SBIR Phase II: A Game-Based Leadership Program

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase II project is an online, game-based program to improve the leadership skills of individuals in science, education, the military, government, and industry. Leadership skills are key to innovation, efficiency, and effectiveness in all organizations. The program being developed is built on a proven leadership model and converts that traditional model into a role-playing game. The empirically tested model consists of three basic strategies and six practices that expand leaders' perspectives and enhance their problem-solving skills. The program uses a futuristic narrative, 3D-animated multimedia, and challenging leadership dilemmas to engage learners, who play the role of a novice world leader. The program provides instruction in leadership, and then learners apply their new leadership skills to build an alliance among warring factions and collectively solve a global problem. A series of game quests test learners' understanding, and they receive immediate feedback on all decisions and actions. Learners communicate through social media tools with other players and, at the end, participate in a virtual synchronous debriefing exercise with peers and trained facilitators to ensure full comprehension. An administrative dashboard provides real-time performance data. The game is scalable, accessible, and designed for repeat playability. The most profound innovation of this project is that it conceptualizes, designs, and develops a system of game mechanics and algorithms that mimic the facilitator-led human aspect of a research-based, face-to-face model of leadership training. This design entails building out a backend system as an artificial intelligence tool designed to guide users engaging with instructional materials, anticipate player actions, make recommendations on actions and anticipated actions, and provide feedback similar to guidance an on-site facilitator would provide. Furthermore, the game logic supports multiple paths to success, with some paths being more efficient, optimal, elegant, or otherwise more appropriate choices. The game logic and technical design are built to reflect problem solving and leadership in the real world, which is largely based on open-ended decision making. The game mechanics and related backend technology are designed to support open-ended decision-making, thus making game play both more engaging and authentic for players. A final innovation is the linking of an asynchronous online video game learning experience with virtual facilitator-led synchronous debriefing, which can be done on a worldwide scale. The program will be tested as a global collaboration exercise with both high school students and corporate leaders.