Immersive Learning

Why Immersive Learning is the Most Effective Form of Training for All Employees in Every Organisation

What Immersive Learning looks like in practice and how individuals and businesses are benefiting

Clark Evans — The Accused

Let me tell you the somewhat unfortunate story of Clark Evans. A humble team builder with unparalleled enthusiasm for his trade who, during a routine team building event, became the centre of an international investigation into the creation and distribution of ransomware.

He was caught red-handed, but still he protested his innocence. The malware was on his personal memory stick, projected onto the big screen for all to see, but still he protested his innocence. The investigating authorities quickly placed him in handcuffs and led him away, but still he protested his innocence.

With over 100 witnesses, surely there can be no doubt?

Or can there?

This was the scenario presented to a group of unsuspecting employees at their annual company conference. They had no idea that their scheduled team-building session was actually a cover for a much more elaborate Immersive Learning event. After all, being able to quickly and effectively adapt to an unexpected situation is an excellent skill to learn.

Immersive Learning (def.)

“The use of immersive techniques, including storytelling, theatrical performance, technology and puzzles to develop and exercise skills.”

This particular business requires their team to be able to quickly and effectively adapt to unexpected situations to better support its customers. But how do you learn and practice the skills needed to do this?

Not only did the theatrics of this scenario provide the element of surprise but the narrative provided the immersion, giving participants the emotional connection and investment needed to be fully engaged in the mission at hand. Not something that can be achieved when completing tasks in a corporate classroom.

After watching the unfortunate scene unfold, the participants were split into teams and tasked by the authorities with interviewing Clark to determine if he was part of the conspiracy or just an innocent bystander. They would then be expected to report back their findings, making a recommendation on whether he should be released or charged.

The teams set to work employing an astonishing array of methods and tactics. Some of which were more than a little surprising!

Conventional Approaches

• Obtain evidence by examining his laptop and questioning his associates
• Ask a scripted set of predetermined questions and record the answers
• Plea-bargain — offering a more lenient sentence in exchange for his confession/co-operation
• Play good-cop, bad-cop in a free form interview

OK, so these were all somewhat expected. Anyone who has ever watched any TV police drama knows that these are the go-to tools in any investigation.

However, with no instructions or restrictions on how to complete the task, our teams began to get a little more…creative.

Unconventional Approaches

• Petition for a public vote on his innocence/guilt
• Leave it up to the authorities to do the job whilst reallocating team resources to other tasks
• Interview/interrogate the authorities and use judgement on their competence to decide Clark’s guilt or innocence
• Break in through the window of the holding cell, set Clark free and use his reaction to determine his guilt or innocence
• Make friends with the suspect, release him without question, invite him to the bar, ply him with alcohol and then conduct the real interview

As creators of this Immersive Learning scenario, we had obviously thought about what strategy our teams might employ when approaching the problem, but even we were surprised by some of what we saw.

But really, that is the whole point. Immersive Learning empowers the participants to come up with solutions that they wouldn’t otherwise dream of.

The diverse spectrum of approaches seen in just this one seemingly simple activity demonstrates perfectly just how Immersive Learning facilitates creativity and innovation when it comes to problem-solving.

Although not all of these approaches would be appropriate in all real-world scenarios, the creativity to be able to develop solutions beyond any assumed constraints, particularly when solving complex issues is invaluable in any role.

This isn’t just a LARP. Scenarios are developed specifically to map against learning outcomes, created as metaphors for real business challenges. In this case, negotiation and rapid decision making were a focus.

To maximise effectiveness, scenarios are deliberately unconstrained, with no prescriptive set of tasks provided. Thereby allowing participants the freedom to let their imaginations run wild and be completely creative with their approach, and they certainly fulfilled that brief.

You see, that’s the real beauty of Immersive Learning. It mirrors the real-world, except it doesn’t have the real-world consequences. It’s a safe space to be creative, innovate and explore.

Using quality narrative and storytelling to really engage participants in the activity. Using characters to motivate them. Creating a stimulating scenario or problem to challenge them. Then removing all constraints and letting the creativity flow. They’ll always be unexpected (and sometimes even completely bonkers) solutions. But sometimes that’s exactly what you need in real-life.

And it’s not just creativity that is being exercised, there’s an extensive variety of skills involved:

• Setting goals
• Risk taking
• Problem solving
• Understanding roles and responsibilities
• Timely decision making
• Management reporting
• Conflict resolution
• Negotiation
• Leadership
• Relationship building
• Effective communication

All skills that are highly valuable in any modern workplace but are sadly often overlooked by traditional training approaches.

And it’s not just improvements of core competencies at an individual level; businesses are seeing real impact from their teams participating in Immersive Learning.

• Greater engagement with learning activities
• More creative solutions to solving business problems
• Increased adaptability to new scenarios
• Enhanced levels of innovation

Along with some more indirect benefits:

• Exciting content to share with customers and potential recruits
• More flexible workforce
• Improved employee retention
• Greater engagement with business strategy

With so many benefits to both the individual and the organisation, and with unlimited scenarios that have the potential to be tailored to address specific learning outcomes, it seems obvious that Immersive Learning is the ultimate training tool for all businesses.

And as for Clark’s innocence? Well, I guess we’ll have to keep that between us and Clark.

Innocent or guilty?

Kerrie Fraser is part of the chronyko team who have over 10 years experience in designing, building and delivering Immersive Learning experiences for skills development. If you are interested in learning more about Immersive Learning check out the Immersive Learning publication.