Using Gamification To Motivate A Team, Pt. 2 – Excitable Bodies

Artwork: Yue Minjun, Untitled, 2005, watercolor on paper, 140 x 127 cm

I started work on this post last week after we discussed the terminology rampant in our offices. I was almost done when I came across this article in the Harvard Business Review (it’s not the whole article on the website, to read it all you’ll have to buy the magazine like I did). I realized the two of us were discussing the same phenomenon, that employee happiness leads to motivation and improvement, so I’ve adapted this blog post around the points made in the HBR article (and stolen the picture used in it), while keeping my original points in tact, just in a different order.

Enjoy.

More Than Words

Last week, we talked about how the terminology we wrap ourselves in during our work days, precludes that subconsciously we want to have fun at work. We naturally want to enjoy what we do and the people we do it with. We surround ourselves with words that give that impression to subconsciously call to those desires.

But words can only go so far.

The fact that your employees are called a “team” and are encouraged to “get in the game” can honestly only go so far. I wish it were as simple to use the right words to motivate teams to always strive for the best, but it’s not. There are at least four big factors and actions that you need to understand and encorporate (according to the Harvard Business Review), and they have more to do with Gamification than I believe they intended.

Those four areas are:

1. Provide Decision-Making Discretion
2. Share Information
3. Minimize Incivility
4. Offer Performance Feedback

Without saying you have to build a satisfying game to motivate your team, let’s look at these factors at their core and see how they all are components of a successful, internal Gamification Strategy.

1. Provide Decision-Making Discretion (AKA – Voluntary Choices)

When we talk about the definition of “Gaming”, specific factors always make themselves present. The first factor is Voluntary Involvement. In his book, Finite and Infinite Games, Professor James P. Carse talks about this at length, but one of the first things he says in the book is:

It is an invariable principle of all play, finite and infinite, that whoever plays, plays freely. Whoever must play, cannot play.

It’s true, that in our main scenario, we’re talking about work and not play, but put that out of your mind for a minute because through Gamification, we’re attempting to bring the aspects and theories of play into a work environment, making them more enjoyable and more motivating.

In their article for the Harvard Business Review, Gretchen Spreitzer and Christine Porath found that employees at all levels within an organization are energized and excited by the ability to make their own decisions and choices regarding areas that affect their work and output. They went on to detail how employees at Alaska Airlines and Southwest Airlines are empowered to take their responsibilities and decisions into their own hands, creating positive experiences for customers within the understood guidelines, improve company processes. Both companies now boast number one spots for on-time performance and customer service and have full trophy cases.

This goes back to the idea that your entire company framework must work in conjunction with the image you want to portray to your customers. For Gamification to be successful, it has to be build upon a company framework of employee empowerment and freedom of choices. That’s always step one.

2. Share Information (AKA – Know The Rules)

Talking about rules seems like the opposite of fun, but if we’re talking about games and motivation, rules have to be discussed. You act ignorantly when you have a framework of employee empowerment, expecting them to make positive choices, yet you withhold information from them. Employees have no reason to look for innovative solutions when they can’t see the larger impact and they don’t know all the rules and stakes.

In all honesty, rules make a game. If I told you your goal was to get a ball into a goal I could be talking about Football, Soccer, Basketball, Cricket, Golf, etc, etc, etc. Once I specify that you have to bounce the ball at all times and that you can’t physically assault the opponents in any way, the actual game comes more into focus. (It’s Basketball, by the way)

The rules aren’t there to restrict the game, but rather to allow creative freedom and choice to play a larger factor. As Prof. Carse puts it, “In the narrowest sense, rules are not laws; they do not mandate specific behavior, but only restrain the [absolute] freedom of the players, allowing considerable room for choice within those restraints.”

All in all, the rules make the game and knowing the full scope of impact for a company allows you to create situations for employees to thrive within your company restraints.

3. Minimize Incivility (AKA – Play Nice)

This one’s pretty simple: Don’t be a dick.

As Spreitzer and Porath put it in their article, “Managers establish the tone with it comes to civility. A single bad player can set the culture awry.”

Set up the framework in your company for a Gamified system to encourage motivation, not requiring employees to play, and set out to make your company culture a positive experience for your employees. Once your game is created with your KPIs in mind, keep it encouraging and fun and make sure managers aren’t “harshing the buzz” of feedback and impact.

To quote Spreitezer and Porath again,

Corporate culture is inherently contagious; employees assimilate to their environment. In other words, if you hire [and structure] for civility, you’re more likely to breed it into your culture.

When you set up your game, you want it to be encouraging, fun and competitive, but your company culture should be set up in a way where everyone is encouraged and lead to play nice.

4. Offer Performance Feedback (AKA – Show Your Status Bar)

Wired had a great article a couple of issues back that we’ve discussed here that talks about The Feedback Loop. If you don’t remember what The Feedback Loop looks like, it looks like this:

I’m not going to recount what it all means, you can read my post on it if you want to know that, just know that real-time, direct feedback is important for games. That’s why a lot of sites have progress bars and you see your points increase on Super Mario Bros immediately after you jump on a walking mushroom.

A lot of people seem to want to point to the fact that Gamification is a “new craze” to me to prove that it’s merely a fad and will go away. My retort to that is that in our world of constant monitoring and screens (iPads, Android phones, iPhones, Laptops, health monitors, etc), we are finally at a point in history that allows us to have quick, accurate feedback for how we act in life and in business and that is the change that was necessary for Gamification to start to take a hold and breed life in corporate culture. Feedback is the lifeblood of well-crafted games.

Points and Badges may seem like a fad, but “people are hardwired to respond to scores and goals,” says Spreitzer and Porath. “The metrics help keep them energized through the day; essentially, they’re competing against their own numbers [a lot of times].”

Going back to our last point though, Feedback must be given in the correct way: Positively. Employees can feel overwhelmed by the constant nature of feedback when it’s given in an oppressive way. Companies should focus on a hard line of civility and respect for giving employees feedback in how they play, creating a context in which the feedback is energizing and promotes growth.

Competition can be great in the sort term (Leaderboards and Extrinsic Rewards), but those wear off after a while and can go so far as to hurt employee morale. Focus on creating positive, encouraging feedback loops for your employees, always striving to appeal to their internal motivators and fun, rather than competition and oppression.

The Happiness Quotient

Whatever you believe about Gamification and the Psychological Detriments of Motivators (external or internal), there’s one fact that can’t be denied and I think the Harvard Business Review put it really well in their article:

Happy employees produce more than unhappy ones over the long term. They routinely show up at work, they’re less likely to quit, they go above and beyond the call of duty, and they attract people who are just as committed to the job.

Business is about making money to stay in business and happy employees are better for business. It’s a simple as that. What sounds better for creating happiness: Games or Nothing?

That’s the importance of Gamification, managing with an atmosphere of Choice, Knowledge, Empowerment, and Feedback and creating those thriving, growing and happy employees. Gamification is merely the framework built around increasing employee vitality and their ability to learn and grow, it’s up to you as a manager to incite the culture for change and implement those strategies within your team.

Thoughts?

Tags: feedback loop, game dynamics, Game Theory, games at work, gamification, how can I use Gamification?, how to motivate a team, motivating a team, playing at work, social media, what is gamification?