“The constraints led approach is more about manipulating and changing the space and the rules and certain things to incentivize or discourage certain behaviors,” said Nowak.
Nowak gives the example of getting players to move the puck across the Royal Road to create better scoring opportunities. Research from former NHL netminder Steve Valiquette shows that moving the puck across the center of the ice, or Royal Road, immediately preceding a shot increases the shooter’s scoring opportunity by over 10 times.
So, using a constraints led approach, Nowak draws a line down the middle of the ice and includes a constraint for moving pucks across the Royal Road.
“We can create a game or activity that incentivizes that behavior,” Nowak said. “I tell the players, goals are worth one. But if you can make a pass across the Royal Road that results in a goal, then that goal is worth three. By utilizing these constraints or the rules, changing the task, we’re incentivizing certain behaviors.”
This also allows players to make decisions on their own, without being told what to do or how they should do it.
“We haven’t totally excluded out the fact that you can just score a normal goal, but we have incentivized this behavior in this activity is worth more and hopefully as a result, we’re seeing players interact and create those plays more often,” Nowak said. “And that would be the behavior change we’re after.”
