academic research, most notably from Professor Carol Dweck, who first identified and defined the Fixed and Growth Mindsets. Additionally, Ash Buchanan identified and defined the Benefit Mindset.
Professor Carol Dweck demonstrated that awareness of one’s mindset is a critical first step toward changing a mindset, say from Fixed to Growth. In my science of mindset article, I dive into how this is possible even with fully-formed adult brains.
As with most new material to be learned, the retention rate and level of understanding of mindsets is increased significantly by having the trainees engage in active learning via some type of activity. One popular active learning method is gamification and a free web-based game developed by Sevawise LLC is available at sevawisegames.com for just this purpose.
Mindset Matching Game
The game consists of three Mindset cards that are pre-loaded in a row at the top of the page, as shown below. It also includes a set of Paradigm and Scenario cards that are loaded in a pre-ordered stack upon selecting “Built-in List”. (See the section Creating Custom Content for the feature that allows users to create customized sets of Paradigm and Scenario cards.)
For a virtual group or team, the game is meant to be displayed in a shared video application such as Zoom, Skype, Teams, etc. The person sharing the web page serves as the facilitator of the game. Typically, the facilitator reads each Paradigm and Scenario card and asks the team collectively, or individual team members, which Mindset the card best fits. For Paradigm, select the mindset that individuals, teams, or organizations must exhibit in order to demonstrate the thought pattern illustrated by the quote. For Scenarios, select the mindset that individuals, teams, or organizations must exhibit to demonstrate the thought pattern illustrated in the scenario and provide a real-life example where the thought pattern and corresponding action was taken. Based on the response, the facilitator drags the Paradigm or Scenario card underneath the selected Mindset card.
While most paradigms and scenarios are most closely associated with one mindset, some can arguably be associated with two or more mindsets. In my experience, most of the value of the game comes from the discussion. The facilitator should therefore be open to multiple interpretations as to which Mindset a given paradigm or scenario best fits.
As added fun when playing the game, the facilitator can ask the participants who they think first stated the paradigms, which appear in quotes. They are all from famous people, either alive or historical. The facilitator may wish to google the quotes to find the authors of the quotes before playing the game.
Creating Custom Content
The Mindset Matching game includes a built-in list of Paradigm cards & Scenario cards. These sets of cards are available to anonymous visitors to sevawisegames.com.
Based on early feedback by some users, it became clear that some facilitators would like the ability to modify the content of the built-in lists. One of the first requests came from Sevawise LLC President, Paula Stewart. She was playing one of our companion games, Scrum Values, on the same website, with one of her teams in her role as Scrum Master. Learn more about our free Scrum Values and Scrum Roles games here.
To address this need, the website includes the functionality to create custom lists for registered, logged-in users. As shown below, on the My Content page, after selecting the game, if the user chooses to add a new list, they can either create a new blank list, or clone an existing list (e.g., the Built-in List).
Upon clicking the Add button, the user is presented with functionality to add, delete, and reorder cards, along with the ability to select the card type and to add card content.
Once a logged-in user has created one or more custom lists, they can be selected on the game page, upon which the custom set of cards are dynamically loaded in the pre-selected order.
Acknowledgements
The author would like to acknowledge Paula Stewart for developing much of the content of this game and for providing continuing support and inspiration for developing the games.
