Gamification at work: The Gamification Curve

So you think gamification does belong in the workplace? You might be interested to avoid classical mistakes, thanks to the Gamification Curve. It all starts with the level of initial motivation about a task, a job, a project.

Start considering the level of intrinsic/extrinsic motivation in your team.

Intrinsic motivation refers to behavior that is driven by internal rewards. In other words, the motivation to engage in a behavior arises from within the individual because it is naturally satisfying to you. At work, it happens when your team is starting a new enthusiastic project, in a clean and productive environment, with a shared vision or motivation to succeed.

Extrinsic motivation refers to behavior that is driven by external rewards such as money, fame, grades, and praise. This type of motivation arises from outside the individual, as opposed to intrinsic motivation, which originates inside of the individual. At work and at the extreme side, motivation can be highly extrinsic when you don't really like your colleagues, your project, your job, what you do. You're only doing your job because you want your wage.

There is always a blurry line, as your job can be complex and you can mix intrinsic motivation tasks with extrinsic ones.

Let's now explore the Gamification Curve, starting from spot #1 (total extrinsic motivation) to spot #7 (full intrinsic motivation boosted by Epic reality).

Spot #1 NONSENSE PLAY

When motivation is totally extrinsic, and when your employees are doing thing only because they have to, it is probably the worst time to come to them and say 'Hi Guys, let's play!'. Lots of bad experiences have been made by not understanding this and I am still surprised when a client asks me to work on a Gamification strategy to solve a bad management or bad atmosphere issue. That doesn't work. Don't propose to your team a game to inject some intrinsic motivation when there is none. It simply makes no sense.

Spot #2 SUSPICIOUS PLAY

In a highly extrinsic context, Gamification can work and provide effects, but only when it is voluntary, requested and validated by the team members. In that occasion, it can be a way to reduce the pain - in a context where there is apparently a lack of sense. It will have to be really fun (and that's always a challenge in gamification) to create some distraction and to enables new behaviours. That's what happens in some successful team buildings, for example. Let's spend a day together, do some Escape Games, work on ideation games to boost our creativity around this (boring) project we're in. This is what I call suspicious play. Yes it can work. But it can also fail when any employee in a non-engaging situation can see that the company is trying to change or improve a behaviour, with some gamified techniques. They're suspicious about the management objectives and when there is some cynicism in the team's culture, it is even worse.

Spot #3 FUN PLAY

Ok. Motivation in your team is still extrinsic but also partly intrinsic, and this time we are in a good, favorable and fair work environment. This is where Gamification techniques start to provide obvious effects.

This is also the right moment to understand that performance is still 'too far' from your players insights. Increasing productivity, collective or individual performance is not their priority. You won't motivate them by scoring their performance: you have to work on other levers. Fun/humour, creativity, unpredictability, social influence, inspiring storytelling are more important levers than pure achievement.

Whatever you do, it has to look like a game. It must be fun or distracting.

But take care: Gamification at this stage isn’t for every business or industry. It is not easy to implement, not easy to make it a success. It might simply don’t work with your organisation or management culture. If that’s the case, you shouldn’t feel like you’re missing out an opportunity by not introducing it.

Gamification at work in an extrinsic environment: Rabbidz/Kolibree

The French startup Kolibree develops a connected toothbrush that works as a joystick, enabling you to play with the Rabbidz on a smartphone game while you are brushing your teeth.

I think we can agree that tooth brushing is not the most engaging activity.

We don't wake up saying 'Yes! I'm gonna brush my teeth, I enjoy it soooo much!'. This is where Fun Play makes sense. Don't try to focus on direct performance improvement, but instead let's find a story, a virtual scenario, a treasure game, etc. to make the activity more fun and engaging.

Another good example is Pokemon GO. This game had the power to get millions of teenagers out of their home and make them walk, run, much more than they would have ever done! They were not motivated by the activity of walking or running. They want to catch'em all!

Spot #4 THE G SPOT

Gamification at work must help increase productivity levels by increasing the emotional connection everyone has with their role. When your team is (in average) at the middle of the curve, it is time to show how good you can be at gamifying your staff!

How that? It is all about performance. As a manager, improving your team's performance is probably your number-one mission. At the G-Spot, you can be creative and effective, by mixing a creative gameplay with objectives related to performances.

Those objectives can be obvious or partially hidden, but the final results is a clear improvement of productivity or performance.

The Zombies Run example

While there are dozens of gamified sports apps that help you to stay engagement, by tracking your performance and displaying your objectives (Runkeeper, Nike+, Endomondo, Runtastic), there is an app that looks even more like a real game: Zombies, Run!

Zombies Run is not made for athletes or highly motivated running amateurs. It is made to have fun while running, which is exactly at the middle of the Gamification curve. You do want to run, because you know it is good for you, or because you wanna loose some weight, etc. but your motivation is not intrinsic enough. In Zombies Run, your city was destroyed by zombies and they're are now running after you. You must be smart and listen carefully to the off-voice to reach your objectives and escape.

You help yourself by trying to forget that you are 'simply' running. The storytelling behind Zombies Run makes you a hero, or the main character of a gamified scenario.

Think about your team activity and projects. Are you at the G-Spot? Or is the motivation of your team too extrinsic or too intrinsic?

Spot #5 and Spot #6 PERFORMANCE and SERIOUS PLAY

Spots #5 and #6 are easy to understand and also the easiest moment, for managers, to gamify a team. When your team motivation is obvious, natural, and comes from the inside, there is a natural need for improvement and achievement. At that stage, Gamification is the best way to track and improve performance, thanks to classical techniques like points, badges, leaderboards and levels. This is how we created Peak me up, our successful Sales Animation app, or Hunterz, our Social Recruitment app. Those 2 apps work on motivation enforcement and stimulation. They just need this motivation to come from the inside, at the very beginning, to create a 'performance play' environment (spot #5). When motivation is even more intrinsic (spot #6), Gamification techniques tend to be less effective, as the only thing that really matters is the tracking of performance. This is when a professional sportsman is not interested at all in any 'fun play' while he or she is training. At the extreme of the curve, he/she just wants tools and apps that are accurate trackers, gamification effects are low.

Spot #7 and Spot #8 EPIC/NONEPIC REALITY

Epic Meaning & Calling is the First Core Drive of Yu Kai Chou's Gamification Framework Octalysis. This is the drive where people are motivated because they believe they are engaged in something that is bigger than themselves.

In most video games Epic Meaning may be fictional, yet it can be the heart of player's motivation. It is part of the scenario, part of the gameplay, and an important lever of motivation. You are told an epic story, where you always are the hero. Even a Panda Warrior in World of Warcraft (omg I love this one):

Mario has to deliver Princess Peach, he has an Epic mission. Trivial Pursuit shows the world how cultivated you are, it is your Epic moment. Running a marathon is surrounded by a storytelling telling you that you are part of the elite, and if half of your admission fee goes to a charity, once again, it makes it Epic (ok - kind of).

Real lives are sometimes Epic

In real life, Epic moments are true and pure magic. Those that are validated by a large community, or by a group of experts, or by a heroic situation. Those Epic moments are connected to reality and are sometimes 'gamified'. Let me give you one example.

My friend David Martin has definitely an epic life. He just opened his fifth restaurant and two of them already have 1 Michelin Star. He is the only chef in Belgium to have 2 starred restaurant (I'm not really sure about this, I will double check).

His motivation has always been intrinsic: he cooks like a magician, he loves that and if you are in Brussels, you can't avoid a visit to his first restaurant, La Paix. There is something above motivation: engagement. There is something above engagement: passion. David doesn't need a gamified app or a fun game to improve his skills. Passion drives him, and he became one of the bests in his category.

But his life became epic, and this is where Gamification automatically comes back. He scores 17/20 at Gault Millau ranking (which tells there is still a small margin for progression). He was chosen as ambassador for several brands (Nespresso, BMW...), hosts a TV Show and is invited on a regular basis in major events. He has thousands followers on social networks.

All those elements can be compared to scores, badges, levels and leaderboards, and all those elements can drive you to the spot #7, in the Epic gamification zone. It is also a zone where social influence is really strong. You have to stay motivated to keep your level, or to reach the next one. All those elements create new fields of achievement.

Even if some pop stars or actors are not receptive to it (or claiming they're not), Gaming Codes are automatically appearing around them. Earning a Michelin Star, or a Grammy Award, or a Nobel Prize is levelling and scoring their achievements. Think about Roger Federer becoming number 1 at the ATP Ranking. People around (fans, sponsors, family, friends!) will push for more, for new peaks and challenges, like the number of weeks at this 1st position. In Epic reality, you are surrounded by new challenges, levels, rewards and 'badges', all the time.

Epic reality is not only for famous people

You don't need to be Roger Federer or Ashton Kutcher to have an Epic life. Being very good in what you are doing (a sport, a job, a discipline) will generally put you in a context where you will be recognised and "scored" by your peers, and be surrounded by gamification codes that validates your skill level, or your performance, and give you a motivation boost.

At the opposite, if you are working hard in a discipline, if your are focused on achievement and improving your skills, without entering the Epic zone, you will be less receptive to Gamification schemes. You will stick to performance tracking tools.

Wanna know more about those 8 spots or share your experience? Send me a mail at [email protected] !