Gamification for the Win

Gamification for the Win!

Gamification is traditionally defined as the use of game mechanics in non-game business scenarios to change user behaviors to achieve specific outcomes. Eliminate the jargon, and what you have is a seemingly magical way to motivate people to do what you want them to do. Utopian indeed, but does this really work? Let’s find out.

A user selects an avatar to start the game at Level 0 and must progress to Level 3 in a fixed time. Along the way to achieve the quest, the user will face challenges, accumulate or lose points, win badges, and achieve a certain score, all the while tracking their progress onscreen. The user also gets feedback on their journey. Scores of all users will be posted on a leaderboard, and create a community of gamers who can then share their experiences and leverage their learning.

This is what a typical game storyline looks like. So what’s so complicated about it? Anyone who knows the core concept of the game can ace it, right? Wrong. As Dumbledore says, in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, “It is our choices that show who we truly are, far more than our abilities.” A good game too is not so much about what you know as it is about how you apply that knowledge to make logical choices. The game maps these choices and, much like a Pensieve would, siphons relevant insights and stores them to analyze them and derive patterns later. These insights enable organizations to analyze productivity, motivation, and engagement themes, and create and refine real-world incentives and infuse work environments with “culture”.

A few guardrails for deploying gamification in an organizational setting:

1. Be clear about success criteria:
   What will indicate that the program has been effective – 100% participation or 50% employee engagement or 25% improvement in productivity over a measurable period?
2. Create an effective hook:
   The initial success of a gamified solution depends on awareness. Sending out emailers or internal newsletters that discuss the game will increase curiosity and enrolment. To sweeten the deal, you can also give users a head start by giving them a badge.
3. Try to take gamification beyond the point system:
   Gamification results in real-world benefits to the user and the organization, and winning in the virtual world should lead to real-world results as well to truly internalize the learning and incentivize the behavior.
4. Focus on content and design, not technology:
   A common mistake is to assume that the backbone of gamification is technology, purely because it is an immersive experience. The reality is that, like with all other forms of eLearning, the backbone of a good gamification program is good content and design, and how the learning objectives are achieved through them.
5. Use human nature and the survivor instinct to your advantage:
   When users are faced with random events in a familiar setting, there is a sense of comfort and they are able to feel challenged in a positive way and enjoy the training. This in turn boosts their performance, which leads to a cycle of competitiveness and success.
6. Accentuate the freedom to take risks while facing zero risk in reality:
   A gamified solution adds an element of risk to make the prize truly covetable, while removing the fear of failure. The chance that you may lose points or coins, or even a life creates a dopamine surge like no other, and emboldens the user to strategize and attempt goals that may seem unattainable in real life.
7. Weave in constraints to keep it real:
   Constraints like timers, budgets, or lives force users to weigh their options carefully and contemplate their success or failure before they pick one.

The sole purpose of gamification in learning is to make the achievement of goals addictive. It’s not just about positive reinforcement anymore, but about uncovering negative behavioral patterns and devising ways to enable users to overcome them. At the end of the day, everyone needs autonomy, mastery, purpose, progress, and social interactions to grow and thrive in the workplace. Gamification makes each of these possible, albeit virtually.

On a parting note, if you want to see gamification innovation in action, give Bandersnatch on Netflix a shot. The movie allows the viewer to build the storyline as they go along, tackling multiple challenges on behalf of the protagonist. Bandersnatch is replete with complex narrative loops that guide the viewer back to the main story when they stray too far, 5 possible endings, and clearly, an unfathomable number of permutations for the overall decision tree of the viewer. Applied to an organizational context, these learnings underline the importance of providing users with choices, reinforcing their correct decisions, and getting them to invest in the narrative of their own performance.

We hope you found this article interesting and helpful. Please feel free to share your feedback at marketing@mpsinteractive.com.

– By Charulata Razdan, Senior Manager – Instructional Design at MPS Interactive