Agile Games France: A Playground for Learning and Growth
Have you ever struggled to learn or teach a new concept in a traditional setting and resources?
A game might exist to help you make learning fun and engaging, with a long-lasting impression! And if it doesn’t, how about gamifying the experience and creating one?
My fascination for the power of games and how they can transform learning led me to participate in Agile Games France. I attended a few annual editions, starting in 2012 in Nantes, and the most recent one in Valence in March 2024 that left me packed with insights and inspiration.
Agile Games France is an immersive two-day experience, with participants from a variety of backgrounds and experiences.
Throughout the day, participants have the freedom to choose which sessions they want to join, thanks to an approach called “Open Space” technology. These sessions can be anything from playing existing games to testing out unreleased ones, or even brainstorming new games designed for specific purposes and situations.
As expected with an Open Space event, there are a lot of things happening simultaneously, and one needs to make choices and embrace the “Two feet” rule.
Here is an overview of the sessions I observed, facilitated, and engaged in.
Mission anti sabotage
(facilitated by Alexandre Boutin, with the support of Emilie Esposito)
Players are teamed up and discover real-life-inspired sabotage scenarios that can plague any team or organization and throw a wrench in their progress.
By working together to unblock your team, you’ll hone your communication and collaboration skills, while learning anti-sabotage strategies.
Le jeu des prénoms
(facilitated by Moïra Degroote)
One of the best games I know to demonstrate the resource utilisation trap and a few Kanban practices.
Artistes et spécifieurs — express
(facilitated by Moïra Degroote)
Variations based on another of my favorite games (Draw the drawing game, by Alistair Cockburn), to experience the importance of feedback loops, communication, alignment on the vision, and iteration, in bridging the gap between vision and execution.
Agile Mind
(facilitated by Moïra Degroote)
Using a mechanism inspired from Master Mind board game, this game emphasizes the importance of short feedback loops.
Mind Maze
(facilitated by Zakaria Hzami)
This game explored cognitive biases, those mental shortcuts that can sometimes lead to flawed judgment, through 4 decks of cards (Standard, cyber, marketing, HR, DevOps).
Empathic
(facilitated by Kevin Chaput)
Participants develop empathy by being encouraged to step into the shoes of others and understand their emotions and needs.
Kevin adapted the game mechanics and emotion cards from the game Empathico, and created new cards to play this game in a professional context.
I also had a sneak peek at:
- Cadran d’Ofman (with Patrice Boisieau): exploring how to gamify the teaching or usage of this coaching tool
- Changer de perspective (apologies I forgot to write down who facilitated this): highlighting how, in a group, each person has their perspective on a situation, and there is no “right” or “wrong”
- Le mystère de la pyramide de Toutankhascrum (with Rebecca Carlier and Lilian Roche): Agile teamwork meets ancient Egypt! Use collaboration to solve puzzles and retrieve the treasure from the pyramid!
- Préjugés (with Alexandre Boutin): a board game exploring stereotypes and prejudice. We are still wondering if and in which settings it could be used, as we found that the topics are sensitive and require careful handling (even with friends).
At the end of the day and until late at night for a few of us 🥱, participants continue chatting and playing more casually.
I played at:
- Action! : use small artefacts like cubes representing people to mime situations
- Mantis : colorful and addictive card game, “to bank or not to bank”
- Moi c’est madame : learn and practice alternative reactions against common sexist situations
- Taco gateau chapeau cadeau pizza : simple and hilariously fast-paced card game.
- Space team : noisily fun and cooperative fast-paced card game
- Nouvelles contrées : cooperative board game using your own books as game material. It also provides a firsthand experience of the challenges of doing cognitive work and multi-tasking.
- PowerPoint karaoké : improvisation on slides
Agile Games France is a playground for not just exploring existing games, but also brainstorming and creating new ones specifically tailored to address challenges.
At 42, we tap into games or gamification techniques :
1. Internally, to facilitate workshops, team activities, training…
2. As well as part of the learning experience.
Beyond the professional side, Agile Games France fostered a vibrant community that’s become a source of friendship and support.
If you’re interested in exploring gamified learning or connecting with passionate individuals, I highly recommend attending an event like Agile Games France or incorporating some playful elements into your teaching.
As a starting point, follow Agile Games France on Linkedin, explore other participants’ experience reports, or pick a game to experiment from Agile Games France Wiki
