I hate made up marketing words. Gamification is one of them. And I’m almost as turned off by the millions of posts and updates about gamification.
But regardless of how I feel about it… It works like a charm.
I’ve played in the Incentive and Reward space for years and we’ve been doing gamification since 1940 but we called it a “program.” All incentives are games and we’ve used many of the “new” things gamification talks about for years. If you want to know more about gamification here’s a great starting point for getting familiar with some of the terms and structures.
I think gamification – or more accurately and more professionally – “game mechanics” should be something every HR person should spend time thinking through and getting familiar with. There are a million ways to use some of these techniques to get your employees to do a variety of things that are needed to run an organization.
Places I See Application
Here’s my short list:
- Filling out forms/profiles in the system (progress bars?)
- Completing employee performance reviews (special “manager badges” potentially?)
- Recognition – this one is kind of a no-brainer – recognition has a lot of game mechanics built into it but you can use it to drive better engagement in the system.
- Adoption of any new process or software
- Suggestion systems and cost reduction programs
- Potentially safety and wellness (I urge caution on safety because you don’t want people creating problems in order to be “safe” later – remember unintended consequences.)
Cautions…
- Don’t game up serious things – adding a badge or special to something serious isn’t a good idea.
- Don’t game up EVERYTHING – apply it sparingly and when it makes sense. Not everything should be gamified (gah… I hate even writing that.)
- Don’t rely on gamification to carry all the weight. Games and game mechanics can HELP you drive greater involvement and engagement but it can’t do it on its own. You must have good foundations for anything you think you want to drive behaviors around.
- Games shouldn’t go on forever and ever. Use them to break inertia. Games going on forever get stale and get abused. Use them as punctuation – not the complete sentence.
The Real Reason for This Post
All of that above was simply the dressing I needed to feel like I actually did some work because all I really wanted to do is show you this video. (Subscribers need to click through to see video)
This video shows a vending machine placed in a mall that gave away free Fantastic Delites snacks – but only if you played the game the machine suggested. In one case it asked passersby to push a button “a number of times – one was person did it 5,000 times! Another had to break dance – and not too badly either.
The net-net is that we like to play. We like games. We like surprises.
Use them wisely when you need to influence behaviors in your organization.
Paul…that video was damn funny. That’s all I got. Good post too.
Curious. What are your thoughts on gamification to incent sales and marketing peeps to focus on new/innovative products?
Couple of thoughts Ben.
First – games are not the same as incentives. Incentives are decision architectures in that we make a decision to do the behavior – get the incentive. Games are more like psychological tricks (IMHO) – they play (pun intended) on a more basic level – more subconscious. Think about gambling – that is a game with a variable payout scheme that sucks us in. Sure – we still have a choice to play or not but we’re not doing it so much for the “incentive” as we are for the process and the release of dopamine when we “win.”
So – to answer your question. Yup – I can see games with quests to learn about new products (we sell more when we are more familiar and comfortable with a product) – I can see using random reinforcement to get them to present the new products more often. I can see showing levels and other game mechanic ideas that keep people engaged in the process of learning and selling the new idea. You can use similar types of structures to get people to create new products as well.
There are a huge number of ways you can incorporate game mechanics into a plan to influence behavior.
Remember though…. like any influence strategy these don’t guarantee that everyone will be involved – they just increase the odds that more will participate.
I read this article prior to attending a local HR conference (HR Star in SF)….SO FRIGGEN TIMELY (literally read this on 7/17 and attended the conference on 7/18)! Since I work in a restaurant–this idea is totally foreign to me–your post gave me the right info in the right time. All three panelists at the lunch I attended talked about “gamification” and loads of people in the audience were lost on the topic! Not me–so thanks Paul!
On another note-one of the panelists mentioned that his company is working on an on boarding process that would have a new hire create an avatar that would potentially be with them for their entire career at this organization (they are a gaming company and they are building it internally). However, your point related to about these things going on “forever and ever” seems to me to be an issue–as does getting a badge for attending sexual harassment training! It seems like there are enough issues with–personal vs. professional and now we are adding….personal avatar vs. professional avatar……AHHH!!!!
Thanks again–I felt totally “in the know!”.
So glad it was helpful. The avatar thing has me a bit worried. I know in my career I’ve taking a few twists and turns and have been one thing then another. I don’t think picking an avatar (why not just use your own pic?) is a good idea personally – but each company is different. I can see a way for employees to learn, grown, experiment and try new things – and somehow reflecting that on their profiles either through some sort of tasteful badge or something… that makes a lot of sense.
Not a big fan of the avatar idea – to me it’s like tattoos around your belly button. Great idea when you’re 20 – not so much when you’re 75.