Podcasts about Lego Serious Play

Get the free Core Drives in the Wild guide, behavioral design applied to real products: professorgame.com/WildCD Episode Summary Rob breaks down the peak-end rule, the finding from Daniel Kahneman and Donald Redelmeier's 1996 study that people remember an experience by its most intense moment and its ending, not its average. He walks through how cruise lines engineer both moments with nightly raffle dinners, a captain's dinner placed near the end of the trip, and a deliberately overinvested farewell, mapping each to Core Drives 1, 5, and 7 from the Octalysis Framework. Listeners learn why the remembering self, not the experiencing self, drives repeat purchases, how to cap sessions while desire is still climbing, and where the ethical line sits between honest peak design and covering up a bad experience. About the Host Rob Alvarez is Head of Engagement Strategy, Europe at The Octalysis Group (TOG), a leading gamification and behavioral design consultancy. A globally recognized gamification strategist and TEDx speaker, he founded and hosts Professor Game, the #1 gamification podcast, and has interviewed hundreds of global experts. He designs evidence-based engagement systems that drive motivation, loyalty, and results, and teaches LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® and gamification at top institutions including IE Business School, EFMD, and EBS University across Europe, the Americas, and Asia. Key Takeaways In Kahneman and Redelmeier's 1996 study, deliberately extending a painful colonoscopy so it ended on milder discomfort increased total pain, yet those patients remembered the procedure as less bad and returned for follow-ups at higher rates. The remembering self, not the experiencing self, makes the decision to come back, and it is a terrible statistician: it keeps two data points, the peak and the ending, and discards the average entirely. Cruise lines run the peak-end rule as a business model: nightly raffle dinners built on Core Drive 7 (Unpredictability and Curiosity) and Core Drive 5 (Social Influence and Relatedness) rewrite a mediocre day with a manufactured high. The captain's dinner adds Core Drive 1 (Epic Meaning and Calling) near the end of the trip, and disembarkation is deliberately overinvested because cruises live off travelers who rebook every year, not first-timers. A concrete design move: cap the session while desire is still climbing, so the last memory is "I wanted more" instead of "I was starting to get bored." The ethical line: peak-end design is honest when the peak and the ending tell the truth about the experience, and manipulative when those two moments are used to cover up an experience that was genuinely terrible. Topics Covered 0:00 — The peak-end rule and a painful paradox 1:34 — Inside Kahneman and Redelmeier's 1996 study 2:55 — Experiencing self versus remembering self 4:07 — Rob's reluctant cruise vacation 5:47 — How cruises manufacture nightly peaks 7:38 — Overinvesting in the ending on purpose 9:55 — Cap the session while it's climbing 11:26 — The ethical line of designed memories 12:11 — Diagnostics: did you design your ending? Mentioned in This Episode The peak-end rule Daniel Kahneman and Donald Redelmeier's 1996 study on patients' memories of painful medical procedures The Octalysis Framework and the 8 Core Drives Core Drives in the Wild: Professor Game Free Guide Free Resources and Get in Touch Core Drives in the Wild: Professor Game Free Guide Get Daily Value on Your Email Let's chat about your gamification project YouTube LinkedIn Instagram Facebook Start Your Community on Skool for Free Ask a question

Get the free Core Drives in the Wild guide, behavioral design applied to real products: professorgame.com/WildCD Episode Summary Dan Shapiro, author of Decoding Genius: The Unexpected Lessons of After-School Chess Club, shares how a father-son hobby turned into a study of why chess has held people's attention for more than 1,500 years. He walks through Miguel Najdorf's feat of holding 45 blindfolded chess games in his head at once, the built-in rating system that keeps every match in a flow state, and the habit of chess notation that teaches players to review their own decisions. Listeners come away with a clearer picture of why well-tuned difficulty curves matter, why chess maps onto Core Drive 3 (Empowerment of Creativity & Feedback) and Core Drive 7 (Unpredictability & Curiosity), and how curiosity itself works as a design tool. About the Host Rob Alvarez is Head of Engagement Strategy, Europe at The Octalysis Group (TOG), a leading gamification and behavioral design consultancy. A globally recognized gamification strategist and TEDx speaker, he founded and hosts Professor Game, the #1 gamification podcast, and has interviewed hundreds of global experts. He designs evidence-based engagement systems that drive motivation, loyalty, and results, and teaches LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® and gamification at top institutions including IE Business School, EFMD, and EBS University across Europe, the Americas, and Asia. Key Takeaways Miguel Najdorf played 45 simultaneous games of blindfolded chess in an exhibition, tracking every board from another room purely through memory. Chess's built-in rating system pairs players against evenly matched opponents, a real-world example of designing for flow state as difficulty rises with skill. Chess notation, the practice of recording every move, teaches players a habit of reviewing their own decisions that most people never apply outside the game. Judit Polgar broke Bobby Fischer's record to become the youngest grandmaster in chess history and remains the strongest female player of all time. Chess has held its relevance for roughly 1,500 years, traveling from the Gupta Empire through Persia and the European Renaissance. Dan Shapiro names curiosity as his personal superpower, mapping directly onto Core Drive 3 (Empowerment of Creativity & Feedback) and Core Drive 7 (Unpredictability & Curiosity). Topics Covered 0:00 — Opening hook: 45 blindfolded chess games 1:38 — Meet Dan Shapiro, author of Decoding Genius 2:17 — A day in Dan's life during launch week 3:29 — The tournament failure that hooked him on chess 8:19 — Chess notation and the discipline of reviewing decisions 11:46 — Miguel Najdorf and the memory behind 45 blindfolded games 13:47 — How beginners can start with chess.com puzzles 15:34 — Dynamic difficulty, flow state, and Mario Kart 16:36 — Why chess has survived 1,500 years across cultures 17:45 — Designing for long-term engagement instead of short loops 19:44 — Dan's dream guest: chess prodigy Judit Polgar 22:18 — Curiosity as a superpower, and Core Drives 3 and 7 24:34 — Chess as Dan's favorite game, and other brain games 25:38 — Where to find Decoding Genius, plus closing advice Get the free Core Drives in the Wild guide, behavioral design applied to real products: professorgame.com/WildCD About Dan Shapiro Dan Shapiro is the author of Decoding Genius: The Unexpected Lessons of After-School Chess Club, a book that explores what chess can teach us about memory, strategy, resilience, and human potential. His journey began as a father trying to support his son, Harry, and grew into a deeper exploration of why chess has been connected to genius for more than 1,500 years. Dan makes the game accessible to parents, new players, and anyone curious about how focused effort, preparation, and strategic thinking can help people of all ages grow. Find the Guest Online Website Book: Decoding Genius LinkedIn Instagram Facebook Mentioned in This Episode Some links below are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Proposed guest: Judit Polgar, record-breaking chess grandmaster and the youngest player ever to reach grandmaster level Recommended book: How to Win at Chess by Levy Rozman, creator of the GothamChess YouTube channel Favorite game: Chess, plus crossword puzzles and other strategy and word games Resource mentioned: chess.com, for beginner puzzles and rated games Dan's book: Decoding Genius: The Unexpected Lessons of After-School Chess Club on Amazon, or read more at decodinggeniusbook.com Free Resources and Get in Touch Core Drives in the Wild: Professor Game Free Guide Get Daily Value on Your Email Let's chat about your gamification project YouTube LinkedIn Instagram Facebook Start Your Community on Skool for Free Ask a question

Summary In this episode, Andy sits down with Johan Roos, professor and executive advisor at Hult International Business School, Executive Director of the Peter Drucker Society Europe, and co-inventor of the LEGO® Serious Play® method. Johan is the author of Human Magic: Leading with Wisdom in an Age of Algorithms, and he has spent decades studying how people think, create, decide, and lead together. Andy and Johan explore the two paths Johan calls erosion and amplification, starting with a question Andy has been wrestling with as he hands more of his manual driving over to Tesla's self-driving. You'll hear what an eroding project manager actually looks like day-to-day, why practical wisdom matters when the analytically optimal answer is not the wisest one, and how AI feeds one kind of curiosity, the laser, while starving another, the radar. Johan also explains the difference between becoming an AI concierge and practicing what he calls professional citizenship, and he shares what parents can do to help their kids hold onto the messy, hands-on curiosity that machines cannot supply. If you're looking for a thoughtful, hopeful way to use AI without surrendering your judgment, this episode is for you! Sound Bites "Almost every good idea I've had was not in front of the screen." "I know what to do, but I've stopped understanding why.".... The eroding project management can no longer explain the why." "So in a sense, they argue that the better the system, the stronger pull down the erosion curve." "So the message is really when the machines are taking over more and more of some of these subtle, very valuable capabilities we have, we have to climb the value creation ladder." "So a complexity is exactly where our wisdom gets exposed." "So every metric said fantastic, but nobody asked why, and is this right?" "If AI can write a document that is important to you, the document was never where the value lived." "But we just have to be careful to not sort of delegate too much of our brain power and sort of erode our jelly bean." "When you lean back and you haven't struggled enough, you may be super smart and, and the best brilliant individual in the world, but, you know, friction is good." "Are you able to argue for your case without holding on to the AI-produced slide?" "Protect the wandering curiosity, unstructured exploration, questions with no immediate payoff, the freedom to follow something nowhere in particular." Chapters 00:00 Introduction 02:35 Start of Interview 02:44 Growing Up Inquisitive and the Power of "Because" 06:04 Self-Driving Cars, GPS, and the Erosion of Our Abilities 10:31 Becoming an Active Supervisor Instead of a Passive Passenger 13:55 What an Eroding Project Manager Looks Like Day to Day 18:52 When the Optimal Answer Is Not the Wisest One 22:03 Intuition, Gut Feel, and When Something Does Not Smell Right 25:54 The Laser and the Radar: Two Kinds of Curiosity 27:52 Creating Independently Before Consulting AI 30:44 What Happens in the AI-Free Time 35:18 Is It Intuition or Is It Ego? 37:48 Turning the Models Loose on His Own Book 40:00 Asking AI to Be Brutally Honest 41:02 AI Concierge Versus Professional Citizenship 45:51 Advice for Parents Raising Kids in the Age of AI 49:26 Staying Human: Theater, Walks, and Getting Your Hands Dirty 50:44 End of Interview 51:15 Andy Comments After the Interview 54:46 Outtakes Learn More You can learn more about Johan and his work at humanmagic.one. For more learning on this topic, check out: Episode 500 with Steve Brown. Steve is a former Google DeepMind futurist, and he has a unique perspective on where we've been and where we're going with AI. Episode 479 with Matt Mong. Matt shares his take on the AI skills we need to stay relevant in the years to come. Episode 463 with Faisal Hoque. Faisal helps us go beyond the fear and the hype around AI to a helpful way to think about the human-AI relationship. Chat with PMeLa You can chat directly with PMeLa, the podcast's AI persona, to get episode recommendations and answers to your project management and leadership questions. Visit PeopleAndProjectsPodcast.com/PMeLa to chat with her. Join Us for LEAD52 I know you want to be a more confident leader–that's why you listen to this podcast. LEAD52 is a global community of people like you who are committed to transforming their ability to lead and deliver. It's 52 weeks of leadership learning, delivered right to your inbox, taking less than 5 minutes a week. And it's all for free. Learn more and sign up at GetLEAD52.com. Thanks! Thank you for joining me for this episode of The People and Projects Podcast! Talent Triangle: Business Acumen Topics: Leadership, Project Management, Artificial Intelligence, Practical Wisdom, Curiosity, Critical Thinking, Creativity, Decision Making, Judgment, Professional Development, Human Skills, Parenting The following music was used for this episode: Music: Echo by Alexander Nakarada License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license Music: Chillhouse by Frank Schroeter License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

Get the free Core Drives in the Wild guide, behavioral design applied to real products: professorgame.com/WildCD Episode Summary Rob breaks down Gartner's prediction that 40% of large warehouse operations will adopt gamification by 2028, showing why the definition attached to that number (points, badges, leaderboards, and rewards) is the setup for the White Hat to Black Hat drift rather than a win for the field. He covers the frontline cases already on record, from Disney's 2011 "electronic whip" laundry leaderboard to Amazon's FC Games and Tae Wan Kim's 2026 Carnegie Mellon paper on gamifying meaningful work, then walks through Aperam's safety training project with The Octalysis Group as the counter-example built on Core Drives 2, 3, and 5. Listeners learn how to spot extractive gamification and how to test a system by asking what would be left if the leaderboard disappeared tomorrow. About the Host Rob Alvarez is Head of Engagement Strategy, Europe at The Octalysis Group (TOG), a leading gamification and behavioral design consultancy. A globally recognized gamification strategist and TEDx speaker, he founded and hosts Professor Game, the #1 gamification podcast, and has interviewed hundreds of global experts. He designs evidence-based engagement systems that drive motivation, loyalty, and results, and teaches LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® and gamification at top institutions including IE Business School, EFMD, and EBS University across Europe, the Americas, and Asia. Key Takeaways Gartner predicts 40% of large warehouse operations will adopt gamification by 2028, and defines it as points, badges, leaderboards, and rewards, which is the most extrinsic and most drift-prone stack available for work that runs on a multi-year horizon. The White Hat to Black Hat drift is dangerous on a warehouse floor in a way it is not in a consumer app, because a frontline worker cannot uninstall the job. Instead of churn, the cost shows up as overwork, injury, or people pushed out of their living. Amazon's FC Games offered warehouse workers virtual pets while injury rates ran above average, and workers publicly compared the program to the Black Mirror episode "Fifteen Million Merits." Carnegie Mellon business ethics professor Tae Wan Kim's 2026 paper "When Work Becomes a Game" found that gamifying meaningful work can shift a worker's reason for doing it from the purpose of the job to the points, a textbook over-justification effect measured on people at work. Aperam, one of the world's largest stainless steel producers, ran its 2017 safety training project with The Octalysis Group on Core Drive 3 (Empowerment of Creativity and Feedback) and Core Drive 5 (Social Influence and Relatedness), giving workers a voice in safety improvements and turning safety into a group quest instead of a ranking. The Aperam results were strong adoption, workers requesting early downloads of safety material, and a significant reduction in workplace accidents, because the target metric was fewer injuries rather than time spent in the training. Topics Covered 0:00 — The electronic whip and a 40% prediction 2:29 — What Gartner's definition actually contains 3:27 — White Hat to Black Hat drift, and who pays 5:06 — Amazon FC Games and virtual pets 6:08 — Tae Wan Kim on gamifying meaningful work 7:28 — Over-justification and Gartner's own warning 9:15 — Gamification can do this job well 10:06 — Aperam's safety training with Octalysis Group 12:45 — Black Hat as an on-ramp, not the engine 13:18 — Fewer accidents, not more engagement 14:23 — Questions to ask before you buy 17:21 — Where you want to sit in 2028 Mentioned in This Episode Gartner: 40% of large warehouse operations will adopt gamification tools by 2028 Federica Stufano, Gartner analyst behind the warehouse gamification prediction Tae Wan Kim, Carnegie Mellon business ethics professor, 2026 paper "When Work Becomes a Game" Amazon FC Games, the warehouse gamification program with virtual pets and arcade-style mini-games Disney's 2011 hotel laundry leaderboard, known among workers as the "electronic whip" Aperam, one of the world's largest stainless steel producers, and its safety training gamification project The Octalysis Group Core Drives in the Wild, the free Professor Game guide Free Resources and Get in Touch Core Drives in the Wild: Professor Game Free Guide Get Daily Value on Your Email Let's chat about your gamification project YouTube LinkedIn Instagram Facebook Start Your Community on Skool for Free Ask a question

Recently funded and aiming for sustainable retention? Intro chat (no sales pitch): professorgame.com/chat Episode Summary Travis Clapp, co-founder and CEO of Coursebox AI, joins Rob to explain how AI is reshaping course creation and delivery for a platform used in 180 countries with over 300,000 courses built on it. He walks through Coursebox's "Break My Brain" feature, an AI mode built for personalized, adversarial learning rather than points and leaderboards, and explains why the platform now generates in 10 minutes what used to take him days to compile by hand. Travis also shares two gamification experiments gone wrong, an overbuilt golf training module and a crossword in an endangered Aboriginal language, and where he draws the line between fun and function. Listeners come away with a clearer read on why surface-level game mechanics rarely move the needle, and what deep personalization through AI looks like in practice. About the Host Rob Alvarez is Head of Engagement Strategy, Europe at The Octalysis Group (TOG), a leading gamification and behavioral design consultancy. A globally recognized gamification strategist and TEDx speaker, he founded and hosts Professor Game, the #1 gamification podcast, and has interviewed hundreds of global experts. He designs evidence-based engagement systems that drive motivation, loyalty, and results, and teaches LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® and gamification at top institutions including IE Business School, EFMD, and EBS University across Europe, the Americas, and Asia. Key Takeaways Coursebox AI now generates the five-document compliance package Travis used to build by hand for RTOs in about 10 minutes, work that once took him days per client. Coursebox's "Break My Brain" feature lets a learner, or Travis himself testing it on his own sales calls, get challenged and questioned by AI instead of clicking through a linear course, engaging Core Drive 3 (Empowerment of Creativity & Feedback) and Core Drive 4 (Ownership & Possession). Travis's own team told him not to talk about leaderboards, points, certificates, or badges going into this episode, because platform-level leaderboards rarely produce deep engagement on their own, just a carrot on a stick. A German trucking client turned Coursebox training into a fully hands-free, podcast-style experience so drivers could complete quizzes and assignments by voice while on the road. Coursebox is used across 180 countries, has generated over 300,000 courses, and one flagship edX MOOC built on the platform reached more than 20,000 learners. An early gamified golf training module Travis built in 2011 nailed the learner experience but got flagged internally as the most expensive, overpriced piece of work the company had shipped, a reminder that engagement design still has to answer to budget. Topics Covered 0:00 — Opening hook: "don't talk about leaderboards" 1:18 — Travis Clapp's path to Coursebox AI 2:42 — New fatherhood and running a global startup from Australia 6:03 — Favorite fail: an over-engineered golf training module 9:03 — A crossword in an endangered language, gamification taken too far 10:57 — Why leaderboards and points rarely drive real engagement 12:57 — "Break My Brain": AI's personalized deep-learning mode 16:24 — Killing the step-by-step method for open, prompt-based design 18:02 — Tesla's Grok, Porsche, and voice-driven learning everywhere 20:55 — German truck drivers turning training into a podcast 21:41 — AI risk, specialization, and what never depreciates 27:20 — Book picks, favorite game, and where to find Coursebox AI Recently funded and aiming for sustainable retention? Intro chat (no sales pitch): professorgame.com/chat About Travis Clapp Travis Clapp is the co-founder and CEO of Coursebox AI, an AI course creation and training delivery platform used across 180 countries with over 300,000 courses created on the platform. He spent 15 years as an instructional designer before building Coursebox, working with companies like Johnson & Johnson, Electrolux, Michael Hill, and SA Health. At Open Colleges, he built the five-document compliance packages by hand that every RTO needs; Coursebox now generates the same packages in 10 minutes. One of his courses reached over 20,000 learners as a flagship edX MOOC. He knows what good learning takes because he spent years doing it the slow way. Before Coursebox, he founded and ran a social-based LMS for seven years, which became the foundation for what Coursebox AI is today. Four years ago he launched Coursebox AI, not to automate course creation, but to get to the part that matters: delivery. The AI tutor, the grading, the 24/7 coaching, the outcomes. Course creation, in his words, is about 1% of what the platform does. Travis still checks customer support messages at 4am. Find Travis Clapp Online Website: coursebox.ai LinkedIn (Travis): linkedin.com/in/travisclapp LinkedIn (Coursebox AI): linkedin.com/company/courseboxai Instagram: instagram.com/coursebox.ai TikTok: tiktok.com/@coursebox.ai Facebook: facebook.com/courseboxai X/Twitter: x.com/Coursebox_ai YouTube: youtube.com/@CourseboxAI Mentioned in This Episode Some links below are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. TOG / P&G gamification case study The Octalysis Framework Book: I, Robot by Isaac Asimov Book: The Millionaire Mind by Thomas J. Stanley Book: The Expectant Father by Armin A. Brott & Jennifer Ash Rudick Favorite game: SimCity 2000 (1993) Free Resources and Get in Touch Core Drives in the Wild: Professor Game Free Guide Get Daily Value on Your Email Let's chat about your gamification project YouTube LinkedIn Instagram Facebook Start Your Community on Skool for Free Ask a question

Summary Loretta Veney put her foot on the gas right off the bat in this episode and will blow your mind with her inspiring stories from her journey of using Lego Serious Play to improve communication and emotional well-being for people living with dementia and caregivers. Discover practical tips, powerful stories, and how this innovative approach is transforming caregiving and mental health support. She shares that we are significantly underestimating what people are capable of and LEGOs can reveal surprising opportunities for connection. Families have also found collaboration and healing through this unique playful practice! keywordsLego Serious Play, dementia care, caregiver support, mental health, innovative communication, storytelling, emotional well-being, senior activities, resilience, social impact, family collaboration key topicsUse of Lego Serious Play in dementia carePersonal journey of Loretta Veney as caregiver and facilitatorTechniques for improving communicationStories of emotional breakthroughs through Lego buildingTraining and certification in Lego Serious PlayImpact of creative activities on mental health and resilienceAdapting Lego activities for different stages of dementiaBuilding family and community connections through Lego sound bites"Build how you feel, and we'll come back to that.""People with dementia can still do so many things.""Build your greatest achievement, no matter how small."Chapters00:00 Introduction to Loretta Veney and her work with Lego Serious Play01:00 Loretta's personal caregiving story and early memories of LegoTo Be Honest - I don't think AI could break it down because so much was shared so quickly! BUT - be sure to stick around to the end because she talks about her own caregiver experience too.Inspired Caring is THE family support & education program that helps families feel calm and confident to make better decisions faster. Inspired Caring is also offered as an annual membership tobusinesses to provide for the families they work with.Connect with Michele Magner:⁠Website⁠⁠E-mail⁠Instagram⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠YouTube⁠Custom podcast music written and produced by Colin Roberts. He does custom songs for any occasion.  Connect with Loretta VeneyInstagramLinkedInFacebookGood Morning America: MediaListening To: Instrumental JazzBook: Your Brain on Art AARP Study: Playing With Legos Can Help People With Dementia

Havva Sevay: The Car Configuration Team That Spiraled Into Silence—and the Workshop That Saved It Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.   "First they tell you their opinion. Then they start shouting, getting emotional. And the third one is silence—and resignation. That's the worst part." - Havva Sevay   Havva remembers a highly motivated development team working on a car configuration system so complex it began to wear them down. They asked for training. The Product Owner waved it off—they've had enough training, they should understand it. What followed was a three-stage spiral Havva now recognizes anywhere: first the team shares opinions and solutions, then frustration turns to emotion and shouting, and finally comes silence and resignation. The team even kicked the Product Owner out of their daily—a low point Havva calls the worst she has seen in her career. The turning point was a LEGO Serious Play workshop. By getting both sides to build how they wanted to work together, the Product Owner did active listening for the first time, recognized the team needed an experienced developer to guide them, and the relationship transformed. The lesson: Scrum Masters are the facilitators of those moments of coming together—and there need to be many, at every level.   Self-reflection Question: Is a team you support moving through opinion → emotion → silence right now? What moment of coming-together could you facilitate before they reach resignation?   [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends]

Get the free Core Drives in the Wild guide, behavioral design applied to real engagement programs: professorgame.com/WildCD Episode Summary Rob breaks down behavioral debt: the borrowed motivation hiding inside every legacy points, discount, or bonus program, showing why cutting an engagement program off cold is the fastest way to blow it up. He walks through JCPenney's collapse under Ron Johnson, a Fortune 500 rewards program employees now budget around like income, and how LATAM Airlines and Caixa Econômica Federal restructured their own behavioral debt using Octalysis Core Drives instead of switching it off. Listeners learn how to read their program's real balance sheet and start servicing behavioral debt without triggering a JCPenney-style default. About the Host Rob Alvarez is Head of Engagement Strategy, Europe at The Octalysis Group (TOG), a leading gamification and behavioral design consultancy. A globally recognized gamification strategist and TEDx speaker, he founded and hosts Professor Game, the #1 gamification podcast, and has interviewed hundreds of global experts. He designs evidence-based engagement systems that drive motivation, loyalty, and results, and teaches LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® and gamification at top institutions including IE Business School, EFMD, and EBS University across Europe, the Americas, and Asia. Key Takeaways JCPenney's Ron Johnson scrapped every discount and coupon overnight, replacing them with everyday low pricing; sales fell 25%, roughly $4.3 billion, and he was gone within two years. Ron Johnson later admitted only 1% of JCPenney's sales happened without a discount, meaning 99% of purchases depended on coupons the company had just eliminated. LATAM Airlines kept its miles intact but rebuilt the experience around Core Drive 7 (Unpredictability & Curiosity) and Core Drive 3 (Empowerment of Creativity & Feedback), driving a 153% increase in credit card acquisitions. Caixa Econômica Federal's incentive program had drifted to roughly 10% participation before a rebuild around collective purpose pushed it to 90%, adding $1.06 billion in revenue. Points tied to reaching performance targets ran on Core Drive 4 (Ownership & Possession) and Core Drive 8 (Loss & Avoidance), turning a reward employees didn't need into part of their household income. Topics Covered 0:00 — Behavioral debt hiding under green metrics 0:25 — A Fortune 500 rewards program families budget around 1:39 — Why most engagement advice assumes a blank slate 2:51 — Why behavioral debt hides behind green dashboards 3:29 — Borrowed motivation compounding like real interest 4:17 — JCPenney's Ron Johnson cuts every discount overnight 6:04 — Core Drives 4 and 8 inside the Fortune 500 case 8:07 — Why behavioral debt has no repayment plan 8:59 — Why you can't just switch off behavioral debt 9:20 — LATAM Airlines: servicing debt while building the replacement 11:23 — Caixa's jump from 10% to 90% participation 12:37 — Closing: most loyalty programs are just debt service Get the free Core Drives in the Wild guide, behavioral design applied to real engagement programs: professorgame.com/WildCD Mentioned in This Episode LATAM Airlines Gamification Case Study (The Octalysis Group) Caixa Econômica Federal Banking Gamification Case Study (The Octalysis Group) The Octalysis Framework JCPenney's 2011-2013 "everyday low prices" strategy under CEO Ron Johnson Free Resources and Get in Touch Core Drives in the Wild: Professor Game Free Guide Get Daily Value on Your Email Let's chat about your gamification project YouTube LinkedIn Instagram Facebook Start Your Community on Skool for Free Ask a question

LEGO® Serious Play® lebt normalerweise von der Gruppe. Aber was, wenn du gar keine Gruppe hast, sondern nur ein Mitarbeitergespräch, ein Coaching oder eine Mediation? Genau dafür gibt's jetzt LSP One. David spricht mit seinem Kollegen Felix Burger, Psychologe und LSP-Facilitator bei HelloAgile, darüber, wie sich die Methode auf Zweier-Settings und die Einzelarbeit übertragen lässt und was dabei anders läuft als in der Gruppe. Felix erzählt außerdem von einem Großgruppenevent mit 700 Führungskräften und warum LSP One auch für Leute funktioniert, die sich nie als klassische Workshop-Menschen sehen würden.

In this episode of The Beacon Way Podcast, Adrienne Wilkerson sits down with Shannon Russell, founder of Build Better Teams Consulting, to explore how LEGO Serious Play can help organizations strengthen communication, uncover new ideas, and create more connected teams.Shannon began her career as a television producer before leaving the industry to build a STEM education business while raising two young children. After spending more than eight years teaching LEGO and robotics, she discovered LEGO Serious Play, a hands-on methodology that helps adults think, communicate, and solve problems in a more visual and collaborative way. During the conversation, Shannon explains how building with LEGO can create a more level playing field during meetings. Instead of hearing only from the most vocal people in the room, every team member has an opportunity to build, explain, and contribute their perspective.Adrienne and Shannon also discuss the challenges of managing remote and growing teams, the importance of regular check-ins, and why leaders need to create more opportunities for genuine human connection in an increasingly digital workplace.Whether you are leading a small business, navigating rapid growth, managing a remote team, or trying to improve collaboration across your organization, this conversation offers practical ways to help people feel heard, valued, and connected.In This Episode• Shannon's transition from television producer to entrepreneur • Starting a business while raising young children • How Shannon's STEM education company evolved • What LEGO Serious Play is and how it works • Why hands-on learning can improve understanding and retention • Creating space for quieter team members to contribute • How LEGO can reveal team roles, gaps, and opportunities • Supporting accidental business owners who suddenly have a team • Using LEGO Serious Play with remote and in-person teams • How regular check-ins strengthen team cohesion • Building stronger relationships in remote workplaces • Why celebrating wins can create a healthier team culture Key TakeawaysHands-on learning creates deeper understanding: LEGO Serious Play encourages people to think with their hands. Team members build their answers, explain their ideas, and create a visual representation that others can better understand and remember.Every team member deserves an opportunity to contribute: Traditional meetings often favor the most vocal people in the room. A structured building exercise gives quieter or more introverted team members an equal opportunity to share their ideas.Strong teams require consistent connection: Remote work can leave employees feeling isolated or disconnected from the larger organization. Regular team check-ins and intentional one-on-one conversations can help people understand their priorities, ask for support, and feel valued.Leaders need to know their people: Team cohesion is not only about productivity. Asking about an employee's family, challenges, goals, and life outside of work can build the trust needed for stronger communication and long-term retention.Celebrating progress strengthens culture: Ending the week by recognizing personal and professional wins can help teams focus on what is going well instead of only discussing problems and unfinished tasks.Chapters00:00 Introduction and Shannon's Career Journey01:14 Transitioning from Television to STEM Education03:14 Starting a Business with Young Children08:41 Discovering LEGO Serious Play10:50 How LEGO Serious Play Improves Team Collaboration13:24 Tactile Learning and Human Connection16:26 Building Team Roles and Organizational Plans17:46 Supporting Accidental Business Owners19:16 Helping Team Members Understand Their Roles21:38 Virtual vs. In-Person LEGO Sessions23:28 Keeping Growing Teams Connected24:22 Weekly and Individual Team Check-Ins26:17 Celebrating Wins and Strengthening Culture28:55 Building Deeper Workplace Relationships30:23 How to Connect with Shannon RussellConnect with Shannon Russell:Build Better Teams Consultinghttps://buildbetterteamsconsulting.comBuild Better Teams Podcasthttps://buildbetterteamsconsulting.com/podcast

Real cases pulled apart through the Octalysis Core Drives, sent to your inbox over a few days. Get the free guide: professorgame.com/WildCD Episode Summary Rob breaks down why the same reward can pull a team forward or quietly wreck it, using three cases where the design decided the outcome. He walks through a school in Caracas where escalating fines for late pickups made lateness worse, the sales bonus patterns that produce burnout and sandbagging, and The Octalysis Group's project with Procter & Gamble's distributor Navo Orbico, where a gamified ship upgrade tightened the feedback loop instead of paying for the sale. Along the way he separates two mechanisms that often get treated as one: a fine turning a moral obligation into a price, and the over-justification effect crowding out intrinsic motivation on the reward side. Listeners learn how to match the reward to the job it actually has to do, and when to hand off to something more durable. About the Host Rob Alvarez is Head of Engagement Strategy, Europe at The Octalysis Group (TOG), a leading gamification and behavioral design consultancy. A globally recognized gamification strategist and TEDx speaker, he founded and hosts Professor Game, the #1 gamification podcast, and has interviewed hundreds of global experts. He designs evidence-based engagement systems that drive motivation, loyalty, and results, and teaches LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® and gamification at top institutions including IE Business School, EFMD, and EBS University across Europe, the Americas, and Asia. Key Takeaways A school in Caracas replaced the moral weight of collecting your child on time with an escalating fine, and lateness went up instead of down. Core Drive 5 (Social Influence and Relatedness) stopped doing its job the moment the delay carried a price. Gneezy and Rustichini's study "A Fine is a Price" documents the same reversal in day-care centers: a monetary fine for late pickups increased late pickups, and removing the fine did not bring them back down. A standing sales commission with nothing behind it pays for the behavior forever. Reps chase the next check to make ends meet, and with no other motivation in the system, the commission burns them out rather than building anything durable. Capped bonuses fail in two directions. Targets set too high get read as unreachable, so reps stop trying, and reachable targets get sandbagged, with closed-ready deals held into the next cycle so the company waits on revenue it wanted today. In The Octalysis Group's project with Procter & Gamble's distributor Navo Orbico, ship upgrades inside Masters of the Endless Seas cut the roughly week-long CRM lag on seeing whether a sale landed, tightening the Core Drive 2 (Development and Accomplishment) loop instead of paying for the sale. Rob was not on the project team and saw it presented at Brighton. Nearly every reward failure is one of two mistakes: treating the get-them-through-the-door reward as the whole engine, or bolting an extrinsic reward onto behavior that already had an intrinsic reason, which is where the over-justification effect crowds that reason out. Topics Covered 0:00 — The reward is a tool, not a motivator 1:56 — The Caracas school that fined late parents 2:45 — How a fine replaced a moral obligation 4:07 — A Fine is a Price, Gneezy and Rustichini 4:44 — When rewards do an honest job 6:07 — Standing commissions and sales rep burnout 7:07 — Bonus targets set too high to chase 8:06 — Hitting the number, then sandbagging deals 8:52 — The over-justification effect in action 9:27 — P&G's Masters of the Endless Seas 11:15 — Why the ship worked when the bonus failed 12:20 — Choosing the reward that fits the job Mentioned in This Episode Core Drives in the Wild, the free guide with real cases analyzed through the Octalysis Core Drives Episode 453: Why Users Agree But Never Start, where Rob covers the Procter & Gamble project in full "A Fine is a Price" by Uri Gneezy and Aldo Rustichini, Journal of Legal Studies, 2000 The Octalysis Group, and its project with Procter & Gamble's distributor Navo Orbico Masters of the Endless Seas, the gamified world built for the Procter & Gamble sales rep network The over-justification effect, and Core Drives 1, 2, 3, and 5 of the Octalysis Framework Free Resources and Get in Touch Core Drives in the Wild: Professor Game Free Guide Get Daily Value on Your Email Let's chat about your gamification project YouTube LinkedIn Instagram Facebook Start Your Community on Skool for Free Ask a question

Joel Birch is a creative facilitator, learning designer, educator, and self-described benevolent troublemaker who believes people do their best thinking through play. After years supporting creativity in classrooms and helping schools navigate digital transformation, Joel shifted his focus to helping teams across industries think more openly, communicate more honestly, and collaborate with greater courage. As a Certified Facilitator and Pro Trainer of LEGO® Serious Play®, Joel works with teams on strategy, innovation, vision, and change. Across education, enterprise, leadership, and youth programs, he helps people bring their ideas to the table and build something better together.

Get the free Core Drives in the Wild guide, behavioral design applied to real products: professorgame.com/WildCD Episode Summary Frédéric Guitton, who leads sales and marketing at iTargetGolf after a career across banking, startups, financial services, and investment firms, explains how driving ranges are turning dead space into an interactive, gamified experience. He walks through the company's product line, including the iTarget Night Saber target that connects to Toptracer, Inrange, and Trackman through an API, the in-bay lights that fire when a player hits their target, and the new Cash Cup Golf hole-in-one contest played with RFID balls. Guitton lays out the three levers a driving range has for revenue, why post-COVID golf growth came from entertainment rather than traditional rounds, and how instant feedback keeps a player buying one more bucket. Listeners come away with a working model of physical gamification and a reminder that designing around real human behavior beats asking people to behave better. About the Host Rob Alvarez is Head of Engagement Strategy, Europe at The Octalysis Group (TOG), a leading gamification and behavioral design consultancy. A globally recognized gamification strategist and TEDx speaker, he founded and hosts Professor Game, the #1 gamification podcast, and has interviewed hundreds of global experts. He designs evidence-based engagement systems that drive motivation, loyalty, and results, and teaches LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® and gamification at top institutions including IE Business School, EFMD, and EBS University across Europe, the Americas, and Asia. Key Takeaways A driving range has only three levers for revenue, according to Frédéric Guitton: sell more balls, sell more food and beverage, or sell the balls for more money. Every engagement decision at iTargetGolf traces back to one of those three. iTargetGolf's first targets were powder-coated metal and looked great, but ball picker staff bumped them and metal does not give, so it bent or broke permanently. The replacement is cut from utility sewer pipe and survives 400 to 500 pounds driving over it. Post-COVID golf growth came from entertainment, not from more rounds on traditional courses. Guitton describes the driving range starting to replace the bowling alley as the family night out, which brings in an audience that never came to practice. The iTarget Night Saber target connects through an API to Toptracer, Inrange, and Trackman ball tracking, so a landed ball triggers an animation within seconds. That instant feedback is Core Drive 2 (Development and Accomplishment) delivered in the physical world. Choosing low voltage over high voltage took permitting out of the install path. A California range that signed in mid-June started its install roughly four weeks later, which turned an infrastructure decision into a sales advantage. Guitton frames the B2B2C tension plainly: the range's success drives iTargetGolf's success, so the company treats itself as a consequence of its customers' results rather than a driver of them. Topics Covered 0:00 — Opening and introduction 2:17 — Inside a week at iTargetGolf 3:25 — Favorite fail: metal targets that bend 6:34 — Sewer pipes and the strike point redesign 9:01 — The four products iTargetGolf builds 11:31 — How a general contractor started the company 14:58 — Golf as entertainment after COVID 15:57 — Three ways a driving range makes money 17:46 — Making it fun and creating new golfers 19:35 — Best practices: listen and stay locked in 22:45 — Football intelligence and instant feedback 27:47 — Outliers, favorite games, and goodbyes Get the free Core Drives in the Wild guide, behavioral design applied to real products: professorgame.com/WildCD About Frédéric Guitton Frédéric Guitton leads the sales and marketing strategy at iTargetGolf, where he is helping redefine the driving range experience through interactive down-range technology. He relocated from France to Central Florida in 1996 and built a career in banking before expanding into startups, financial services, and investment firms, developing experience across business strategy, operations, sales, marketing, and executive leadership. At iTargetGolf he works on a product line that combines interactive illuminated targets, skill-based cash prize games, and integrated ball-tracking technology to increase player engagement and open new revenue for golf facilities. His current focus is building scalable systems, strengthening customer relationships, expanding strategic partnerships, and positioning the company in the evolution of golf entertainment technology. Find the Guest Online Website: itargetgolf.com LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/fguitton Instagram: @itarget_golf TikTok: @itarget_golf Facebook: iTargetGolf on Facebook Mentioned in This Episode Some links below are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Recommended book: Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell Proposed guest: Scott Armstrong, involved with TGL, the indoor golf competition on ESPN Ball tracking platforms iTargetGolf integrates with: Toptracer, Inrange, Trackman Topgolf, referenced as the far end of the golf entertainment spectrum iTargetGolf products discussed: iTarget Night Saber, iTarget Strike Point, in-bay lights, and Cash Cup Golf Favorite game to watch: volleyball. Favorite sport to play: cycling. Free Resources and Get in Touch Core Drives in the Wild: Professor Game Free Guide Get Daily Value on Your Email Let's chat about your gamification project YouTube LinkedIn Instagram Facebook Start Your Community on Skool for Free Ask a question

Want a sharper read on motivation design? Get the free Core Drives in the Wild guide, real cases decoded through this exact framework, one short email a day: professorgame.com/WildCD Episode Summary Rob argues that Black Hat motivation, the urgency and scarcity most designers treat as the villain, is the on-ramp that gets people to act at all. He breaks down the Octalysis Group's award-winning project with Procter & Gamble's distributor Navo Orbico, which reached 99.5% voluntary participation on a non-compulsory rollout and a 28.6% revenue increase by starting with pressure and handing off to meaning. Drawing on Ocean Hero as the rare frictionless exception, he shows why White Hat drives like Epic Meaning seldom start action on their own. Listeners learn the Black-Hat-to-White-Hat handoff and two diagnostic questions to test whether their own system can make the switch. About the Host Rob Alvarez is Head of Engagement Strategy, Europe at The Octalysis Group (TOG), a leading gamification and behavioral design consultancy. A globally recognized gamification strategist and TEDx speaker, he founded and hosts Professor Game, the #1 gamification podcast, and has interviewed hundreds of global experts. He designs evidence-based engagement systems that drive motivation, loyalty, and results, and teaches LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® and gamification at top institutions including IE Business School, EFMD, and EBS University across Europe, the Americas, and Asia. Key Takeaways The Octalysis Group's project with Procter & Gamble reached 99.5% voluntary participation on a non-compulsory rollout and a 28.6% revenue increase, evidence that Black Hat urgency and White Hat meaning work in sequence, not opposition. In the Octalysis framework, Black Hat and White Hat motivation are not good and evil. Black Hat (urgency, scarcity, pressure) gets people to act now; White Hat (meaning, empowerment) makes them glad they stayed. Relying only on grand meaning and Core Drive 3 (Empowerment of Creativity and Feedback) tends to produce a "someday," which in practice means never, because wanting to act is rarely a strong enough forcing function to overcome friction. The P&G rollout launched using Core Drive 5 (Social Influence and Relatedness) as pressure: getting into the system meant tracking down colleagues for an access code, which sparked FOMO (Core Drive 8) and curiosity (Core Drive 7) rather than belief in a grand vision. After the on-ramp, the system handed off to White Hat: reps became captains of trading ships, territories became open seas, and clients became colonies, activating Core Drive 1 (Epic Meaning) and Core Drive 2 (Development and Accomplishment). Ocean Hero is the rare case where White Hat alone starts action, because switching a search engine is one click of near-zero friction, so Core Drive 1 can carry the behavior with no urgency at all. Topics Covered 0:00 — Opening hook: why products stall 1:14 — The P&G result: 99.5% voluntary 3:05 — Black Hat and White Hat serve different moments 4:53 — The frictionless exception: Ocean Hero 6:07 — Inside the P&G rollout 7:30 — The handoff: reps become ship captains 9:16 — When Black Hat never matures into more 10:09 — Two diagnostic questions for your system 11:27 — What a mistimed handoff looks like 12:06 — Black Hat starts, White Hat sustains Mentioned in This Episode The Octalysis Group case study with Procter & Gamble's distributor Navo Orbico (Gamification Project of the Year, first presented in Brighton): 99.5% voluntary participation, 28.6% revenue increase Ocean Hero, the search engine whose revenue funds clearing plastic from the oceans (a project supported by The Octalysis Group) The Octalysis framework: Black Hat and White Hat motivation, and Core Drives 1 through 8 Episode 446, the airline miles loyalty teardown Episode 450, Amazon's internal AI leaderboard Free Resources and Get in Touch Core Drives in the Wild: Professor Game Free Guide Get Daily Value on Your Email Let's chat about your gamification project YouTube LinkedIn Instagram Facebook Start Your Community on Skool for Free Ask a question

Loretta Veney has a story that holds heartbreak and humor in the same hand.In this episode, Loretta walks through a thirteen-year medical journey that started with a doctor telling her to get over it and eventually led to a diagnosis that nearly cost her life. Sheshares what it meant to build a marriage with her husband Tim around hospital rooms and Dairy Queen runs, and how that same resilience carried her through sixteen years of caring for her mother through dementia.She also traces how Legos found their way into her life. Her mother gave her a box of them as a child, something to build with during hard days at school. Decades later, when hermother's memory began to fade, those same bricks became the thing that helped her find her words again. Loretta shares how that discovery grew into Lego Serious Play sessions with families and care communities around the world, andhow a six-year-old boy who saw her on the news went home and taught his own grandmother to build.This conversation moves through grief, forgiveness, and joy, and shows what it looks like to keep choosing all three, even on the hardest daysChapters00:00 Welcome and a lifelong friendship01:56 "A walking miracle": introducing Loretta's story04:49 The medical journey begins07:06 A doctor dismisses her pain10:03 A new doctor explains endometriosis12:30 Thirteen years, and a warning that saved her life15:21 Choosing joy in the hospital16:26 A new chapter: her mother's dementia diagnosis22:07 What ice cream taught her about care25:01 "Understood the assignment": remembering joy26:23 Becoming "very nice person"34:27 Losing Tim38:05 The village that stepped up40:20 Writing the book, with her mother's blessing43:31 A family secret, and choosing forgiveness52:08 Turning caregiving into research on resilience53:29 How the Legos really began58:05 Discovering Lego Serious Play59:57 Becoming the Lego Lady, globally1:05:13 Building across generations1:15:13 The small, everyday ways she chooses joy1:22:06 Where to find Loretta, and closing thoughtsMore About LorettaLoretta Veney is known around the world as the Lego Lady, and for good reason. What began as a way to help her mother navigate dementia became a life's work: using LegoÒ Serious Play to help people with memory loss find their words,their calm, and their joy. Loretta cared for her mother for sixteen years, through a journey that also included the sudden loss of her husband Tim and a thirteen-year medical odyssey of her own.  She's spoken across the globe, featured in Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The NY Times, Good Morning America and a PBS Special. Loretta was chosen as one of Robin Roberts Thriver Thursday recipients, honored with Maude Award for her work in dementia care and named 2019 John Hopkins Medicine's Trailblazer of the Year. Her mother's own words became Loretta's guiding compass: when you find something that works, you share it. Loretta lives that legacy every day, one Lego brick at a time.Connect with LorettaLoretta on Good Morning America PBS: Alzheimers and Caregivers Connect with Melanie Download How to Consciously Create a Life of Joy HereRadical Love Book

Anderhalve minuut. Een zakje Lego. Eén vraag."Hoe ga je de komende twee maanden tijd vrijmaken voor je boek?"Dat vroeg David Witte aan mij. Live, in de podcast. De klok liep mee.Ik bouwde. Roze blokjes voor het provocatieve boek waar ik mee bezig ben. Blauwe voor de dagelijkse overhead — mail, facturen, de rompslomp. Rood voor uitvoering. Groen voor mijn gezin. En bovenop: een poppetje met een fakkel in zijn hand.Geen idee waarom die fakkel er stond. Tot ik het ging vertellen. Toen wist ik het opeens wel.Dat is precies waar Lego Serious Play zijn kracht vandaan haalt. Je denkt met je handen. Je bouwt een 3D-print van je eigen hoofd, en pas als je 'm ziet staan, kun je 'm gaan testen. Verbuigen. Uitdagen.David Witte is facilitator, oprichter van LSP Academie en Schets Inzicht, en oud-deelnemer van de Jaartraining. Twaalf jaar bracht hij door in de brandbeveiliging voor hij dit pad koos — en die overstap zie je terug in alles wat hij vertelt: praktisch, met beide benen op de grond, maar met een enorme neus voor wat er onder de oppervlakte speelt.In deze aflevering hoor je onder meer:— Waarom Lego Serious Play de 20/80-regel in vergaderingen doorbreekt (en de stille 80% eindelijk een stem geeft)— Hoe je met een simpel bouwwerk teamdynamiek zichtbaar maakt die niemand hardop durfde te benoemen— Waarom "wijzen naar het papier in plaats van naar elkaar" letterlijk conflict uit een gesprek haalt— En hoe gekleurde tape op de vloer van een jarentachtig hotel ineens een heel andere workshop oplevertBen jij een coach of facilitator die merkt dat praten alleen soms niet genoeg is? Dan is dit gesprek voer voor je gereedschapskist.Luister de aflevering — en bouw straks zelf maar eens wat er in jouw hoofd zit.Meer over David en zijn LSPacademy vind je hier: https://lspacademy.nl/Zin om je (verder) te bekwamen in het coachvak? Kijk eens hier: www.bewezeneffect.nl/Zin om te reageren op deze Podcast? Heb je een vraag, een compliment of opbouwende feedback? Hier laat je eenvoudig een voice-berichtje voor ons achter: www.speakpipe.com/bewezeneffectOf stuur een mailtje naar: team@bewezeneffect.nlVerder zijn alle blijken van waardering zeer welkom: delen met anderen, 5-sterren reviews, reacties, lid worden, etc. Doe vooral wat je passend vindt!Daarmee steun je deze podcast en zorg je dat ik gemotiveerd blijf om hem te maken, dus grote dank als je die kleine moeite neemt!

Get the free Core Drives in the Wild guide, behavioral design applied to real products: professorgame.com/WildCD Episode Summary Michael Lukich, a marketing analytics leader with more than 20 years across consulting, data, and strategy, explains why the fix for a struggling team is almost never more effort. He walks through the closed-loop trap he built early in his management career, the systems thinking tools he now uses to find leverage points, and why over-measuring single marketing channels quietly starves the top of the funnel. Drawing on the Cabreras' DSRP model, Donella Meadows, and nearly 25 years at the poker table, he shows how to see a whole system instead of optimizing one piece to the detriment of the goal. Listeners come away with a practical way to map any system, pick a single North Star metric, and design loops that let a team improve on its own. About the Host Rob Alvarez is Head of Engagement Strategy, Europe at The Octalysis Group (TOG), a leading gamification and behavioral design consultancy. A globally recognized gamification strategist and TEDx speaker, he founded and hosts Professor Game, the #1 gamification podcast, and has interviewed hundreds of global experts. He designs evidence-based engagement systems that drive motivation, loyalty, and results, and teaches LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® and gamification at top institutions including IE Business School, EFMD, and EBS University across Europe, the Americas, and Asia. Key Takeaways Michael Lukich's early management trap was a closed loop with no exit: he could not step away until the team improved, and the team could not improve until he stepped away, which pushed him to 75-hour weeks before he redesigned the loop instead of adding effort. Accepting work at roughly 70 percent of his own output, paired with a tighter review cadence, let his team feel the consequences of their own decisions and turned him from a micromanager into a player coach. The "if you can't measure it, it doesn't exist" credo pushes budget toward easily measured lower-funnel channels and leaves the top of the funnel leaky, because no one can defend upper-funnel spend in a boardroom. The fix is whole-system measurement through multi-channel attribution and mixed models, not more measurement. Zynga over-relied on data and stacked Black Hat Core Drives that drive urgency and scarcity, a reminder that an A/B test measures one week, not how a feature performs as a system over two years. Derek and Laura Cabrera's DSRP model (Distinctions, Systems, Relationships, Perspectives) gives a four-part way to map almost any system, then find the bottleneck where one move has the biggest outsized effect. Poker trains decision-making under uncertainty and incomplete information, including the faulty learning loop where playing well can still lose and playing poorly can still win, which is why Michael says half the frameworks in his book started at the poker table. Topics Covered 0:00 — The loop you cannot escape 0:20 — Meet Michael Lukich: data, teaching, poker 2:41 — Designing your own life as a system 5:46 — Promoted into a trap with no exit 11:14 — The marketing measurement trap 13:53 — Frankenstein products, Zynga, and Black Hat 17:34 — A practical system: pick one metric 18:56 — Mapping systems with DSRP 22:23 — The strategy dashboard and the North Star 24:07 — James Clear, Ryan Holiday, and one book 26:54 — Translation and poker as the perfect game 30:25 — Where to find Michael and closing advice Get the free Core Drives in the Wild guide, behavioral design applied to real products: professorgame.com/WildCD About Michael Lukich Michael Lukich is a marketing analytics leader with more than 20 years across consulting, data, and business strategy, currently running marketing analytics for a major US marketing agency. He spent five years as an adjunct professor and has played poker for nearly 25 years, two habits that shaped how he thinks about teaching and making decisions under uncertainty. He writes the Stoic Systems Thinker newsletter, where ancient Stoic philosophy meets modern systems thinking, and is the author of the book of the same name. He lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan with his wife and two daughters. Find Michael Lukich Online The Stoic Systems Thinker (website and newsletter) LinkedIn The Stoic Systems Thinker on Substack Mentioned in This Episode Some links below are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Thinking in Systems by Donella Meadows James Clear and Atomic Habits Ryan Holiday Poker The Stoic Systems Thinker by Michael Lukich Derek and Laura Cabrera's DSRP model (Distinctions, Systems, Relationships, Perspectives) Meditations by Marcus Aurelius Zynga The Octalysis Framework and Black Hat Core Drives Kaizen and Kaikaku (continuous improvement versus radical change) Free Resources and Get in Touch Core Drives in the Wild: Professor Game Free Guide Get Daily Value on Your Email Let's chat about your gamification project YouTube LinkedIn Instagram Facebook Start Your Community on Skool for Free Ask a question

Get the free Core Drives in the Wild guide, behavioral design applied to real products, with one real-world example in your inbox each day: professorgame.com/WildCD Episode Summary Rob breaks down why disconnecting on vacation is so hard for driven people, and why it is a motivation problem rather than a willpower one. He maps the specific Octalysis Core Drives that keep high achievers tied to work during a break, including Core Drive 2 (progress addiction), Core Drive 8 (FOMO and Black Hat urgency), and Core Drive 1 (the mission needs me trap). Drawing on his own routine of leaving the phone at the apartment near the beach, he shows how to name each drive and switch off its trigger before the break starts. Listeners learn a pre-break diagnostic and how to design time off the same way they would design a user's exit from an engagement loop. About the Host Rob Alvarez is Head of Engagement Strategy, Europe at The Octalysis Group (TOG), a leading gamification and behavioral design consultancy. A globally recognized gamification strategist and TEDx speaker, he founded and hosts Professor Game, the #1 gamification podcast, and has interviewed hundreds of global experts. He designs evidence-based engagement systems that drive motivation, loyalty, and results, and teaches LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® and gamification at top institutions including IE Business School, EFMD, and EBS University across Europe, the Americas, and Asia. Key Takeaways Driven people stay tied to work on vacation because their Core Drives keep firing in the background. This is a motivation issue, which is why pure willpower so often fails to deliver real rest. Core Drive 2 (Development and Accomplishment) shows up as progress addiction. With no momentum at work, a break can feel like your progress is being trumped, which pulls you back to the phone to make something move. Core Drive 8 (Loss and Avoidance) is Black Hat motivation built on FOMO. The fear that something breaks, or that everyone else is still shipping, creates urgency and pushes you to check in even when nothing is wrong. Core Drive 1 (Epic Meaning and Calling), the sense that the mission needs you, is the noble sounding trap. It can justify sacrificing rest you have earned, so naming it is what lets you stop it from firing back. The fix is to design your break the way you would design a user's exit from an engagement loop: kill the notifications, remove the triggers (Rob leaves his phone at the apartment), and push yourself out instead of staying half in. A real emergency that truly needs you is rare, roughly 0.1 percent of the time. Plan ahead, brief your team on what actually counts as an emergency, and trust them to handle the other 99.9 percent without you. Topics Covered [0:00] Why driven brains can't switch off [0:49] Disconnecting is a motivation problem [1:21] Core Drive 2: progress addiction [1:54] Core Drive 8: FOMO and urgency [2:30] Core Drive 1: the mission trap [3:08] Name the drive, deactivate the trigger [3:54] Leaving the phone at the beach [4:50] Why productive resting backfires [6:00] Design your break like an engagement loop [6:36] Diagnose your pull-back drive first [8:05] Rest is switching off the drives Mentioned in This Episode Core Drives in the Wild, Rob's free guide (one Core Drive example per day) The Octalysis Group The Octalysis Framework and its Eight Core Drives (Yu-kai Chou), the basis for Core Drives 1, 2, 5, and 8 discussed here Free Resources and Get in Touch Core Drives in the Wild: Professor Game Free Guide Get Daily Value on Your Email Let's chat about your gamification project YouTube LinkedIn Instagram Facebook Start Your Community on Skool for Free Ask a question

Bei Lego Serious Play werden ernsthafte Probleme spielerisch angegangen. Eric Hofmann spricht über die Methode und erklärt, wie sie funktioniert. (00:00:00) Intro (00:01:43) Was unterscheidet Lego von klassischen Methoden? (00:04:15) Was bedeutet das „Serious“ in Lego Serious Play? (00:04:56) Ein konkretes Beispiel aus der Praxis (00:07:20) Wie läuft ein Lego Serious Play Workshop ab? (00:08:46) Was ist Lego Serious Play nicht? (00:09:05) Neue Ideen oder Probleme sichtbar machen (00:12:26) Ist Zerstörung Teil der Methode? (00:19:11) Wie entsteht nachhaltige Veränderung im Alltag? (00:23:42) Überraschende Momente aus der Praxis Hier geht’s zum Artikel von Hannes M. Kneissler in der brand eins: https://www.brandeins.de/magazine/brand-eins-wirtschaftsmagazin/2026/modular-denken/lego-lass-das-du-arsch Hier entlang geht's zu den Links unserer Werbepartner: https://detektor.fm/werbepartner/brand-eins-podcast Und hier entlang geht's zum aktuellen brand eins Magazin: https://www.brandeins.de/products/brand-eins-06-2026-07-2026 Hier gelangt ihr zu unseren Streams und Apps: https://detektor.fm/empfang ➡️ Artikel zum Nachlesen: https://detektor.fm/wirtschaft/brand-eins-podcast-eric-hofmann

Bei Lego Serious Play werden ernsthafte Probleme spielerisch angegangen. Eric Hofmann spricht über die Methode und erklärt, wie sie funktioniert. (00:00:00) Intro (00:01:43) Was unterscheidet Lego von klassischen Methoden? (00:04:15) Was bedeutet das „Serious“ in Lego Serious Play? (00:04:56) Ein konkretes Beispiel aus der Praxis (00:07:20) Wie läuft ein Lego Serious Play Workshop ab? (00:08:46) Was ist Lego Serious Play nicht? (00:09:05) Neue Ideen oder Probleme sichtbar machen (00:12:26) Ist Zerstörung Teil der Methode? (00:19:11) Wie entsteht nachhaltige Veränderung im Alltag? (00:23:42) Überraschende Momente aus der Praxis Hier geht’s zum Artikel von Hannes M. Kneissler in der brand eins: https://www.brandeins.de/magazine/brand-eins-wirtschaftsmagazin/2026/modular-denken/lego-lass-das-du-arsch Hier entlang geht's zu den Links unserer Werbepartner: https://detektor.fm/werbepartner/brand-eins-podcast Und hier entlang geht's zum aktuellen brand eins Magazin: https://www.brandeins.de/products/brand-eins-06-2026-07-2026 Hier gelangt ihr zu unseren Streams und Apps: https://detektor.fm/empfang ➡️ Artikel zum Nachlesen: https://detektor.fm/wirtschaft/brand-eins-podcast-eric-hofmann

Bei Lego Serious Play werden ernsthafte Probleme spielerisch angegangen. Eric Hofmann spricht über die Methode und erklärt, wie sie funktioniert. (00:00:00) Intro (00:01:43) Was unterscheidet Lego von klassischen Methoden? (00:04:15) Was bedeutet das „Serious“ in Lego Serious Play? (00:04:56) Ein konkretes Beispiel aus der Praxis (00:07:20) Wie läuft ein Lego Serious Play Workshop ab? (00:08:46) Was ist Lego Serious Play nicht? (00:09:05) Neue Ideen oder Probleme sichtbar machen (00:12:26) Ist Zerstörung Teil der Methode? (00:19:11) Wie entsteht nachhaltige Veränderung im Alltag? (00:23:42) Überraschende Momente aus der Praxis Hier geht’s zum Artikel von Hannes M. Kneissler in der brand eins: https://www.brandeins.de/magazine/brand-eins-wirtschaftsmagazin/2026/modular-denken/lego-lass-das-du-arsch Hier entlang geht's zu den Links unserer Werbepartner: https://detektor.fm/werbepartner/brand-eins-podcast Und hier entlang geht's zum aktuellen brand eins Magazin: https://www.brandeins.de/products/brand-eins-06-2026-07-2026 Hier gelangt ihr zu unseren Streams und Apps: https://detektor.fm/empfang ➡️ Artikel zum Nachlesen: https://detektor.fm/wirtschaft/brand-eins-podcast-eric-hofmann

Human Magic by Johan Roos https://www.amazon.com/Human-Magic-Johan-Roos/dp/1041216769 Humanmagic.one In a world where algorithms write strategies, generate designs, and analyze markets, what makes your work truly matter? Whether you’re anxious about artificial intelligence or eager to harness its potential, Human Magic offers a powerful guide to thriving in the age of AI. As AI tools transform business, leadership, and the future of work, your greatest competitive advantage is not technology itself—it is the uniquely human capabilities that machines cannot replicate. Drawing on three decades of research, executive leadership experience, and one of business education’s earliest comprehensive AI integrations, Johan Roos reveals why curiosity, creativity, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration are becoming more valuable—not less—as artificial intelligence advances. At the center of these capabilities lies practical wisdom: the essential leadership skill that enables better decision making, innovation, and judgment in a rapidly changing world. Each chapter combines research, real-world business insights, self-assessments, and practical exercises to help leaders, entrepreneurs, managers, and professionals strengthen the human skills that drive meaningful results. Discover how AI can erode these capabilities when used carelessly—and how it can amplify them when used intentionally. If you’re interested in leadership development, workplace transformation, business strategy, innovation, management, or professional growth, Human Magic provides a practical roadmap for remaining relevant, resilient, and irreplaceable in an AI-driven world. Stop acting as an “AI concierge.” Become the leader who shapes outcomes that truly matter. About the author Johan Roos helps professionals remain deeply human in an AI-rich world. A management scholar, entrepreneur, and former leader of several business schools, he works at the intersection of human wisdom and artificial intelligence, helping leaders use AI to strengthen judgment, creativity, and purpose. Driven by a lifelong curiosity about how people and organizations learn and adapt, Johan co-invented the globally adopted LEGO® Serious Play® methodology, enabling organizations to solve complex challenges through imaginative, hands-on exploration. He serves as Senior Advisor to the Global Peter Drucker Forum, where he helped launch the Next Management initiative, and is Professor of Strategy and Executive Advisor at Hult International Business School. His latest book, “Human Magic: Leading with Wisdom in an Age of Algorithms” (Routledge, 2026), offers a practical framework for preserving curiosity, wisdom, and human agency in a world of intelligent machines. Across his work as an educator, advisor, investor, and speaker, Johan champions a simple belief: management, at its best, is humanity at work.

These engagement failures, and how to fix them, map directly onto the Octalysis Core Drives. Get the free Core Drives in the Wild guide: professorgame.com/WildCD Episode Summary Rob breaks down why Amazon shut down KiroRank, the internal leaderboard that scored staff on raw AI usage on its Kiro developer platform. He shows how stacking Core Drive 2 (Development & Accomplishment) and Core Drive 5 (Social Influence & Relatedness) produced flawless compliance toward the wrong target, a textbook case of Goodhart's law: once a measure becomes a target, it stops being a good measure. Drawing on the Octalysis Strategy Dashboard and Toyota's Five Whys, he lays out the one question to ask before you measure anything. Listeners learn to measure outcomes instead of activity, and how to keep a proxy metric from quietly getting gamed. About the Host Rob Alvarez is Head of Engagement Strategy, Europe at The Octalysis Group (TOG), a leading gamification and behavioral design consultancy. A globally recognized gamification strategist and TEDx speaker, he founded and hosts Professor Game, the #1 gamification podcast, and has interviewed hundreds of global experts. He designs evidence-based engagement systems that drive motivation, loyalty, and results, and teaches LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® and gamification at top institutions including IE Business School, EFMD, and EBS University across Europe, the Americas, and Asia. Key Takeaways Amazon shut down KiroRank, its internal leaderboard scoring staff on AI usage on the Kiro developer platform, after employees set autonomous AI agents on needless tasks just to climb the ranks and inflated the company's compute costs. Goodhart's law explains the failure: when a measure becomes a target, it stops being a good measure. You get what you measure, not what you want, so raw AI usage climbed while productivity went unmeasured. KiroRank stacked Core Drive 2 (Development & Accomplishment) through a progress bar and ranking, and Core Drive 5 (Social Influence & Relatedness) through public status, producing flawless compliance toward the wrong outcome. The more powerful and expensive the tool being measured, the more a gamed metric costs you, which is why Amazon paid in real compute money rather than a rounding error. The Octalysis Strategy Dashboard starts with business metrics by asking what outcome you actually want, using Toyota's Five Whys to move from "increase AI usage" to a result worth hitting, like productivity per employee. Engagement is the value created for users and the business, not click counts or usage volume, which is why most dashboards measure activity when they should measure the outcome. Topics Covered 0:00 - The $200 billion AI paradox 0:27 - Goodhart's law and gamed metrics 1:49 - The two Core Drives Amazon stacked 2:39 - Flawless compliance, the wrong target 3:38 - Amazon's KiroRank AI leaderboard 5:11 - Measure the right thing, not usage 5:38 - The Octalysis Strategy Dashboard 6:12 - Toyota's Five Whys for metrics 7:21 - When proxy metrics are unavoidable 7:58 - Measure the outcome, not the activity 8:33 - Get the Core Drives in the Wild guide Mentioned in This Episode Goodhart's law The Financial Times report on Amazon's KiroRank leaderboard Amazon's Kiro developer platform The Five Whys (Toyota / lean operations) A previous Professor Game episode on AI use and academic testing Free Resources and Get in Touch Core Drives in the Wild: Professor Game Free Guide Get Daily Value on Your Email Let's chat about your gamification project YouTube LinkedIn Instagram Facebook Start Your Community on Skool for Free Ask a question

Struggling with retention, churn, or adoption in your product, service, or program? Get the free Core Drives in the Wild guide and see how to apply real behavioral design to your engagement: professorgame.com/WildCD Episode Summary Alan Yeats, CEO of Pocket Sized Hands, a co-development game studio in Dundee, Scotland, explains why the best learning games start with play and add the curriculum second. He walks through real projects, a knife-crime prevention game stopped cold by school firewalls and a stem cell science game built with Cambridge University, to show how co-design keeps everyone pointed at the same goal. Alan argues that the job is to find the underlying play and the real "why" behind a request, not to cram years of lessons into one product. Listeners come away with a practical filter for any educational or engagement project: build a genuinely good game first, then weave the learning in so people actually engage. About the Host Rob Alvarez is Head of Engagement Strategy, Europe at The Octalysis Group (TOG), a leading gamification and behavioral design consultancy. A globally recognized gamification strategist and TEDx speaker, he founded and hosts Professor Game, the #1 gamification podcast, and has interviewed hundreds of global experts. He designs evidence-based engagement systems that drive motivation, loyalty, and results, and teaches LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® and gamification at top institutions including IE Business School, EFMD, and EBS University across Europe, the Americas, and Asia. Key Takeaways Pocket Sized Hands built a polished Jackbox-style game to steer young people away from knife crime, then hit a wall when school IT firewalls blocked the phone-to-screen connection the experience ran on. The end user is never the only stakeholder a product has to satisfy. For Cambridge University, the studio corrected public misconceptions about stem cell science by running back-to-basics workshops to isolate the one message that mattered, rather than cramming an entire syllabus into a single game. Alan Yeats's rule for education clients who want to throw the whole textbook at a game: make it genuinely fun first, then layer the lessons in, because curriculum with no play earns no engagement to teach against. Co-design converts a client from someone who merely commissioned a product into an owner who evangelizes it, which is why Pocket Sized Hands opens projects with a workshop for facilitators and real users instead of a written spec. Pitching the visual register openly, from a corporate LinkedIn-style progress bar to a fully magical world, lets a team test how far it can push a client before the client pushes back with "that is too much fun." Topics Covered 0:00 - Stop cramming textbooks into games 0:16 - Meet Alan Yeats and Pocket Sized Hands 3:16 - A knife-crime game blocked by firewalls 5:23 - Design for the stakeholders you forget 8:08 - The Cambridge stem cell game that worked 9:03 - Make the game fun first 10:40 - Co-design and finding the real problem 12:33 - From corporate progress bars to magical worlds 14:54 - Focus on the play, not the game 16:25 - The future guest he would want to hear 17:46 - Why Deep Work sharpens his focus 19:04 - His superpower, favorite game, and final advice Struggling with retention, churn, or adoption in your product, service, or program? Get the free Core Drives in the Wild guide and see how to apply real behavioral design to your engagement: professorgame.com/WildCD About Alan Yeats Alan Yeats is the CEO of Pocket Sized Hands, a co-development game studio based in Dundee, Scotland. He left school at 16 to work on games, dropped out of university, and founded the studio nine years ago. Since then, Pocket Sized Hands has helped ship titles including Pocket Mortys for Adult Swim, Oddworld: Soulstorm, and Bendy and the Ink Machine, working with clients ranging from indie developers to major publishers. The studio specialises in co-development, porting, networking, and live ops. Find the Guest Online Pocket Sized Hands: pocketsizedhands.com Personal site: alanyeats.com LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/alanyeats X (studio): @PKTSizedHands Mentioned in This Episode Some links below are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Proposed future guest: someone who wants to use gamification but hasn't yet Recommended book: Deep Work by Cal Newport Favorite game: Ratchet & Clank 3 Free Resources and Get in Touch Core Drives in the Wild: Professor Game Free Guide Get Daily Value on Your Email Let's chat about your gamification project YouTube LinkedIn Instagram Facebook Start Your Community on Skool for Free Ask a question

Get the free Core Drives in the Wild guide, behavioral design applied to real corporate cases: professorgame.com/WildCD Episode Summary Rob breaks down why enterprise AI adoption stalls even with paid licenses and training, while a group of students beat a locked, proctored exam with ChatGPT and no support at all. Reading both cases through the Octalysis Framework, he shows how the exam accidentally stacked Core Drive 8 (Loss & Avoidance), Core Drive 6 (Scarcity & Impatience), and Core Drive 2 (Development & Accomplishment) into a ferocious, if mispointed, motivation engine. The enterprise bought the most capable tool and surrounded it with zero motivation, so nobody opened the app. Listeners learn why AI adoption is a motivation problem wearing a tooling costume, and leave with a two-part diagnostic question to ask of any AI initiative. About the Host Rob Alvarez is Head of Engagement Strategy, Europe at The Octalysis Group (TOG), a leading gamification and behavioral design consultancy. A globally recognized gamification strategist and TEDx speaker, he founded and hosts Professor Game, the #1 gamification podcast, and has interviewed hundreds of global experts. He designs evidence-based engagement systems that drive motivation, loyalty, and results, and teaches LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® and gamification at top institutions including IE Business School, EFMD, and EBS University across Europe, the Americas, and Asia. Key Takeaways Students beat a lockdown, proctored, face-to-face online exam by getting ChatGPT to answer questions live through a Chrome extension, with no license, no training, and no change management. Adoption was instant, total, and creative enough to defeat the security. The exam accidentally stacked three Black Hat Core Drives: Core Drive 8 (Loss & Avoidance, failing is high-stakes), Core Drive 6 (Scarcity & Impatience, one timed shot), and Core Drive 2 (Development & Accomplishment, clearing the hurdle to the grade). Enterprises buy the paid license, training, IT support, and a leadership mandate, then adoption stalls because none of those things are motivation. There is no personal loss for ignoring the tool and no personal win for using it. Motivation pointed at the wrong goal produces flawless adoption of exactly the behavior you did not want. The students aimed AI at passing, not learning, and got it. As AI removes capability constraints, the human motivation layer becomes the only constraint left, which is why behavioral design matters more in the AI era, not less. The diagnostic: ask what your team personally gains by using the tool and what they personally lose by ignoring it. If the honest answer is "nothing much either way," no rollout plan will save it. Topics Covered 0:00 - Students hacked a locked exam 0:52 - Same tech, opposite outcome 1:44 - Adoption was never the problem 2:39 - The exam's accidental motivation engine 4:31 - Almost entirely Black Hat motivation 5:18 - Why the funded enterprise stalls 6:30 - Adoption and direction both matter 7:41 - Why behavioral design matters with AI 7:55 - Your diagnostic question for today Mentioned in This Episode The Octalysis Framework, developed by Yu-kai Chou ChatGPT (OpenAI) Core Drives in the Wild, the Professor Game free guide Free Resources and Get in Touch Core Drives in the Wild: Professor Game Free Guide Get Daily Value on Your Email Let's chat about your gamification project YouTube LinkedIn Instagram Facebook Start Your Community on Skool for Free Ask a question

This week's episode makes the case that your next team building session should involve a table full of LEGO bricks, and JoLynn Ledgerwood, certified LEGO Serious Play facilitator and learning and development specialist with over 25 years of experience, is here to explain exactly why.Most people have never heard of LEGO Serious Play. The ones who have? They usually want to get certified on the spot.JoLynn shares how this research-backed methodology uses hands-on building to surface what people can't always say out loud, create a genuine level playing field for every voice in the room, and reveal the limiting beliefs teams carry without ever realizing it. She also breaks down what makes LEGO Serious Play so different from the typical after-hours Topgolf outing, and why courageous leadership is the one thing every successful session requires.What We Cover:— What LEGO Serious Play actually is and why only about 100 facilitators are certified in the entire U.S.— How building with your hands activates 80% more brainpower and why that changes what comes out in the room— The tower exercise that quietly exposes every team's limiting beliefs before the session even really begins— Why introverts and extroverts finally get equal airtime in this format— How metaphor builds unlock things people didn't even know they wanted to say— What "simple guiding principles" are and how they keep momentum alive after the workshop ends— Why quarterly sessions compound the results and how new team members can catch up fast— The one thing a leader can do to kill all momentum in under ten secondsConnect with JoLynn Ledgerwood: | Elevateyourtalent.co | LinkedIn | Elevate Your Talent Blog | Connect with Traci here: https://linktr.ee/HRTraciDisclaimer: Thoughts, opinions, and statements made on this podcast are not a reflection of the thoughts, opinions, and statements of the Company by whom Traci Chernoff is actively employed.Please note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products or services. Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode.

Get the free Core Drives in the Wild guide and see behavioral design applied to real products and services: professorgame.com/WildCD Episode Summary Eleanor Ross, Creative Director at Expert Theory and one of the youngest recipients of the National Training and Simulation Association's Top Under 40 award, breaks down how she designs wargames and simulations that put learners inside high stakes decisions instead of watching from the outside. She walks through the moment a Team USA group tried to buy Greenland mid game, the Logic, Function, Form framework she uses to build every simulation, and a year long Taiwan resilience exercise she ran for the Irregular Warfare Center. Listeners come away with two best practices that make any simulation stick, a debrief discipline and deliberate role reversal, plus a clear view of how AI tools now let a team produce news articles and role player materials in under ten minutes. Ross also makes the case that heavy topics like terrorism, invasion, and irregular warfare land harder when they are engaging, and that good design starts by deciding what people should feel when they walk out. About the Host Rob Alvarez is Head of Engagement Strategy, Europe at The Octalysis Group (TOG), a leading gamification and behavioral design consultancy. A globally recognized gamification strategist and TEDx speaker, he founded and hosts Professor Game, the #1 gamification podcast, and has interviewed hundreds of global experts. He designs evidence-based engagement systems that drive motivation, loyalty, and results, and teaches LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® and gamification at top institutions including IE Business School, EFMD, and EBS University across Europe, the Americas, and Asia. Key Takeaways In an early Arctic simulation run as an alpha test for the Canadian Department of National Defense, a Team USA group went off script and tried to buy Greenland, a move no one had prepared for, which forced Ross to build the response live. Ross and her team at Expert Theory adjudicated that unplanned move and used their AI backend to produce news articles, tweets, and formatted materials for a role player in under ten minutes, a turnaround the wargaming community historically treated as impossible. Her Logic, Function, Form framework stacks design like a pyramid: Logic defines what players should know and feel on the way out, Function defines the actors and goals that get them there, and Form covers constraints like the 30 or 90 minute time box. A quality debrief is the most important best practice in simulation design, because the takeaways people carry out are set up by the structured discussion, not by the game itself. Putting participants in roles they would never hold, such as US military officers playing the Somali government or the US embassy in a Fort Bragg deployment game, forces the perspective shift that makes the lesson land. Ross builds her design philosophy on Rutger Bregman's Humankind and its claim that people are inherently good, using games to surface the nuances behind how opposing sides actually see themselves. Topics Covered 0:00 - A wargamer who hates video games 2:59 - Inside a wargame designer's week 4:18 - When Team USA tried buying Greenland 7:45 - Why failure is a junior mindset 13:02 - A Taiwan resilience wargame for DOD 17:26 - The Logic, Function, Form framework 20:34 - Best practices: debrief and role reversal 24:30 - The books behind her design philosophy 26:33 - Perspective taking through languages 29:27 - Making heavy topics engaging 31:12 - Her favorite game: Votes for Women 33:01 - Building games in six minutes with Providence Get the free Core Drives in the Wild guide and see behavioral design applied to real products and services: professorgame.com/WildCD About Eleanor Ross Eleanor Ross is Creative Director at Expert Theory, an AI powered simulation startup building immersive learning experiences for clients including the U.S. Department of Defense, Johns Hopkins, Duke, Georgetown, and Penn State. She designs and facilitates simulations that restore agency to learners by placing them inside complex, high stakes decisions, and her co-authored research with the National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology and Education Center has shown that simulations measurably deepen learning while strengthening confidence, teamwork, and decision making. She chairs programming for the Women's Wargaming Network and is one of the youngest ever recipients of the National Training and Simulation Association's Top Under 40 award. Her work focuses on the Arctic and high north, irregular and gray zone warfare, and leadership. Find the Guest Online Expert Theory (website) Eleanor Ross on LinkedIn Expert Theory on LinkedIn Mentioned in This Episode The Art of Wargaming by Peter Perla Humankind by Rutger Bregman Votes for Women, Eleanor's favorite game (by Fort Circle Games) Proposed future guest: Yuna Wong Proposed future guest: John Curry Providence, Expert Theory's platform for building games in minutes Free Resources and Get in Touch Core Drives in the Wild: Professor Game Free Guide Get Daily Value on Your Email Let's chat about your gamification project YouTube LinkedIn Instagram Facebook Start Your Community on Skool for Free Ask a question

Get the free Core Drives in the Wild guide, behavioral design applied to real products: professorgame.com/WildCD Episode Summary Rob breaks down why the most durable loyalty has almost nothing to do with points, contrasting a typical airline miles program with a neighborhood barber who keeps a customer for ten years with no app, no tiers, and no expiring rewards. He shows how the same Core Drive can run in opposite directions: airline programs fake Core Drive 4 (Ownership and Possession) with a points balance they control and devalue, while the barber builds real ownership through a relationship the customer actually owns. Along the way he names the over-justification effect, the moment a relationship becomes a calculation, and how Black Hat motivation can win in the short term while quietly corroding loyalty. Listeners come away with a clear diagnostic and a way to tell a real loyalty program apart from a price promotion on a delayed schedule. About the Host Rob Alvarez is Head of Engagement Strategy, Europe at The Octalysis Group (TOG), a leading gamification and behavioral design consultancy. A globally recognized gamification strategist and TEDx speaker, he founded and hosts Professor Game, the #1 gamification podcast, and has interviewed hundreds of global experts. He designs evidence-based engagement systems that drive motivation, loyalty, and results, and teaches LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® and gamification at top institutions including IE Business School, EFMD, and EBS University across Europe, the Americas, and Asia. Key Takeaways Most loyalty programs build a transactional dependency rather than loyalty: the customer ends up loyal to the points, not the brand, so the moment a competitor offers more points they defect. Airline miles run on a Black Hat stack of Core Drive 4 (Ownership and Possession), Core Drive 6 (Scarcity and Impatience) through tier status, and Core Drive 8 (Loss and Avoidance) through expiring miles, which shifts the flyer from chasing something they want to avoiding a loss. The over-justification effect is the damage mechanism: a flyer who genuinely liked an airline starts booking the worse flight (longer, worse time, sometimes pricier) purely because it earns miles, the moment the relationship becomes a calculation. A relationship turned into a calculation is trivially beatable. A competitor with a slightly better offer doesn't just win one trip, it reveals there was never loyalty to begin with. A ten-year barber relationship survives real inconvenience (further away, closer cheaper options nearby) using the calm side of the same Core Drives: Core Drive 5 (Social Influence and Relatedness) plus genuinely owned personalization the customer cannot port to a competitor. The diagnostic: strip the points, discounts, and digital rewards entirely. If the honest answer to "why would anyone stay" is nothing, it isn't a loyalty program, it's a price promotion with a delayed payment schedule. Topics Covered 0:00 — Loyalty to the points, not the brand 1:16 — The Black Hat machinery of airline miles 2:25 — The over-justification effect in action 4:13 — The ten-year barber with no points 5:11 — Same Core Drive, opposite direction 6:12 — Inverting Core Drive 8 into a safe choice 7:36 — Run the strip-the-points diagnostic Get the free Core Drives in the Wild guide, behavioral design applied to real products: professorgame.com/WildCD Mentioned in This Episode Core Drives in the Wild (Professor Game free guide) The Octalysis Framework and its Core Drives (Yu-kai Chou) Black Hat and White Hat motivation The over-justification effect Free Resources and Get in Touch Core Drives in the Wild: Professor Game Free Guide Get Daily Value on Your Email Let's chat about your gamification project YouTube LinkedIn Instagram Facebook Start Your Community on Skool for Free Ask a question

Get the free Core Drives in the Wild guide, behavioral design applied to real products: professorgame.com/WildCD Episode Summary Victoria Ichizli-Bartels, author of fourteen books on gameful living and coiner of the term "self-gamification," explores how the role of the tabletop RPG game master maps onto the inner conversation we have with ourselves. She walks through Jill Bolte Taylor's "brain huddle" concept (a 90-second pause that resolves inner conflict by letting the 12 different players in our heads come to the table), three diagnostic questions for stressful moments ("what is happening inside myself," "who is talking," and "what is the goal of this person"), and a Justin Alexander hack borrowed from RPG handbooks: instead of treating a stressful thought as a crisis, respond with "yes, this can happen, now what do you do?" Listeners come away with practical reframes for daily self-management and a clearer way to spot which inner player is driving a given thought. About the Host Rob Alvarez is Head of Engagement Strategy, Europe at The Octalysis Group (TOG), a leading gamification and behavioral design consultancy. A globally recognized gamification strategist and TEDx speaker, he founded and hosts Professor Game, the #1 gamification podcast, and has interviewed hundreds of global experts. He designs evidence-based engagement systems that drive motivation, loyalty, and results, and teaches LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® and gamification at top institutions including IE Business School, EFMD, and EBS University across Europe, the Americas, and Asia. Key Takeaways Jill Bolte Taylor's "brain huddle" concept proposes that 90 seconds of pause is enough to resolve inner conflict, by letting the different characters in our heads (which Victoria counts as roughly 12 distinct players, including self-leader, self-coach, game designer, and game master) come together and find an appropriate response. The single most useful diagnostic question for a stressful moment is "what is happening inside myself," followed by "who is talking" and "what is the goal of this person" — the third one usually reveals that the inner voice is trying to protect or train you, not sabotage you. Justin Alexander's RPG game master hack, "yes, this can happen, now what do you do?", reframes intrusive or stressful thoughts (like "I want to quit my job") from a crisis into an exploration, which usually reveals you don't want the extreme outcome — you want a smaller change. RPG handbook rules ("respect your co-players, be patient, be curious, be open-minded") map directly onto self-talk. Open-mindedness toward your own impulses is the rule most people break without noticing. Victoria connects RPG engagement to Core Drive 7 (Unpredictability and Curiosity): players love active play and surprise inside games but resent it in life, even though the underlying motivator is identical. Recognizing this changes how you experience unexpected events. The strategic-game metaphor of map exploration ("the land becomes lighter as you pay attention") and cool-down phases (planting crops after taking a castle) gives a concrete vocabulary for energy management between high-output and recovery days. Topics Covered 0:00 — Opening hook on RPG surprise 0:25 — Welcome and guest reintroduction 1:51 — 14 books in and still surprised 4:06 — Writing about TTRPGs without playing them 6:47 — The game master inside your head 9:48 — Why RPGs are collaborative storytelling 12:22 — Is there a map of the mind 16:47 — Rules of the inner RPG 18:29 — The 12 players inside us 19:05 — The 90-second brain huddle 23:30 — Self-care hacks from RPG handbooks 25:37 — The yes-this-can-happen reframe 26:56 — Closing thoughts and what is next Get the free Core Drives in the Wild guide, behavioral design applied to real products: professorgame.com/WildCD About Victoria Ichizli-Bartels Victoria Ichizli-Bartels is a writer, coach, and consultant with a background in semiconductor physics, electronic engineering (Ph.D.), information technology, and business development. While not a traditional gamer, Victoria coined the term "self-gamification," a gameful, playful approach to self-care and self-help that combines anthropology, kaizen, and gamification to enhance quality of life. With over a decade of experience living gamefully, she is the author of fourteen books and the instructor of two online courses on turning life into fun games. Victoria grew up in Moldova, lived in Germany for twelve years, and since 2008 has been based in Aalborg, Denmark, with her husband and two children. Find the Guest Online Website: https://www.victoriaichizlibartels.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/victoriaichizlibartels/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/optimistwriter Substack: https://selfgamificationclub.substack.com/ Mentioned in This Episode Be Your Best Game Master by Victoria Ichizli-Bartels (the book this conversation is built around) So You Want to Be a Game Master by Justin Alexander Whole Brain Living by Jill Bolte Taylor (the "brain huddle" concept and the four-characters model) The 5-Minute Perseverance Game by Victoria Ichizli-Bartels (her first book, published 10 years ago) Actual Real Life Role-Playing Games by Victoria Ichizli-Bartels 10,000 Hours of Play by Yu-kai Chou A.J. Jacobs and his life-as-experiment / puzzler books Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) and tabletop RPGs in general Story Cubes (the dice-and-pictures storytelling game) Core Drive 7 — Unpredictability & Curiosity (Octalysis) Free Resources and Get in Touch Core Drives in the Wild: Professor Game Free Guide Get Daily Value on Your Email Let's chat about your gamification project YouTube LinkedIn Instagram Facebook Start Your Community on Skool for Free Ask a question

Get the free Core Drives in the Wild guide, behavioral design applied to real products: professorgame.com/WildCD Episode Summary Tetiana Kobzar, product designer with 18 years of experience and creator of the Comportance Framework, joins Rob to share how behavioral design turns clinical and educational software into products people actually want to use. She walks through the seven steps of Comportance (goal, baseline, emotion, hypothesis, minimum validation, cadence, and iteration) and shows how it shaped a gamified speech therapy app for Alder Hey Children's Hospital and a mini-game replacement for 27 cognitive assessment tests. The conversation covers why founders overload products with functionality, why Duolingo's Black Hat motivation works for some users and burns out others, and how Octalysis fits inside a wider behavioral design practice. Listeners leave with a practical structure for designing engagement and a sharper read on when game-based beats gamified. About the Host Rob Alvarez is Head of Engagement Strategy, Europe at The Octalysis Group (TOG), a leading gamification and behavioral design consultancy. A globally recognized gamification strategist and TEDx speaker, he founded and hosts Professor Game, the #1 gamification podcast, and has interviewed hundreds of global experts. He designs evidence-based engagement systems that drive motivation, loyalty, and results, and teaches LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® and gamification at top institutions including IE Business School, EFMD, and EBS University across Europe, the Americas, and Asia. Key Takeaways The Comportance Framework runs seven steps in order: define the goal, set the baseline metrics, design the emotion (motivation and positioning), state one hypothesis, build the minimum validation, set the measurement cadence, and iterate. Most founders skip the goal and emotion steps and jump straight to functionality. Tetiana's team at Alder Hey Children's Hospital replaced weekly-only speech therapy with a gamified app where clinicians set tasks as mini games, letting kids practice pronunciation between sessions while the therapist tracks progress. A separate Tetiana project replaced 27 pen-and-paper cognitive assessment tests with mini games on tablets, capturing extra signal (timestamps, finger tremor, voice recordings) that paper tests cannot measure. Most products fail not because users are irrational but because founders treat them as rational agents. Behavioral biases and cognitive overload kill engagement faster than missing features. The Pareto trap in client work: founders spend 80% of their attention on the 20% of clients who complain, while the 80% of healthy clients who quietly bring most of the revenue get under-served. Reverse the ratio to protect recurring revenue. Duolingo's streak mechanic is heavy Black Hat motivation. It drives high retention but creates rage-quit risk: a user who loses a 4,000-day streak rarely returns. The near-miss has to threaten loss without delivering it. Game-based design (where the experience itself feels like a game) opens more creative options than gamification (points, badges, leaderboards bolted onto a non-game product), but both belong inside a wider behavioral design practice. Topics Covered 0:00 — Why Duolingo's Black Hat motivation backfires 0:24 — Rob's intro and the Core Drives in the Wild guide 2:47 — Daily life after the acquisition 4:14 — Favorite fail: design for the end game 8:16 — Alder Hey speech therapy app and 27 cognitive tests as games 11:26 — Game-based versus gamified, and where the line blurs 15:44 — Where Octalysis fits inside the Comportance Framework 17:11 — The seven steps of Comportance, walked end to end 23:50 — Cognitive overload and treating users as humans 27:24 — Duolingo streaks, near-miss design, and rage-quit risk 31:42 — Book picks: Cialdini, Yu-kai Chou, Don Norman 33:29 — Civilization, board games with the kids, final advice Get the free Core Drives in the Wild guide, behavioral design applied to real products: professorgame.com/WildCD About Tetiana Kobzar Tetiana Kobzar is a product strategist and behavioral designer with 18 years of experience building software for healthcare, wellness, and education. She is the creator of the Comportance Framework, a seven-step methodology that brings behavioral science structure to product design. Her recent work includes a gamified speech therapy app for Alder Hey Children's Hospital and a tablet-based replacement for 27 cognitive assessment tests, and she shares behavioral design ideas through her #BehaviouralDesignThursday LinkedIn series and industry talks. Find the Guest Online LinkedIn Tetiana-kobzar.com Instagram TikTok Mentioned in This Episode Proposed guest: someone from Duolingo Recommended book: Actionable Gamification by Yu-kai Chou Recommended book: Influence by Robert B. Cialdini Recommended book: The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman Favorite game: Civilization series Duolingo Is Not A Free Language Learning App, It Is... (The Octalysis Group) Alder Hey Children's Hospital speech therapy app (Tetiana's project) Comportance Framework (Tetiana's seven-step methodology) Octalysis Framework by Yu-kai Chou Free Resources and Get in Touch Core Drives in the Wild: Professor Game Free Guide Get Daily Value on Your Email Let's chat about your gamification project YouTube LinkedIn Instagram Facebook Start Your Community on Skool for Free Ask a question

The Neuroscience of Resilience: Building Pressure-Proof Leadership with Claire HayekIn a recent episode of The Thoughtful Entrepreneur Podcast, host Josh Elledge sat down with Claire Hayek, the founder of mspteambuilding.ca, neuro-leadership expert, and host of The Neuro Leadership Edge. Claire's unique approach to executive development centers on "mental fitness"—the specialized training required to rewire the brain for calm authority in high-stakes environments. This conversation serves as a strategic masterclass for founders and CEOs who find themselves reacting to the volatility of the market rather than leading through it, offering a neuroscience-backed roadmap for building resilient leadership systems that thrive under pressure.Neuro-Leadership: Shifting from Reactive Stress to Intentional AuthorityThe most significant barrier to effective leadership in high-pressure situations is the biological hardwiring of the human brain. Claire Hayek explains that when stakes are high, the amygdala—the brain's fight-or-flight center—often hijacks the prefrontal cortex, leading to knee-jerk reactions, indecision, or cultural erosion. Mental fitness is the practice of training the brain to override these survival instincts, allowing a leader to remain steady and decisive even when the organization is in crisis. By focusing on neuroplasticity, Claire helps executive teams move away from default stress responses and toward an internal "operating system" that models calm and inspires confidence across the entire workforce.To transition from "firefighting" to intentional authority, leaders must embrace "the power of the pause." Claire advocates for a simple yet transformative neuroscience-backed technique: taking a purposeful one-to-two-second pause followed by deep breathing when pressure mounts. This physical intervention signals the nervous system to shift brain activity back to executive functions, improving clarity and preventing the cultural fallout that occurs when a leader reacts poorly. This practice isn't just about personal composure; it is a strategic leadership tool that influences the collective emotional state of the room, realigning the team toward actionable next steps rather than dwelling on the weight of the stakes.Building a truly pressure-proof organization requires moving beyond traditional social icebreakers and into strategic team development. Claire utilizes hands-on tools like Lego Serious Play to help executive teams co-create protocols and commitments tailored to their unique organizational challenges. This process of co-creation ensures buy-in and alignment, turning resilience from an abstract concept into a repeatable habit. By investing in leadership systems that prioritize mental fitness and functional team building, organizations can avoid the invisible financial losses associated with executive hesitation and poor decision-making, ultimately creating a culture of trust that can weather any storm.About Claire HayekClaire Hayek is the Founder of Mind Soul Purpose (MSP) Team Building and a recognized expert in neuro-leadership. With a background in engineering and a deep fascination with the neuroscience of performance, Claire helps high-level executives and their teams develop the mental fitness required to lead through rapid change. She is the host of The Neuro Leadership Edge podcast and is dedicated to transforming corporate cultures through hands-on, strategic development programs.About MSP Team BuildingMSP Team Building is a leadership development firm that specializes in building resilient, functional teams for global organizations. Moving beyond superficial social events, the company uses science-backed methodologies to help executive teams design customized leadership operating systems. Through workshops, assessments, and ongoing coaching, MSP Team Building delivers a measurable ROI by improving decision-making, retention, and organizational innovation in high-pressure environments.Links Mentioned in This EpisodeMSP Team Building Official Website: mspteambuilding.caClaire Hayek on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/clairehayek/Key Episode HighlightsMental Health vs. Mental Fitness: Understanding why training your brain for performance is just as critical as maintaining your well-being.The Amygdala Hijack: How stress overrides rational decision-making and the neuroscience-backed ways to reclaim your prefrontal cortex.The Power of the Pause: A simple 1-2 second method to calm the nervous system and restore executive function during a crisis.Strategic Team Building: Moving beyond icebreakers to co-create leadership protocols that build real functional trust.The Cost of Hesitation: Identifying the invisible losses that occur when a leader freezes under pressure.ConclusionThe conversation with Claire Hayek highlights that leadership excellence is a byproduct of self-management under stress. By understanding the neuroscience of the brain and implementing intentional "mental fitness" practices, leaders can replace reactive chaos with calm authority, fostering a resilient team culture capable of navigating any business challenge.More from The Thoughtful Entrepreneur

Don't experiment on your own revenue with broken game mechanics. Get our guide "Core Drives in the Wild" to learn how to apply real behavioral science to your product: professorgame.com/WildCD Most apps lose 77% of their users within the first three days because they treat onboarding like a tax audit instead of a human journey. In this episode, Rob Alvarez breaks down why your "helpful" 15-step toolkit might actually be causing cognitive friction and driving users away. By moving from function-focused design to human-focused design, you can transform a bounce into a lifelong advocate. Rob explores the "Christmas Magic Mistake," the "Hello World" principle for instant wins, and the "Miyagi Method" of scaffolding to ensure your users actually want to come back for Day 2. Rob Alvarez is Head of Engagement Strategy, Europe at The Octalysis Group (TOG), a leading gamification and behavioral design consultancy. A globally recognized gamification strategist and TEDx speaker, he founded and hosts Professor Game, the #1 gamification podcast, and has interviewed hundreds of global experts. He designs evidence-based engagement systems that drive motivation, loyalty, and results, and teaches LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® and gamification at top institutions including IE Business School, EFMD, and EBS University across Europe, the Americas, and Asia.   Links to episode mentions: Core Drives in the Wild Free Guide The Magic Doesn't Start Where You Think It Does (Christmas experience episode)   Lets's do stuff together! Core Drives in the Wild: Professor Game Guide Let's chat about your gamification project YouTube LinkedIn Instagram Facebook Start Your Community on Skool for Free Ask a question

Identify the exact strategies Sharon and Rob discussed so you can start increasing engagement in your own projects today. Grab our Core Drives in the Wild guide for free professorgame.com/WildCD What if the secret to solving real-world isolation or preventing misconduct wasn't more rules, but better play? Sharon Wood, a veteran gaming executive who helped launch the original Grand Theft Auto, joins us to discuss her shift from commercial hits to "Serious Games" with a scientific edge. We explore the neurological reality that the brain cannot distinguish between real and virtual experiences, making games a potent tool for building empathy and confidence. From memory care apps that reunite families to clinical trials in schools, this episode moves past the "points and badges" surface of gamification to show how progressive mastery actually changes lives. Sharon Wood is a seasoned gaming executive with over four decades of experience spanning sports marketing, entertainment, media, and video game development. Her career began in the fast-paced world of sports and entertainment marketing before she entered the gaming industry in 1996 during PlayStation's early days, where she orchestrated groundbreaking partnerships between major brands like Pepsi and Frito-Lay and video games. Most notably, Sharon launched the original Grand Theft Auto on a modest marketing budget. While defending the controversial title in the media, she consulted with psychologists and discovered something surprising: games could actually provide safe environments for exploring moral concepts rather than encouraging negative behaviors. This revelation changed everything. Inspired by gaming's positive potential, Sharon collaborated with a psychologist around 2012-2013 to create "Luminous," a game designed to help women and girls build self-confidence. Within months of launch, it became a top-five app in 34 countries. This success led Sharon to found Happy People Games (HPG), a company dedicated to creating "serious games": interactive experiences that merge scientific evidence with engaging gameplay to deliver real-world benefits beyond entertainment. Unlike simple gamification with badges and points, HPG builds games that create progressive mastery experiences, harnessing the natural reward response from achievement and channeling it toward positive outcomes. Rob Alvarez is Head of Engagement Strategy, Europe at The Octalysis Group (TOG), a leading gamification and behavioral design consultancy. A globally recognized gamification strategist and TEDx speaker, he founded and hosts Professor Game, the #1 gamification podcast, and has interviewed hundreds of global experts. He designs evidence-based engagement systems that drive motivation, loyalty, and results, and teaches LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® and gamification at top institutions including IE Business School, EFMD, and EBS University across Europe, the Americas, and Asia.   Guest Links and Info Websites: happypeoplegames.com thenewforevers.com Instagram: @thenewforevers   Links to episode mentions: Proposed guest: Christian Svensson Favorite game: Tekken   Lets's do stuff together! Let's chat about your gamification project YouTube LinkedIn Instagram Facebook Start Your Community on Skool for Free Ask a question

Don't experiment on your own revenue with broken game mechanics. Get our guide "Core Drives in the Wild" to learn how to apply real behavioral science to your product: professorgame.com/WildCD Most companies treat user churn as a data problem, but looking at "where" someone leaves doesn't explain "why" they lost interest. We break down the "Engagement Leaks," a phenomenon where record-breaking marketing spend fails to fix a product that is effectively a sieve for users. By analyzing the high-touch onboarding of Superhuman, the "novelty hangover" of Robinhood's digital confetti, and the legendary community design of Harley-Davidson, this episode reveals how to use the Octalysis Framework to plug leaks in different stages of the user journey. A masterclass in transitioning from a product people merely start to one they actually stay with. Rob Alvarez is Head of Engagement Strategy, Europe at The Octalysis Group (TOG), a leading gamification and behavioral design consultancy. A globally recognized gamification strategist and TEDx speaker, he founded and hosts Professor Game, the #1 gamification podcast, and has interviewed hundreds of global experts. He designs evidence-based engagement systems that drive motivation, loyalty, and results, and teaches LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® and gamification at top institutions including IE Business School, EFMD, and EBS University across Europe, the Americas, and Asia.   Links to episode mentions: Superhuman Robinhood Harley Owners Group (H.O.G.) The Octalysis Group   Lets's do stuff together! Core Drives in the Wild: Professor Game Guide Let's chat about your gamification project YouTube LinkedIn Instagram Facebook Start Your Community on Skool for Free Ask a question

Exploring gamification for your product or org? Let's chat → professorgame.com/chat We sit down with product leader and author Nesrine Changuel to explore the behavioral science of "Product Delight." Nesrine pulls from her extensive experience at tech giants like Google and Spotify to explain why emotional connection cannot be treated as an afterthought in product design. By distinguishing between purely functional requirements and deep emotional motivators, she reveals how features like Google Chrome's inactive tabs or Spotify's curated playlists solve core psychological needs rather than just technical problems. You can walk away with actionable frameworks for removing user friction, anticipating needs, and asking the ultimate design question: "If my product were a human, how would the experience be better?" Nesrine is a product coach, trainer, speaker, and author the author of Product Delight Book. With a background in research and over a decade of product experience, she has built products used by millions like Google Chrome, Google Meet, Spotify, and Skype. Nesrine is known for her focus on emotional connection and user delight. Today, she helps teams create products people don't just use, but truly love. Rob Alvarez is Head of Engagement Strategy, Europe at The Octalysis Group (TOG), a leading gamification and behavioral design consultancy. A globally recognized gamification strategist and TEDx speaker, he founded and hosts Professor Game, the #1 gamification podcast, and has interviewed hundreds of global experts. He designs evidence-based engagement systems that drive motivation, loyalty, and results, and teaches LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® and gamification at top institutions including IE Business School, EFMD, and EBS University across Europe, the Americas, and Asia.   Guest Links and Info Website: nesrine-changuel.com LinkedIn: Nnesrine Changuel Product Delight Book   Links to episode mentions: Proposed guest: Elena Verna Recommended book: Emotional Design by Don Norman Favorite game: DiXit   Lets's do stuff together! Let's chat about your gamification project YouTube LinkedIn Instagram Facebook Start Your Community on Skool for Free Ask a question

Teams today are more diverse than ever—and within that diversity lies the potential to unlock innovation, performance, and belonging. But only if leaders practice cultural humility. It's not just about competence or checking boxes; it's about fostering safety, trust, and transformation.Dr. Joel Pérez equips leaders to navigate today's instability with empathy and authenticity. He has partnered for decades with national nonprofits, corporations, and higher education institutions to deliver keynotes, workshops, and strategic consulting that inspire action and lasting change.In this conversation, we unpack what cultural humility really means, how leaders can move beyond cultural competence, how cultural humility can help you navigate the instability of today's market and world, why he wrote Dear White Leader, and how organizations can leverage diversity to create lasting impact and stronger results.To access the episode transcript, go to www.TheEmpathyEdge.com, search by episode title.Listen in for…How to develop a posture of cultural humility, no matter your background. Understanding the difference between cultural competency and cultural humility. Raising the bar as a leader from effective to exceptional.Curiosity is the key to achieving your goals.The three things that are necessary to move from cultural competency to cultural humility are."Cultural humility allows you to navigate the complexity that comes with developing organizations with a strong sense of belonging and psychological safety." — Dr. Joel Pérez Episode References: Book: Dear White Leader: How to Achieve Organizational Excellence through Cultural Humility: dearwhiteleader.comTerry Cross Cultural Competence ResearchJanet HelmsSeek: How Curiosity Can Transform Your Life and Change the World by Scott ShigeokaEEP Episode: Amer Kaissi: Humbitious Leadership Equals SuccessAbout Dr. Joel Pérez, Executive Coach and Author of Dear White Leader:Dr. Joel Pérez is an executive and leadership coach, speaker, and consultant who helps leaders and organizations create inclusive cultures through the practice of cultural humility. As founder of Apoyo Coaching and Consulting, LLC and a Professional Certified Coach with the International Coaching Federation (ICF), he specializes in identity-conscious leadership, career transitions, and DEIB strategy. A Gallup Certified Strengths Coach, Qualified Administrator for the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI), and certified LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® facilitator, Joel draws on more than 20+ years of leadership experience in higher education to guide clients through meaningful transformation.He is the author of Dear White Leader: How to Achieve Organizational Excellence through Cultural Humility, which received the Silver Medal for Best New Voice – Nonfiction from the Independent Book Publishers Association. Joel has partnered with national nonprofits, corporations, and higher education institutions to deliver keynotes, workshops, and strategic consulting that inspire action and lasting change. His work moves organizations toward creating a sense of belonging and the psychological safety to meet their goals. Joel holds a doctorate in higher education administration from Claremont Graduate University. Outside of work, he enjoys life with his wife of over 28 years, their four children, cheering on the Los Angeles Dodgers, and watching movies.Connect with Dr. Joel Pérez: Apoyo Coaching and Consulting: apoyocoaching.com LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/joelperezphd Instagram: apoyocoaching01 Connect with Maria:Get Maria's books: Red-Slice.com/booksHire Maria to speak: Red-Slice.com/Speaker-Maria-RossTake the LinkedIn Learning Courses! Leading with Empathy and Balancing Empathy, Accountability, and Results as a Leader LinkedIn: Maria RossInstagram: @redslicemariaFacebook: Red SliceGet your copy of The Empathy Dilemma here- www.theempathydilemma.com

Master the science of motivation and see how top experts do it right. Get the free 9-day "Core Drives in the Wild" email sequence here: professorgame.com/WildCD We break down three massive gamification disasters from 3 huge companies to reveal exactly what happens when we ignore behavioral science. We explain how well-intentioned features like leaderboards and point systems can accidentally create toxic work environments or destroy thriving communities. By applying the Octalysis framework, we highlight the dangers of relying too heavily on Black Hat motivation and extrinsic rewards without balancing them correctly. You will learn how to design systems that drive genuine engagement rather than building expensive burnout traps. Rob Alvarez is Head of Engagement Strategy, Europe at The Octalysis Group (TOG), a leading gamification and behavioral design consultancy. A globally recognized gamification strategist and TEDx speaker, he founded and hosts Professor Game, the #1 gamification podcast, and has interviewed hundreds of global experts. He designs evidence-based engagement systems that drive motivation, loyalty, and results, and teaches LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® and gamification at top institutions including IE Business School, EFMD, and EBS University across Europe, the Americas, and Asia.   Lets's do stuff together! Core Drives in the Wild: Professor Game Guide Let's chat about your gamification project YouTube LinkedIn Instagram Facebook Start Your Community on Skool for Free Ask a question

Wondering if Octalysis fits your challenge? Quick intro chat → professorgame.com/chat Most companies rely on traditional design thinking to build their products. That assumption is exactly why their retention rates flatline. In this episode, Rob Alvarez sits down with Joris Beerda, CEO of The Octalysis Group, to unpack the five-step Octalysis design process that drives engagement for Fortune 500 companies like Microsoft and Porsche. They discuss the critical difference between human-centered and human-focused design, the mechanics of building a high-functioning loyalty loop, and how to prioritize features using the "Biggest Bang for the Buck" model. If you want to move beyond simple points and badges to build experiences users genuinely care about, this conversation lays out the exact blueprint. Joris Beerda is the Co-Founder and CEO of The Octalysis Group. As a world-leading expert in Human-Focused Design and Octalysis Gamification, Joris' global career in creating engagement spans across 20 years, 15 countries and 7 languages. He has designed Human-Focused experiences for dozens of Fortune 500s as well as medium-sized companies. Joris is also a well known Keynote Speaker on Gamification in many renowned conferences throughout Europe, Asia, and Australia. Rob Alvarez is Head of Engagement Strategy, Europe at The Octalysis Group (TOG), a leading gamification and behavioral design consultancy. A globally recognized gamification strategist and TEDx speaker, he founded and hosts Professor Game, the #1 gamification podcast, and has interviewed hundreds of global experts. He designs evidence-based engagement systems that drive motivation, loyalty, and results, and teaches LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® and gamification at top institutions including IE Business School, EFMD, and EBS University across Europe, the Americas, and Asia.   Guest Links and Info LinkedIn: Joris Beerda The Octalysis Group The Octalysis Group Case Studies   Links to episode mentions: Proposed guest: Daniel Kahneman or Richard Thaler Recommended book: Why Everyone Else is a Hypocrite by Robert Kurzban Favorite game: Heroes of the Storm   Lets's do stuff together! Let's chat about your gamification project YouTube LinkedIn Instagram Facebook Start Your Community on Skool for Free Ask a question

Don't experiment on your own revenue with broken game mechanics. Get our guide "Core Drives in the Wild" to learn how to apply real behavioral science to your product: professorgame.com/WildCD We dismantle the myth that simply adding points, badges, and leaderboards will fix a broken product. We explore why superficial rewards often lead to a 90% failure rate in corporate gamification and cause dangerous spikes followed by massive engagement crashes. By contrasting Google News's failed badge system with Wikipedia's intrinsic motivation model, we highlight the critical shift from transactional features to human-focused behavioral science. You can learn how to balance White Hat techniques like Epic Meaning with Black Hat mechanics like Scarcity to build long-term retention without burning out your user base. Rob Alvarez is Head of Engagement Strategy, Europe at The Octalysis Group (TOG), a leading gamification and behavioral design consultancy. A globally recognized gamification strategist and TEDx speaker, he founded and hosts Professor Game, the #1 gamification podcast, and has interviewed hundreds of global experts. He designs evidence-based engagement systems that drive motivation, loyalty, and results, and teaches LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® and gamification at top institutions including IE Business School, EFMD, and EBS University across Europe, the Americas, and Asia. Links and resources Google News: https://news.google.com Wikipedia: https://www.wikipedia.org Duolingo: https://www.duolingo.com The Octalysis Group: https://octalysisgroup.com Lets's do stuff together! Core Drives in the Wild: Professor Game Guide Let's chat about your gamification project YouTube LinkedIn Instagram Facebook Start Your Community on Skool for Free Ask a question

Football and sport don't perhaps at first glance seem like a natural 'in' for climate action. But did you know..?- Over 100,000 grassroots football matches are cancelled every year due to bad weather such as flooding- Over 80% of football fans want are concerned about climate change- 65% of football fans want their clubs to take more climate action It was such a joy to get the opportunity to chat to Katie Cross all about Pledgeball - an award winning sports sustainability charity who do an amazing job of empowering sports fans to take action for climate and nature, often framing it around the idea of 'protecting where we play'.I wouldn't count myself as a football fan, but I took so much inspiration away from this episode and from Katie. So many clever ways of taking something that people are passionate about and using it as a way in to talk about climate and how it's impacting on that thing that they love, and then harnessing the power of the community that they are already involved in to take action, and to see how their one action contributes to a much greater impact.Even if you're not a football fan, I think there will be lots to take away from this episode - some way to take a little bit of the work that Plegdeball are doing with football, and in sport more widely, and apply it to the communities that you're already a part of. Katie Cross LISTEN... USEFUL LINKS:Katie Cross- Linked InPledgeball- Website- Instagram- Linked In- Facebook- You Tube- The Pledgeball podcast- Add your club (or school, or workplace etc)- Sustainable Travel CharterEp 154 - Leading by example - does it matter? With Steve Westlake (podcast ep)David WheelerClimate Outreach- Britain Talks Climate and NatureEFL Green ClubsCarbon Literacy- Carbon Literacy with me!Ep 175 - Climate Play (including Lego Serious Play) - podcast with Lisa HawthorneEp 193 - The power of swapping with Sam Drury ShoreReading FC's kit with the warming stripes on the sleeve I'd love to hear if you get your local club signed up, or get your kids school involved, or start something at work around this - do let me know!

She was a military spouse, a journalist, a grad student, and nearly divorced. Brittany Anderson turned her family's breaking point into a movement.Brittany is the founder of Renala Families and author of Living Room Leadership. In this episode she sits with Dali to unpack how military families can stop surviving and start leading, why she ditched traditional therapy for coaching, and how building things with your hands (yes, Legos) can unlock deeper family connection than years of talk therapy ever did.You will hear about the Be-Do-Have Blueprint her family lives by, the Family Score Assessment you can take for free today, and the real reason so many well-meaning parents are quietly eroding their authority at home without knowing it.This is a must-listen for parents, military families, and anyone who wants to lead better at work by leading better at home first.Key Topics Covered• Why military marriages are harder than most people realize• When coaching works better than therapy and why• LEGO Serious Play: what it is, how it works, and why it activates more brain function than talking• How guardedness in parents quietly affects their children• Building a family vision, purpose, and values that actually stick• Strengths-based parenting and the seeds, needs, and weeds framework• The Family Score Assessment and where to start when everything feels like chaosGuest BioBrittany Anderson is the founder of Renala Families, a family coaching and retreat organization based in Orlando, Florida. A former journalist and corporate leader turned certified coach, Brittany built Renala out of her own family's near-collapse in 2019 when her husband was flying Air Force One and their marriage was quietly unraveling. She is certified in LEGO Serious Play, CliftonStrengths, and experiential narrative practice. Her book Living Room Leadership outlines the 9-part Be-Do-Have Blueprint she uses with families around the world. Brittany serves military families, couples, and parents who want to build a stronger family culture that spills over into powerful leadership at work.Connect with Brittanyhttps://www.leadwithfamily.comhttps://livingroomleadershipbook.comSocial: @RenalaFamilies on Instagram and LinkedInSubscribe to the DaliTalks Podcast and share this episode!

Have a product challenge around retention? Quick intro chat → professorgame.com/chat Leif Sorensen reveals why most corporate learning games fail. We discuss the "magic powder" fallacy, where companies try to cram too many behavioral frameworks into a single experience. Leif breaks down his process for building AI-generated learning games at Actee and explains why focusing on the transfer of learning is the real secret to changing behavior. The episode also explores the post-COVID failure of traditional LMS platforms and how facilitators can run better sessions by focusing on player engagement instead of memorizing game content. Leif Sørensen is the founder and owner of Actee, a global platform using games to develop soft skills and support learning and change in organizations. He works closely with companies, consultants, and learning professionals to design engaging, research-based learning game experiences. Leif is a frequent speaker and podcast host, focusing on gamification, leadership, and how games can make complex topics easier to understand and act on. Rob Alvarez is Head of Engagement Strategy, Europe at The Octalysis Group (TOG), a leading gamification and behavioral design consultancy. A globally recognized gamification strategist and TEDx speaker, he founded and hosts Professor Game, the #1 gamification podcast, and has interviewed hundreds of global experts. He designs evidence-based engagement systems that drive motivation, loyalty, and results, and teaches LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® and gamification at top institutions including IE Business School, EFMD, and EBS University across Europe, the Americas, and Asia.   Guest Links and Info Website: Actee.com LinkedIn: Leif Sorensen Instagram: @acteeglobal Spotify: The Learning Edge - Gamification and L&D   Links to episode mentions: Proposed guest: Sune Gudiksen Recommended book: Transfer of Learning by Robert E. Haskell Favorite game: Derby   Lets's do stuff together! Let's chat about your gamification project Start Your Community on Skool for Free YouTube LinkedIn Instagram Facebook Ask a question

If you're implementing AI and want to realize that promised ROI, let's see if Octalysis fits → professorgame.com/chat Breaking down why most AI projects fail despite being technically flawless. The problem isn't the code; it's the lack of behavioral design. By applying the Octalysis Framework, we see how to move away from "Black Hat" implementations that trigger resistance and identity threats. Instead, we shares how to design AI as an individual contributor's superpower. It is a deep dive into balancing short-term Black Hat-driven data bumps with long-term White Hat engagement to ensure your team feels like masters of their craft rather than data entry clerks for an algorithm. Rob Alvarez is Head of Engagement Strategy, Europe at The Octalysis Group (TOG), a leading gamification and behavioral design consultancy. A globally recognized gamification strategist and TEDx speaker, he founded and hosts Professor Game, the #1 gamification podcast, and has interviewed hundreds of global experts. He designs evidence-based engagement systems that drive motivation, loyalty, and results, and teaches LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® and gamification at top institutions including IE Business School, EFMD, and EBS University across Europe, the Americas, and Asia.   Links to episode mentions: Let's implement AI successfully leveraging Octalysis Behavioral Design professorgame.com/chat How gamifying AI shapes customer motivation, engagement, and purchase behavior Harmonizing human-AI synergy: behavioral science in AI-integrated design Digital tracking, gamification, social media, and AI: How technology influences motivation AI-Driven Gamification Approaches: Enhancing Engagement Through Intelligent  Systems Some of The Octalysis Group's resources: Why Your Sales Leaderboard is Killing Performance (And What AI-Driven Motivation Actually Looks Like) How AI Loyalty Programs are Rewriting Loyalty Why Corporate Learning Platforms Fail (AI Corporate Learning) AI-Powered Behavioral Design for Customer Loyalty The Fintech Engagement Crisis: Why AI Without Behavioral Design Creates Apps Nobody Uses AI Powered FMCG Loyalty: Escaping the Points Trap with Behavioral Design   Lets's do stuff together! Let's chat about your gamification project YouTube LinkedIn Instagram Facebook Start Your Community on Skool for Free Ask a question

I've interviewed hundreds of experts and now lead Engagement Strategy (EU) at TOG. If you want help applying this, start here: professorgame.com/chat Can a leader truly be effective without ever presenting a single slide? Clark Aldrich returns to the show to dismantle the "expert-led" model of management and education. He introduces Socratic Cards: a physical tool designed to replace passive consumption with active, high-stakes inquiry. By shifting the responsibility of learning from the teacher to the learner, Clark explains how organizations can transition from "easily replaceable employees" to "heroic tribes" that thrive on peer mentorship and meaningful challenges. Clark Aldrich is a past guest (episode 94 and 127) and is the award-winning creator/author/founder of Short Sims, Unschooling Rules, The Complete Guide to Simulations and Serious Games, and Gartner's eLearning coverage. Aldrich's sims and games have been covered extensively, including by The New York Times, ABC, CBS, NPR, ESPN, and CNN. Rob Alvarez is Head of Engagement Strategy, Europe at The Octalysis Group (TOG), a leading gamification and behavioral design consultancy. A globally recognized gamification strategist and TEDx speaker, he founded and hosts Professor Game, the #1 gamification podcast, and has interviewed hundreds of global experts. He designs evidence-based engagement systems that drive motivation, loyalty, and results, and teaches LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® and gamification at top institutions including IE Business School, EFMD, and EBS University across Europe, the Americas, and Asia.   Guest Links and Info Website: socraticcards.com LinkedIn: Clark Aldrich   Lets's do stuff together! Let's chat about your gamification project YouTube LinkedIn Instagram Facebook Start Your Community on Skool for Free Ask a question

Lai-Ling Su: What Scrum Masters Must Do More of in 2026—Think Like a Business Owner Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.   "Success is so contextual. And I think the definitions and measurements of success also change over time. So, only you can definitively say what success is at any given time and how to appropriately measure it for your situation." - Lai-Ling Su   Lai-Ling frames success for Scrum Masters around what she'd love to see more of in 2026: smart, strategic, and commercial decision-making. She observes a distinct gap in the business landscape—too few people are making decisions that balance customer value, revenues, expenses, and long-term sustainability.  This could mean reducing SKUs to enhance operational flow and reduce burnout, investing in change management from day one of a transformation, or cutting unused software licenses to save a colleague's job or fund product innovation. To help Scrum Masters develop this capability, Lai-Ling puts them in the shoes of a business owner—whether through simulations, shadowing business leaders, or pairing with product owners to understand the business side of products beyond just the build side.  She emphasizes the difference between learning strategy through theory (like an MBA) versus learning it through actually operating a business, where consequences are real and immediate.   Self-reflection Question: When did you last consider how a decision in your domain impacts the broader commercial viability of your organization? Featured Retrospective Format for the Week: LEGO Serious Play Lai-Ling loves using LEGO for deeply reflective retrospectives, and she's a certified LEGO Serious Play facilitator. The approach works beautifully for tender and courageous conversations because building with LEGO does several things simultaneously: it's fun, the physical act of building helps process and articulate thoughts you didn't have words for, and it depersonalizes what's said because participants talk about a physical object rather than directly about people. You don't need expensive certified kits—just grab basic bricks from a local shop, pose a reflective question, and let people build.  Lai-Ling notes that her best retrospectives have often been the most deeply uncomfortable ones for participants, because of how much personal and emotional truth emerges when you create that safe space for constructive dialogue. The kinetic and visual elements help crystallize ideas that would otherwise not come out so easily.   [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends]

Have a product challenge around retention? Quick intro chat → professorgame.com/chat Stop feeling like you're grinding without a progress bar. In this episode, we explore the behavioral science of "leveling up" in real life to combat burnout and invisible growth. By applying the Octalysis Framework we discusse how to map your career as an evolving skill tree. Whether you are a product leader looking to build meaningful user progression or an individual seeking to reclaim your "Player 1" status, this episode provides a blueprint for turning disjointed milestones into a cohesive, high-functioning journey of mastery. Rob Alvarez is Head of Engagement Strategy, Europe at The Octalysis Group (TOG), a leading gamification and behavioral design consultancy. A globally recognized gamification strategist and TEDx speaker, he founded and hosts Professor Game, the #1 gamification podcast, and has interviewed hundreds of global experts. He designs evidence-based engagement systems that drive motivation, loyalty, and results, and teaches LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® and gamification at top institutions including IE Business School, EFMD, and EBS University across Europe, the Americas, and Asia.   Links to episode mentions: The Octalysis Framework Yu-kai Chou's first episode on Professor Game! 10000 Hours of Play by Yu-kai Chou   Lets's do stuff together! Let's chat about your gamification project YouTube LinkedIn Instagram Facebook Start Your Community on Skool for Free Ask a question Looking forward to reading or hearing from you, Rob

Recently funded and aiming for sustainable retention? Intro chat (no sales pitch): professorgame.com/chat What if your research team worked like a raid party? Raul Mora shares how bringing gamer language and MMORPG structures into academia boosted clarity, motivation, and long-term commitment. This conversation explores community design, role-based engagement, and why listening to gamers is the most underrated retention strategy in education. Raúl is a professor at Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana in Medellín, Colombia, now also teaching remotely from Trondheim, Norway. He's been in education for over 30 years, including time as a school and English teacher and as a college professor. His research explores second language literacy practices in the city, digital spaces, and schools. Rob Alvarez is Head of Engagement Strategy, Europe at The Octalysis Group (TOG), a leading gamification and behavioral design consultancy. A globally recognized gamification strategist and TEDx speaker, he founded and hosts Professor Game, the #1 gamification podcast, and has interviewed hundreds of global experts. He designs evidence-based engagement systems that drive motivation, loyalty, and results, and teaches LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® and gamification at top institutions including IE Business School, EFMD, and EBS University across Europe, the Americas, and Asia.   Guest Links and Info Webs: Guest: elpatronhimself.net Research Lab: lslp.org LinkedIn: Raúl Mora Instagram: @lslplegion TikTok: @lslplegion Bluesky: bsky.app/profile/elpatronhimself.bsky.social Book: Understanding Second Language Users as Gamers   Links to episode mentions: Proposed guest: Antero Garcia Recommended book: What Video Games Have to Teach Us by James P. Gee Favorite game: Mortal Kombat   Lets's do stuff together! Let's chat about your gamification project YouTube LinkedIn Instagram Facebook Start Your Community on Skool for Free Ask a question

I've interviewed hundreds of experts and now lead Engagement Strategy (EU) at The Octalysis Group. If you want help applying this, start here: professorgame.com/chat Why do people ignore things they know are good for them and obsess over games instead? In this episode, we introduce the Octalysis Framework, unpacking the eight core drives of human motivation and explain how human-focused design leads to stronger engagement, higher retention, and better-designed products, platforms, and learning experiences. Rob Alvarez is Head of Engagement Strategy, Europe at The Octalysis Group (TOG), a leading gamification and behavioral design consultancy. A globally recognized gamification strategist and TEDx speaker, he founded and hosts Professor Game, the #1 gamification podcast, and has interviewed hundreds of global experts. He designs evidence-based engagement systems that drive motivation, loyalty, and results, and teaches LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® and gamification at top institutions including IE Business School, EFMD, and EBS University across Europe, the Americas, and Asia.   Links to episode mentions: The Octalysis Framework for Gamification & Behavioral Design Octalysis Prime on YouTube by Yu-kai Chou Actionable Gamification by Yu-kai Chou   Lets's do stuff together! Let's chat about your gamification project YouTube LinkedIn Instagram Facebook Start Your Community on Skool for Free Ask a question

If you're considering gamification for engagement, retention, or loyalty, I'm happy to compare options with you: professorgame.com/chat The biggest impact of gamification often happens in the least obvious places. In this episode, Rob Alvarez talks with David Dand about using game-inspired strategies in recruitment, leadership, and employee experience to attract better-fit talent, reduce churn, and build stronger, more human organizations, even in highly traditional sectors. David is the Founder and Managing Director of Coreus, a boutique hiring services provider based in Brighton. Coreus specialises in helping professional SMEs tackle critical talent challenges and is experienced in the complexities of recruiting in skilled, competitive, and often highly regulated markets. David is a CIPD-qualified HR and recruitment expert with a career spanning global firms such as EY, AXA, and Roche, with a focus on cultural fit, leadership assessment, and career coaching. He lives in the South Downs near Brighton, UK, with his wife and their three mischievous children. His interests include music, travel, and sport. Rob Alvarez is Head of Engagement Strategy, Europe at The Octalysis Group (TOG), a leading gamification and behavioral design consultancy. A globally recognized gamification strategist and TEDx speaker, he founded and hosts Professor Game, the #1 gamification podcast, and has interviewed hundreds of global experts. He designs evidence-based engagement systems that drive motivation, loyalty, and results, and teaches LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® and gamification at top institutions including IE Business School, EFMD, and EBS University across Europe, the Americas, and Asia.   Guest Links and Info Website: Gamification in Recruitment | Coreus LinkedIn: Personal: David Dand | LinkedIn Company: Coreus Instagram: @coreus_talentacquisition   Links to episode mentions: Recommended book: Hiring Success by Jerome Ternynck Favorite game: Chess and Football   Lets's do stuff together! Let's chat about your gamification project Start Your Community on Skool for Free YouTube LinkedIn Instagram Facebook Ask a question

You'll get the same 14-day free trial either way—but if you use my link, you'll also be supporting Professor Game: