The potential of challenge is seriously underestimated in the field of Digital Learning. And yet, surpassing oneself offers many capabilities to both the employee and the surrounding team. Why, how, we examine the question from all angles!
The challenge: positive stimulation
”A new or difficult task that tests someone's ability and skill; the challenge itself”.
This is the definition of the word “challenge” in the Oxford Learners Dictionary. And for good reason, challenges are a real source of stimulation for those who welcome them. Surpassing oneself is a factor of well-being, both in the personal and professional environment. Surpassing oneself is not only a way of balancing one's inner self, but also a chance to position oneself better in the team relationship.
Indeed, by setting a challenge, a precise objective with the connotation of difficulty that takes centre stage, the challenger is sometimes forced to push his own limits and leave his comfort zone. This is where group work comes in: from a collective and purely psychological viewpoint, the difficulty welds individuals together and strengthens links that they apparently failed to recognise initially.
The challenge applied to the Learning process
What about challenge when it is applied in a special context like Learning? The principle of the Learning Challenge in the educational or professional (1) environment is proving to be an incomparable educational pearl.
It has what's more proved its worth in the field of soft skills, be it a question of developing communication, cohesion, strategy, organisation, performance, leadership or creativity within a team. This is shown by the success of experiential seminars focused on team-building activities, including the famous escape Games.
By putting employees in the same boat tasked with suggesting different ideas or even projects linked to their activity and by bringing the notion of a challenge or competition - enhanced by educational tools - into play, you place your employees in a context that is both fun and structured, which stimulates both personal reflection and collective creativity.
Because the Learning Challenge is at its most effective in its collective dimension. If it were not for the logistical and financial constraints that limit it to one-off use by a few lucky members of a team seminar.
Digitisation for effective roll-out
Today, while many digital platforms, under the name "Challenge", are content to organise small gamified training activities that prohibit maximum optimisation of the learning process, digitisation can be a real Holy Grail when understood correctly.
We are also seeing the emergence of new approaches from certain publishers: setting up virtual escape games to learn how to manage projects better, collaborative platforms dedicated to the organisation of intra- or inter-company challenges to ground CSR or product innovation initiatives, etc.
At XPERTEAM, the Learning Challenge has taken the form of a unique partnership between the world of e-Sport and Learning. CinQ, the first e-Sport simulation designed to test and develop the agility of teams and leaders, is offered within the brand new field coaching platform Experience Manager. It combines training and regular practice of powerskills and business skills throughout the entire company.
The digitisation principle in terms of the collective Learning Challenge is:
- A non-limiting educational approach
- A full-scale roll-out possibility
- A chance for the employee to suggest innovative solutions in a stimulating context
(1) On this topic, watch the excellent video by James Nottingham “The Learning Pit”
