Discussion guru

Project 

We all have been to the meetings that ended up with unspoken disappointment from the decision that is made or no decision at all. Consensus (or win-win solution) is crucial for many controversial problems in business and in public policies but it is very hard to achieve because of the differences in the interests of participants AND because, sometimes, the process of discussion is not efficiently organized. 

Experienced facilitators of group discussions say that the participants perform better if they know what to expect from the process. People who can’t stop talking, people who are staying silent most of the time, people who interrupt others – all these are common behaviors that we can observe during group meetings. It’s useful to know how to deal with such challenges and bring the dialog back to the constructive mode.

Play this explorable explanation to learn about the group discussion challenges and ways to overcome them!

Instructions: participate in research

This explorable explanation is a part of a PhD research project conducted at PERSWADE Center and Games Studio, University of Technology Sydney. The goal of this research is to explore diverse ways how game design can help to make group discussions on complex topics more engaging and better experience in terms of learning and communication among the participants. 

Take part in the experiment, contribute to the science! *nerdy*

Please follow these 3 steps:

1. Fill in 'before'  survey (7 min)
2. Play the explorable explanation (approx. 20 min)
3. Fill in 'after' survey (12 min)

This research is conducted under the ethics approval #ETH20-5275 and #ETH21-6414, University of Technology Sydney, Australia.

Sources

1. Sam Kaner (2014) Facilitator's guide to participatory decision-making Link
2. Ingrid Bens (2012) Facilitating with ease!: core skills for facilitators, team leaders and members, managers, consultants, and trainers Link
3. Roger Schwarz (2002) The skilled facilitator: a comprehensive resource for consultants, facilitators, managers, trainers, and coaches Link

Credits

Elena Bakhanova, PhD Candidate, University of Technology Sydney (idea, game design, text & research)

Sujoy Chakraborty, Graphics Designer & Game Developer (graphic design, game development)

Nikita Sergeev, Game Developer (final tech improvements to the prototype)