Member of the Month: Alex Suchman
The Member of the Month feature periodically highlights our amazing membership and the things they’re doing. January’s Member of the Month is Alex Suchman, CEO and Cofounder of Barometer XP.
What kind of work do you do?
Most people have to work for financial reasons, and work is also one of the places where you're with a lot of people. There's some sense of shared purpose: as social animals, we need that type of connection and need to feel like we belong to something. It is really sad that people feel devalued, isolated, and just not motivated about their work. I feel really passionately about companies and employers trying to do everything they can to make sure that the experience of work is something that offers meaning and connection for people. I see my work as removing some of the barriers that make the experience of work frustrating, stressful, and isolating.
Why are you a NASAGA member?
When I met Peter, my co-founder, I started to recognize the power of games to really transform how people see themselves, the groups that they're in, and the possibilities for what can happen when people come together. I just became a total evangelist about making games central to the future of learning and change management. I found out about NASAGA at the Association for Talent Development Conference in San Diego this past May, where I met Anna Heinrich. I chased her down after her presentation and said, I love what you're doing and we're doing similar things. I would love to talk to you. We had a couple of followup conversations and she’s the one who told me about NASAGA. She encouraged me to submit a proposal to present, and here I am!
What’s your favorite NASAGA memory?
On the opening night of the 2023 conference, there was a new member/new person orientation. It was amazing: just walking into that room, seeing the table with all of the miscellaneous props on it, and being told, “OK, you're gonna work together and, and come up with the game.” I just felt, Yep, these are my people. I think I said that out loud! It wasn't, “We're gonna talk at you and tell you how the days are gonna go.” It was just, “Have fun, get creative, and try to come up with something that's interesting and meaningful.” I was hooked.
I go to a lot of conferences and a lot of them say there's going to be really great for networking. But I'm sort of shy in new situations and around new people. The idea of walking around an open reception, finding people to stand around and have a conversation with, that's really uncomfortable for me. It usually takes a while to get beyond the small talk. Most of the people you end up meeting, you don't even have that great of a connection with. It takes you 10 minutes to get past Where are you from? How did your travels go? What’s the weather?.... Games and some sort of shared activity or experience are a real way to shortcut that.
NASAGA’s theme for the 2023 Conference was “Space at the Table.” What do you do in your professional practice to integrate diverse points of view?
All of our work is with teams in the workplace. Sometimes that's functional teams or departments, sometimes it's the leadership, sometimes it's their boards, but it’s always people that have to work together for some shared interest. A big part of that is recognizing that a group that might look homogeneous from the outside can have really different problem-solving styles, really different communication styles, and very different professional, educational, and geographic backgrounds. We all go through our days operating within our own point of view, and we assume that other people have the same frames of reference that we do. A lot of Barometer XP’s work is about how games can put people in a more curious and reflective mindset, helping them recognize that everybody has a different take and has something valuable to offer. Play reminds people to be curious, be on the lookout for different takes, and not to get stuck in their own perceptions and assumptions.
