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.

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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.

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.

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.

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.

“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.”

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