LA COMUNIDAD AUTÓNOMA
Eje 4. Directrices relativas al medio ambiente
"if the rules of a game become too flexible, concentration flags,
and it is more difficult to attain a flow experience. Commitment to a goal and to the rules it entails
is much easier
when the choices are few and clear." Csikszentmihalyi
(Flow, p. 225)
Games are played by rules.
How many times have we played various games, whether on a field or around a board game on a table and someone raises a protest:
"Hey, you're not playing by the rules!"
"You can't do that! That's not legal, that's against the Rules!" The Rules of the Game
Whenever we play games, we play within a structure of rules and formats that govern how the game is set up, the number of players, legitimate and illegitimate actions within the domain, scoring, how "points" are counted, exceptions, etc. These rules create the conditions of the game and the playing conditions-the gamescape. They inform us about numerous aspects of a game: How to set up the proper conditions for the game. How to actually play the game. How many can play. The processes allowed in the course of action. When an activity produces a "point" or something that "counts." The conditions when an exception to the rule occurs. The penalties that can occur when the rules are violated. How to determine when a game is completed. How to
honor or acknowledge the winner. Who,
ifanyone,
governs the game as referee, coach, or commissioner. How to keep score and who keeps score. This highlights the role of rules in our frame games. The rules we create or accept establish the structure, form, and order of a game. When we know the rules for how to structure and play a game, then we have a way of orienting ourselves, contextual cues about the game, and motivation for playing. Conversely, when we don't know the rules of the game or how the games goes, we may find ourselves disoriented, confused, overwhelmed, or unmotivated, etc.
Exercise #41
Frames for Keeping Score in the Frame Games
How can you win at a game if you don't know the rules? Well, you can't.
Exploring the "rules" frame shifts us to yet a higher level. We step back to consider the rules, their kind and quality, and the effect they have on our everyday life.
How do you keep score as you play your own frame of mind games? What rules have you constructed for how to play the games?
What are the kind and quality of rules that you use? How well do these rules serve in your playing?
Do the rules about your score keeping enable you to easily win or is the deck set against you?
As a meta-rule about our rules then, inasmuch as all of this is invented and constructed, shouldn't we make sure that all of our rules serve to enhance our overall functioning? This means that any rule of the game that disempowers or sabotages should be discarded.
Figure 10
Rule Construction So that You Can Know When You are Winning.
How will you know when you win? The rules of the game identify the formatting details & constructions for a frame game. These higher level references inform us about how to set up a game, how to play a game, how to score and win at a game, etc. This explores the how do you know question.
How do you know what you know? What lets' you know that?
How do you think about X?
The epistemology of the rules of the game direct our attention to how do we know that the game has started, who can play, when, where, in what way, etc. Fill in the following questions with whatever state, experience, emotion, or quality that you desire: happy, confident, healthy, free, safe, in control, creative, radiant, charming, successful, in love, respectful, etc.
How do you know when you are X?
If you were really X, then you will be doing what? If you X, you will...
I have to Y (set of behaviors, actions, conditions) in order to X. I can't feel X unless...
I will experience X when ...
What will it take for you to know that X is happening? To experience X, I should ...
To experience X, I must ...
Anytime that I Y (action, experience, situation), I know that I am X-ing... It just doesn't feel or seem that I am really X.
Exercise #42
Design Engineering The Rules of Frame Games
Design: to make Winning at the frame games productive, fun, easy, humane, etc. If our rules, standards, and game structures are all arbitrary and invented, does anything stop us from formulating them so that it's easy to hit a home run or sink a basket?
As you use the epistemology questions to flush out your requirements for knowing when something counts, evaluate them in terms of being enhancing or limiting. How well does it serve you to have the rules that you do? Are the rules the kind of rules that allow you to win frequently or do they stack the game against you?
Design Engineering Better Rules of the Game: Flush out these higher frames governing your rules
of
the game. What new designer rules would enhance & enrich the way you play frame games? Remembering the invented nature of the rules that you now have, how would you like to recognize things that count as "points" so that you can experience more wins?Winning at Confidence: Consider the frame
of
mind or state of "confidence." "How do you know when you are confident?What has to occur in order for you to rank up some confident points? When you are feeling confident, what are you doing?
What is happening to you?
Winning at happiness, cheerfulness, a joyful attitude, a playful spirit, etc.
What has to happen for you to allow yourself a win in this frame game? Do you have to win the lottery?
Do you have to have "everything going your way all day?" All week? Do you have to have a Hollywood shaped body?
What are the criteria, evaluations, standards, and rules that allow you to feel pleased, joyful, or playful? What designing and/or re-designing, of the rules of the game would you like to create? What rules for
scoring and playing truly do not serve you very well?
How could you re-formulate the way you play various frame games so that you can win more often, enjoy the process, and stack the deck much more in your favor.?
The Pattern:
1) Identify a Healthy, Fun and Productive Frame Game that you want to play. What do you want to obtain or experience in playing this game? The Aim Frame Game
The Modeling Frame Game
The Deep and Rich Relationships Frame Game The Confidence frame game
2) Design Engineer some Winable, Playable, and Fun Rules for the Game How will
Illustration:
Before I started the modeling project on wealth building, I had some rules in my head about "wealth" that prevented me from "counting" lots of things.
"I know that I'm wealthy when..." I have a million dollars in assets, when I have an ongoing disposable income of $100,000, when I have ..."
Then I came across numerous "definitions." One that really turned around my thinking described 'Wealth" and "financial independence" as the ability to live 60 days forward without a paycheck. "You are wealthy," the authors wrote, "if you can live the next sixty days without needing or depending upon a paycheck. If you can take a week or two weeks off and do what you want to do, you're wealthy."
That perspective gave me an entirely new frame of reference. I had never thought about it in that way. "Then I'm wealthy already!" I told myself. Actually, I had been "wealthy" for a long time using that description, but I had not known it, and so it had not "counted." I had kept myself from feeling good in that game because I thought I needed big bucks, an obscene amount of cash, and lots of luxury toys.
Illustration:
Before I started the modeling project on wealth building, I had some rules in my head about "wealth" that prevented me from "counting" lots of things.
"I know that I'm wealthy when..." I have a million dollars in assets, when I have an ongoing disposable income of $100,000, when I have ..."
Then I came across numerous "definitions." One that really turned around my thinking described 'Wealth" and "financial independence" as the ability to live 60 days forward without a paycheck. "You are wealthy," the authors wrote, "if you can live the next sixty days without needing or depending upon a paycheck. If you can take a week or two weeks off and do what you want to do, you're wealthy."
That perspective gave me an entirely new frame of reference. I had never thought about it in that way. "Then I'm wealthy already!" I told myself. Actually, I had been "wealthy" for a long time using that description, but I had not known it, and so it had not "counted." I had kept myself from feeling good in that game because I thought I needed big bucks, an obscene amount of cash, and lots of luxury toys.