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Rick is an Executive Consultant focused on working with business leaders to improve profitability through enhancing the people side of the business, controlling costs, and improving quality. Proven expertise in operations management, leadership development, strategy, team transitions, meeting facilitation, group dynamics, and client relations. In-depth experience with companies in multiple industries, multiple countries, and in various life cycle stages from high growth to retrenching modes. Leadership of Workplace Learning organization with significant cost reduction and organizational growth, increased employee retention and improved customer satisfaction and quality.

Rick Hicks

August 2020 - TD Magazine

Volunteering Provides a Value-Added Career Boost

Many L&D practitioners yearn to be their own boss. Anyone considering the move should go in with their eyes wide open.

Do You Have What It Takes to Be a Subcontractor?

December 2019 - TD Magazine

So, You Say You Want to Be a Subcontractor

The Ins and Outs of Subcontracting

Speaking at ATD24: A Conversation With the ATD Program Advisory Committee

We hope youve enjoyed the conference education programming. Their work helps shape the final programming delivered at ATD International Conference EXPO.

Speaking at ATD23: A Conversation With the ATD Program Advisory Committee

Rick Christ is currently an independent leadership coach, HR consultant, and university adjunct professor. Rick previously was a senior HR manager, public affairs manager, and leadership coach with more than 30 years of progressively responsible experience at ExxonMobil Corporation. He currently teaches at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, where he also provides career coaching.In Rick’s leadership coaching engagements, he has worked with senior executives, emerging and high-potential leaders, work teams, expatriates from all over the world, and other individuals in many types of technical and nontechnical positions seeking career coaching and career transition assistance. He has also coached IT and high-tech entrepreneurs and senior leaders in the defense industry and consulting companies.Like most coaches, he believes we are all capable of and naturally inclined toward growth and learning. Coachees usually find it positive and useful to identify and build upon key strengths and improve leadership “presence,” and this is common in his coaching practice.Rick holds an AB in psychology and environmental studies (Honors), an MBA from Indiana University, and an MEd in counseling psychology from the University of Houston. He has earned the designation of Professional Certified Coach (PCC) from the International Coach Federation.

Richard Christ

“Gamification engages people at an emotional level, which is far more powerful than typical transactional engagement strategies.”—Brian Burke, Gamify: How Gamification Motivates People to Do Extraordinary ThingsGovernment training has never been more critical or more complex. From active shooter preparedness to cybersecurity readiness, public servants are increasingly called to navigate high-stakes scenarios where decisions have life-or-death consequences. Traditional training—static presentations, dense manuals, or infrequent workshops—often fails to prepare participants for the challenges they face.Enter gamification: the application of game design principles to nongame contexts. In government training, gamification is more than a buzzword; it’s a proven approach that enhances engagement, boosts knowledge retention, and builds real-world readiness. Whether it’s creating serious games for disaster response or immersing teams in high-risk attack scenarios, government agencies are embracing gamified learning to transform training into a hands-on, high-impact experience.Let’s explore how two prominent examples—the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s serious games and the International Telecommunication Union’s Cyber Ranges—demonstrate the power and potential of gamification in the public sector. FEMA: Serious Games for Disaster ResponseFEMA uses serious games—interactive, scenario-based simulations—to prepare public officials for natural disasters and complex emergencies. One example is FEMA’s Emergency Management Institute’s Virtual Tabletop Exercises (VTTX), which allow participants to role-play disaster scenarios in a digital environment. Whether coordinating a hurricane evacuation or responding to a chemical spill, players make decisions, allocate resources, and adapt to changing conditions.Why it works: Serious games reinforce systems thinking, allowing participants to see how their decisions affect others in real time. They also foster cross-agency collaboration, since players must work as teams to address multifaceted challenges. With built-in scoring, time constraints, and post-game feedback, these simulations create a compelling learning experience that reflects the complexity of real-life crisis management.FEMA’s use of gamification supports not only readiness but also critical reflection, enabling leaders to test their protocols and improve them before a disaster ever strikes.ITU: Cyber Ranges and International Threat ResponseThe ITU—a UN agency—uses Cyber Ranges to train national, regional, and global cyber response teams on how to confront digital threats like ransomware, DDoS attacks, and critical infrastructure hacks. These gamified simulations place participants in a virtual environment where they must defend networks, identify vulnerabilities, and contain attacks under time pressure.Why it works: Cybersecurity threats evolve rapidly, and traditional “checklist” training is insufficient. Cyber Ranges create high-fidelity simulations that mimic the complexity of modern cyber warfare. Gamification elements—scoring systems, simulated adversaries, real-time incident escalations—drive engagement and build the skills needed for modern digital defense.What makes ITU’s approach especially powerful is its collaborative global focus. Teams from different countries can engage in shared simulations, promoting shared standards, rapid skill-building, and international cybersecurity resilience.Gamification isn’t just fun—it’s functional. In high-stakes settings, it boosts:Engagement through interactivityRetention via multisensory learningFeedback with real-time insightsAdaptability to evolving threatsCollaboration across teamsFrom disaster response games to cyber warfare simulations, gamification is no longer a future trend—it’s a current imperative. For agencies looking to build resilient, prepared, and agile teams, it’s time to level up with game-based learning. 

Leveling Up Government Training: How Gamification Is Enhancing Public Sector Preparedness

For 70 years, Denny’s has been an icon in the casual dining industry, building on its proud position as “America’s Diner.” To live up to its reputation of being a place where everyone is welcome, the company had to make diversity, equity, inclusion, and well-being a top priority.Beyond creating a safe and welcoming workplace, Denny’s leadership recognized that investing in DEI would improve employee engagement, reduce absenteeism, and improve overall financial performance. Additionally, prioritizing employee well-being can lower healthcare costs, increase productivity, and improve financial outcomes.Ultimately, the goal of these efforts is to establish a community where everyone feels valued, appreciated, and accepted as they are—and not just for guests but for team members as well. The challenge, as is often the case with large organizations, was finding a way to enact meaningful and sustainable change for all employees.The numbers don’t lie. Research shows that when employees feel a genuine sense of inclusion and belonging, their work performance increases by 56 percent, while sick days decrease by 75 percent, and the risk of turnover drops by half. Yet, just a single incident of micro-exclusion can lead to an immediate 25 percent decline in an individual’s performance.So, where to begin?Learning From the PastThe Denny’s brand has had its share of missteps over the years, culminating in a multi-million-dollar settlement payout in a 1994 racial bias lawsuit. Rather than bury or shy away from its past, however, the company has used this as an opportunity to learn and improve. The result: 58 percent of Denny’s restaurants are minority-owned. Likewise, among our board members, 56 percent come from underrepresented groups, and 44 percent are women. Yet, even with numbers trending in the right direction, Denny’s leadership recognized the need for ongoing and substantive DEI and well-being efforts.The fact is that most organizations approach DEI and well-being by providing a traditional one-day workshop. Unfortunately, this tactic fails to create awareness or generate an authentic change in the mindset or behaviors of many participants. Hence, the Denny’s Together initiative was born.Create a Place for AllThe Denny’s Together culture journey comprises several elements that support each other. The first is learning and embodying Denny’s “Rules to Live By,” which offers a set of foundational expectations that inform how team members treat Denny’s guests and one another. The L&D (leadership and development) team delivers interactive webinars and e-lessons to share these “rules” with restaurant team members.To boost awareness about DEI and well-being among Denny’s corporate team members, we offer the Go Beyond program. This collaborative program challenges participants to go on a journey of self-discovery as they take a deep dive into the advantages, barriers, and science of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Over 30 days, the program uses daily challenges to encourage team members to observe and explore their individual experiences and beliefs with compassion and curiosity.For example, Go Beyond kicks off with “reflection” activities, which include conversations led by other people leaders within the organization. In addition, there are community events where participants gather to share food and dialogue aided by conversation cards with specific reflection questions like, "What did you learn about bias and how it impacts your decision making?"What’s more, themed daily challenges and reflections, such as: “What Is Appearance Discrimination” and “How to Minimize the Bias Impact,” work to open participants’ minds about their own biases, attitudes, and relationships, while also coming together as one big Denny’s family. Example topics covered in these daily challenges include representation, appearance discrimination, implicit bias, inclusive language, empathy, bias blind spots, micro-affirmations, and allyship. Here’s an example of a daily challenge:Example of Daily ChallengeThe DEI Council and Business Resource Groups champion the theme. Team leaders discuss and reflect on challenge topics in meetings, and a weekly email supports exploring the challenges.To sweeten the pot and generate as much engagement as possible, raffles and giveaways for various challenges gamify the overall experience. For instance, all participants who complete challenges are entered to win a grand prize of two roundtrip airfare tickets to anywhere in the continental United States.Lasting ChangeThere were many lessons learned from the first two years of the Denny’s Together and Go Beyond programs. The four most powerful ones are:1. Get full buy-in from all key executives.2. Understand the culture you are starting with.3. Establish a sense of trust and safety for employees to freely participate.4. Set a high standard and invite employees to participate without a requirementIn addition to understanding that DEI efforts must be immersive to be effective, Denny’s leadership recognizes that achieving an entire cultural transformation that will affect the company from the top down and the bottom up requires an ongoing effort.But to measure the fruits of these efforts so far and guide future iterations, Denny’s leadership embarked on a comprehensive initiative to survey participants on how they felt about the Go Beyond program and the brand in general from a DEI perspective.Nearly all participants (94 percent) of team members felt that the Go Beyond program was an engaging experience, with 73 percent saying that it helped them grow as individuals. In fact, it was such a positive experience that 60 percent said they would be eager to participate again.More importantly, 82 percent of participants said they would recommend Denny’s as an employer, largely because of initiatives like this.Building on the success of Denny’s Together and the initial Go Beyond challenge, the company recently completed the second Go Beyond challenge, this time with the theme of Empowered Well-Being. Likewise, also in the works is the Championing Humanity challenge, a four-week reflection that will help participants discover what active allyship looks like, what shared power means, and most importantly, how to create a safe place for all.Moving forward, the L&D team is also working on rolling out a new leadership development program called Elevating the Power of We. This two-day, cohort-based program will have participants explore how to communicate in a supportive way, cultivate empathy and compassion, and genuinely listen to other people’s stories and perspectives.At Denny’s today, individuals are viewed as holistic beings. As such, their physical, emotional, and mental well-being must be prioritized. This is why Denny’s leadership is on a mission to create a brand that actively promotes mental fitness and overall empowered well-being. By creating a safe place to have candid conversations about real things that matter to real people, Denny’s is well on its way to creating a culture that embraces differences, welcomes personal stories, and celebrates all voices.

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