Gamification: get in the game

On the surface, gamification could be the act of installing some downtime at work, a breather from the daily hustle, but actually it’s the application of gaming techniques; point scoring, competition and rule abiding to other areas of activity. Yes, even work. Who doesn’t enjoy dappling in a bit of daily competition?

Back to school

If you’re from the UK and you can remember back to elementary school, you may be familiar with the concept of leaderboards. A gentle introduction to the wonderful world of competition and proving yourself to others.  I may not be David Attenborough, but a race amidst others, be it for survival needs or a bit of friendly competition appears to be part of human nature. And again into the years of high school, there are often ‘house’ competitions in which students get split up into houses and at the end of each term it was revealed which house reigned champion from putting in the hardest graft. Similarly, if you’re schooling system wasn’t quite the same then your academic efforts still got rewarded by some measure.  If it’s been ingrained since such a young age, why should such a key method of motivation be left on the doorstep of your office? The introduction of leaderboards is nothing new, yet something so simple to implement. A friendly reminder to whip the slackers into shape, and remind the consecutive champs to keep up their hard work (maybe with a little grounding, of course).

Motivate yourself and your audience

It can be hard to visualise how gamification can motivate anyone else other than employees. Implementing a strategy to target your customers based on a gaming strategy, for example scoring loyalty points, is a fine way of showing your customers you care. Like dealing a good deck of cards, you can tailor your strategy to keep the consumers coming back for more. Not everyone is the most competitive dice in the box, so that’s where the art of story-telling comes in. In a time in which nearly everyone craves to be part of something worth-wile and envied, the narrative your business creates can be crucial in converting sales or clicks into something beneficial.

In the details of the design

Like any well articulated story, or any successful strategy, it’s the planning and the detail that makes it successful. You can’t cut corners if you’re really expecting to see the benefits. You need your eyes pealed in a game of monopoly, and in the world of work, cheaters don’t have a get out of jail free card. Although gamification isn’t that new, the refined and strategic application to extend it in all areas of your business is. CompAnies are coming up with new ways to integrate competitive aspects to employees, tasks and now their customers.

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