Gamification has a Place in Business

Why would I want silly games in my business? Won’t that just give people another reason to goof off at work? Gamification isn’t about making games, it is about applying to processes and communication the same type of techniques that keep people interested and engaged in playing games.

Wikipedia has a great definition, an excerpt below:

Gamification is the use of game design techniques^[1], game thinking and game mechanics to enhance non-game contexts.

Before you go and jump in the pool and enlist someone to gamify all your processes, understand that in order for it to work and provide tangible benefits to the organization, the psychological and emotional rewards offered need to be in alignment with what you are trying to accomplish. Additionally the behaviors that are being rewarded need to be carefully evaluated to prevent the inadvertent reward of undesired alternate behaviors, such as “gaming” the system or introducing a type of peer competition that can be damaging for morale.

 

photo credit: JD Hancock / CC BY 2.0

A Common Language is Half of the Utility

I was reminded about the value a common language has on the usefulness of tools through a recent experience with my GPS.

The Story

I loaned my GPS to French exchange students for their trip to New York City.

After they returned, I turned on my GPS to set a destination and all the text and menus were set to the French language setting. I’ve studied Spanish and German, but it was a little challenge to navigate through the French labels on the menus to find the setting to change it back to English.

The Power of Commonality

For the exchange students, the GPS would have still had considerable value to them on their trip even if they left it set to English because of the illustrations and graphical nature of the GPS (and like many Europeans they spoke English). However, when set to their native language, the GPS was far more useful as they didn’t have the distraction and pressure of translating and interpreting the audio prompts while driving in traffic.

A GPS is a powerful tool. But it is just that - a tool. A common language that is readily understandable to the users is a subtle, but often overlooked component of the utility of the tool.

The utility of a common language is a universal principle of business process design, supporting technology, and communication. It is far easier to ensure everyone understands the process and each other if everyone shares the same terminology, vocabulary, and usage. The same holds true with the technologies and tools that are used to support the processes.

Software and other tools are far more effective when the terminology, labels, and workflow incorporate the industry and company specific language and thinking native to the organization.

Guest Post: What to Do when there is More than One Boss to Please

Connecting People to Projects through Social Authority

Dean’s note: This guest post is written by Craig Henderson, President of Systemental and a Thought Leader that blogs about Hoshin Kanri/Policy Deployment

You just took the handoff from the boss to start a new project.  You know you’ll need cooperation from a key stakeholder outside your function area who has already expressed a key concern.   How can you approach your conversation with the stakeholder to ensure you get the cooperation you need?

1. Leverage the boss’s connection to the stakeholder in the right way:
   • If their relationship is good, start by saying so
   • If the relationship is neutral or rocky, start by saying you want to make this work for the stakeholder (note: you should sincerely want to do this)
2. Get straight to the “heart of the matter,” don’t beat around the bush
3. Discover the stakeholder’s point of view by asking questions and listening closely
4. Tailor the description of how you can solve the problem to stakeholder’s preference
5. Explain a high value, low risk, and low hassle first step to get off to a good start
6. Assure the stake holder that it won’t be difficult, expensive, or time consuming to deliver the project so it meets the stakeholder’s needs

If you are naturally good at this kind of thing, then the above can serve as a guideline to keep your thoughts straight. On the other hand, if you feel uncomfortable, seek the advice of someone who will be friendly to you and also knows the stakeholder in question well. They should be able to help you think of objections the stakeholder may raise so you can think and plan ahead of time.

Lastly, make sure you keep your boss informed of what you are doing, whether it’s going well or not. Bosses like to know you are diligently working on their behalf and they don’t like surprises.

For a technique used to manage this same situation with an entire group, see Nemawashi

“Executizing” Academic Sounding Terms – Gaining Social Authority is a short story demonstrating how the language you use impacts your ability to gain social authority.

Photo attribution http://www.flickr.com/photos/kwl/4493219149/in/set-72157623544311963 / CC BY 2.0