How people play board games, is often an indicator of how they play the game of life.
According to corporate training expert, Steve Claydon, playing games with work colleagues can be very revealing and a lot more effective than a PowerPoint presentation.
The co-founder of Why Bravo said companies waste more than $130 billion a year on boring and ineffective training in the workplace.
It's a lot of money but most office workers wouldn't be too surprised, we've all endured one or two bad training sessions or corporate seminars in our working life.
Workplace training can be a tough gig, its always a challenge trying to keep everyone interested. Let's be honest it's hard to be inspired when the biggest mental challenge of the day is staying awake.
Claydon said the key to effective training is to create learning environments that are immersive and provide opportunities for professional growth.
He believes the best way to do this is through games.
“The future of productive work relies on the development of three core areas simultaneously; intelligence quotient (IQ), emotional quotient (EQ) and adaptability quotient (AQ)," he said. "Traditional learning environments mostly focuses on the former but fails to develop the latter. Game play is the perfect way to bring all three together."
Using the board game, Monopoly, Claydon shared a few of his insights. There are always one or two predictable arguments during a game.
For example, there is always a fight over who gets to be the banker. And what about the person that takes forever to take their turn (there is one in every game).
Here's one that sounds familiar, what about the person that becomes too cocky when they are winning? We have all met that person.
In the game environment, Claydon has observed four key behaviours - those who want to win, those who want to be liked, those who want to be comfortable and those who want to be right.
Those who want to win are driven by competition, played a risky game and immediately got to work trying to influence other people.
Those who want to be liked are more interested in everyone getting along. For them its not about power or influence but feeling good and having fun. Those who want to be comfortable don't play a risky game as they tend to be the nurturers and don't want anyone to get hurt.
And finally, those who want to be right have a tendency to analyse every move before they make it, sometimes to their own detriment. They are precise and scientific.
Which one are you? Email sandravandijk@yaffa.com.au