Want to get ahead at work? This behavioural psychologist turns career challenges into games

From discovering your strengths to creating opportunities, networking and navigating workplace politics, Ritika Datta turns career challenges into games. She tells CNA Women how female-led communities helped her get her start in Singapore’s diversity, equity and inclusion space.

Ritika Datta is a behavioural psychologist who creates games for learning in Singapore’s diversity, equity and inclusion space. (Photo: Felly Loi)

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When Ritika Datta founded Hakopi in 2023 to create diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) games, she reached out to female-led communities to find out if they wanted to feature her games at their events.

The behavioural psychologist had just moved to Singapore with her husband. Having previously built games for adult learners, she wanted to continue her work.

Her first event was co-organised by Moxy , a platform that drives structural change for women in the workplace, and Lean In Network, Singapore, a non-profit that connects women and empowers them to reach their career goals.

“It spiralled from there – in a good way,” she said. Of the 200 women in attendance, many were interested in bringing her to their organisations.

“The women’s community was just so much easier for me to get into, even from a networking perspective, because they were very warm and open to having conversations and trying out new things,” the 34-year-old told CNA Women.

The first two game sessions she ran were, coincidentally, women-centric. This became a “niche” for Hakopi and her portfolio grew from there.

SKILLS FOR GETTING AHEAD IN THE WORKPLACE

Datta’s games come in two buckets. The first are “games that change the world”. These aim to change the culture and how people work, tackling issues like belonging and allyship. The second are games to help you thrive in today’s world, teaching skills such as networking or getting more visibility in your career.

“If you have to wait for the world to become a better place before you do anything, you’re going to be waiting forever, so it has to work hand in hand,” she said.

Datta’s games are played in teams and are a fun way to pick up skills for career development. (Photo: Ritika Datta)

One of the first games Datta created was Serendipity, about creating and grabbing opportunities.

“We believe – especially in the Asian context – that if you put your head down and work really hard, good things will come to you,” Datta said. “But as you move forward in life, you’ll realise that’s not quite true.”

She added: “We talk about this concept of what I call the surface area of serendipity. There are opportunities all around you, so if you’re sitting at your desk, you only have access to the opportunities around your desk.

“But the more you put yourself out there in meaningful ways, the more your surface area of serendipity increases and the more likely these opportunities are to find you.”

Players play in teams and step into the shoes of a particular character, making decisions for them to expand their surface area of serendipity.

Another game Datta created is Power Play, which gets players to recognise that workplace politics is not a dirty concept but a skill they can use to influence others. They play a product manager who needs to navigate internal politics and influence key stakeholders to get an idea approved.

“This game has a lot more debate and it’s fun because it’s so deeply rooted in us that I shouldn’t have to do all these extra things to get my work recognised,” said Datta.

Power Play is a game that tackles workplace politics, which players learn isn’t necessarily a bad thing. (Photo: Ritika Datta)

Strength To Strength is a detective-themed game where players uncover their own strengths and learn how to dismiss voices of self-doubt. (Photo: Ritika Datta)

Then there is Strength To Strength, a detective-themed game where players uncover their own strengths and learn how to communicate them with confidence.

“It gives people the tools to discover their own strengths and also realise how to fight back the inner voices – or sometimes also the external voices – that are telling them that’s not something you’re good at,” said Datta.

A ONE-WOMAN OPERATION

Although she collaborates often with female-focused communities, such as Moxy, The Elevate Group, Lean In Network, Singapore and Young Women’s Leadership Connection, most of her 15 flagship games can be played by both men and women.

Clients, which have included Google, LVMH, Macquarie Group and Marriott International, can take existing games or ask to modify stories or language to fit the company or industry.

Some may commission her to build a game that focuses on a particular issue – for example, she’s building one on male allyship.

Datta describes the process of developing a game as “a bit of a structured science”. She starts by looking at the learning needs of the topic through research and discussions with the target audience.

She takes inspiration from commercial board games when deciding on mechanics, such as selecting different cards or moving through different zones on a board.

“Once the mechanics are in place, I build the overarching story because you want players to feel like this is something they can relate to,” she explained.

It takes the Indian national around a month to create a new game. She runs Hakopi by herself but sometimes gets help with visual design work.

In September 2025, Datta conducted an introduction to finance workshop for about 200 migrant labourers.

In 2025, Datta held an introduction to finance workshop for migrant labourers who spoke minimal English. (Photo: Ritika Datta)

The construction workers learnt about the relational aspects of budgeting, such as how to have a conversation with someone from home asking for money, how to tell them how much they can send and what they have to keep for themselves.

“Language was a problem as we had five different nationalities, with minimal English,” she recalled. “That was an interesting challenge, to make the language simple but teach complex concepts they could relate to.

“We also had to figure out how to run a game at a construction site during their lunch break. Luckily, they had a good time because it was different, counting fake money and throwing game chips at each other,” she added.

“YOU HAVE THE POWER TO CHANGE”

Datta said she hasn’t come across many others doing corporate workshops in the gender game space.

Datta’s games give people the tools to discover their own strengths and equip them with skills to move ahead in their career. (Photo: Ritika Datta)

“The idea of using games for learning is fairly new, so you want to make sure that everyone in this space succeeds so that eventually you will succeed too.

“It’s a great community that has enough space for all of us to not feel like we’re stepping on each other’s toes,” she said.

Datta hopes that participants remember what they’ve taken away from her games.

“I don’t want them to comment on how the character was so well written or that the game design was amazing,” she explained. “I want them to say, ‘I didn’t realise that I was doing thing A when I should be doing thing B.’ That’s my internal measure of success."

She also wants to help people realise they are empowered to make changes, and that change doesn’t have to be a massive thing that’s scary and unattainable – it can be small steps.

“I want the games to show people that you have the power to change,” Datta said. “Even changing a small behaviour will have a cascading effect.”

CNA Women is a section on CNA Lifestyle that seeks to inform, empower and inspire the modern woman. If you have women-related news, issues and ideas to share with us, email CNAWomen [at] mediacorp.com.sg .

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从发掘自身优势到创造机遇、拓展人脉、应对职场政治，Ritika Datta 将职业挑战化繁为简。她向 CNA Women 讲述了女性主导的社群如何帮助她在新加坡的多元化、公平和包容领域开启职业生涯。

Ritika Datta是一位行为心理学家，她致力于为新加坡的多元化、公平性和包容性领域开发学习游戏。（图片：Felly Loi）

这段音频是由人工智能工具生成的。

2023 年，Ritika Datta 创立了 Hakopi，旨在创造多元化、公平性和包容性 (DEI) 游戏。她联系了女性领导的社区，询问他们是否愿意在自己的活动中展示她的游戏。

这位行为心理学家刚和丈夫搬到新加坡。她之前曾为成人学习者开发过游戏，希望继续从事这项工作。

她的首场活动由 Moxy 和 Lean In Network（新加坡）联合举办。Moxy 是一个致力于推动职场女性结构性变革的平台，而 Lean In Network 则是一个非营利组织，旨在联结女性并赋能她们实现职业目标。

“事情就此朝着好的方向发展，”她说。在场的200名女性中，许多人都表示有兴趣邀请她到她们的机构来。

“从人脉拓展的角度来看，我更容易融入女性群体，因为她们非常热情，乐于交谈，也乐于尝试新事物，”这位 34 岁的女士告诉 CNA Women。

巧合的是，她主持的前两场游戏活动都是以女性为主题的。这成为了哈科皮的一个“利基市场”，她的作品集也由此扩展开来。

职场晋升必备技能

Datta 的游戏分为两大类。第一类是“改变世界的游戏”。这类游戏旨在改变文化和人们的工作方式，解决归属感和盟友关系等问题。第二类游戏则帮助你在当今世界取得成功，教授诸如人脉拓展或提升职业知名度等技能。

“如果你非要等到世界变得更美好才去做任何事，那你永远也等不到那时了，所以这两者必须齐头并进，”她说。

Datta设计的游戏以团队形式进行，是一种寓教于乐的技能学习方式，有助于职业发展。（图片：Ritika Datta）

Datta 最早创作的游戏之一是《Serendipity》，讲述的是创造和抓住机会的故事。

“我们相信——尤其是在亚洲的语境下——只要你埋头苦干，好事就会降临到你身上，”达塔说。“但随着你人生阅历的增长，你会发现事实并非如此。”

她补充道：“我们经常谈到我称之为‘偶然发现的表面积’这个概念。机会无处不在，所以如果你坐在办公桌前，你就只能接触到办公桌周围的机会。”

“但是，你越是积极主动地走出去，越能发现机遇，这些机遇就越有可能找到你。”

玩家组队进行游戏，扮演特定角色，为他们做出决定，从而扩大他们的意外发现范围。

Datta创作的另一款游戏是《权力游戏》（Power Play），这款游戏旨在让玩家认识到职场政治并非肮脏的概念，而是一种可以用来影响他人的技能。玩家扮演产品经理，需要周旋于内部政治，并影响关键利益相关者，最终使某个想法获得批准。

“这款游戏引发了很多争论，也很有趣，因为它深深植根于我们心中，我不应该为了让自己的作品得到认可而去做所有这些额外的事情，”达塔说道。

《权力游戏》是一款探讨职场政治的游戏，玩家会发现职场政治未必是件坏事。（图片：Ritika Datta）

《Strength To Strength》是一款以侦探为主题的游戏，玩家将在游戏中发掘自身优势，并学习如何克服自我怀疑的声音。（图片：Ritika Datta）

还有一款名为《Strength To Strength》的游戏，这是一款以侦探为主题的游戏，玩家可以在游戏中发现自己的优势，并学习如何自信地表达这些优势。

“它能帮助人们发现自身的优势，也能让他们意识到如何对抗内心的声音——有时甚至是外部的声音——这些声音告诉他们，他们不擅长做这件事，”达塔说。

一人运营

尽管她经常与以女性为中心的社群合作，例如 Moxy、The Elevate Group、Lean In Network、新加坡和 Young Women's Leadership Connection，但她的 15 款旗舰游戏中的大多数都可以由男性和女性一起玩。

客户包括谷歌、LVMH集团、麦格理集团和万豪国际集团，他们可以使用现有的游戏，也可以要求修改故事或语言以适应公司或行业。

有些人可能会委托她制作一款以特定问题为主题的游戏——例如，她正在制作一款关于男性盟友关系的游戏。

Datta 将游戏开发过程描述为“一门结构化的科学”。她首先通过研究和与目标受众的讨论，了解该主题的学习需求。

她在决定游戏机制时会从商业棋盘游戏中汲取灵感，例如选择不同的卡牌或在棋盘上的不同区域移动。

“一旦游戏机制到位，我就会构建整体故事，因为你希望玩家觉得这是他们能够感同身受的事情，”她解释说。

这位印度籍开发者大约需要一个月的时间来制作一款新游戏。她独自运营Hakopi，但有时也会在视觉设计方面寻求帮助。

2025年9月，达塔为约200名农民工举办了金融入门讲座。

2025年，达塔为英语水平有限的农民工举办了一场金融入门讲座。（照片：里蒂卡·达塔）

建筑工人们学习了预算的人际关系方面，例如如何与家乡的人交谈以向他们要钱，如何告诉他们可以寄多少钱以及他们自己必须留多少钱。

“语言是个问题，因为我们有五个不同的国籍，而且英语水平有限，”她回忆道。“这是一个有趣的挑战，既要用简单的语言，又要教授他们能够理解的复杂概念。”

“我们还得想办法在建筑工地午休时间组织游戏。幸运的是，他们玩得很开心，因为游戏内容很特别，比如数假钱、互相扔游戏筹码等等，”她补充道。

“你有能力改变”

Datta表示，她还没有遇到过很多其他在性别平等领域开展企业研讨会的人。

Datta 的游戏能帮助人们发现自身优势，并赋予他们职业发展所需的技能。（图片：Ritika Datta）

“利用游戏进行学习的想法相当新颖，所以你要确保这个领域的每个人都能成功，这样最终你也能成功。”

“这是一个很棒的社区，有足够的空间让我们每个人都能自在相处，不会感到互相冒犯，”她说。

Datta希望参与者能记住他们从她的游戏中学到了什么。

“我不想让他们评论角色塑造得多么出色，或者游戏设计多么惊艳，”她解释说。“我希望他们说，‘我之前没意识到自己做了A而应该做B。’这才是衡量成功的内在标准。”

她还希望帮助人们意识到他们有能力做出改变，而改变不必是可怕且遥不可及的巨大事情——它可以是小步骤。

“我希望通过这些比赛向人们展示，你有能力改变自己，”达塔说。“即使改变一个微小的行为，也会产生连锁反应。”

CNA Women是CNA Lifestyle旗下的一个版块，旨在为现代女性提供信息、赋能和灵感。如果您有与女性相关的新闻、议题或想法想要与我们分享，请发送电子邮件至CNAWomen[at]mediacorp.com.sg。

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