The Hungrier Games: How Gamification Builds Drive and Determination in Employees

A Guest Blog by Taylor Burke*

Employee engagement is dismally low. Just 33 percent of U.S. employees report being engaged at work, and that number hasn’t changed much since Gallup began measuring for it in 2000.

Unrest of that level can only lead to one thing — revolt. And that’s exactly what’s occurring. More than a third of people now work for themselves and that number is expected to near 50 percent by 2020. Seventy-six percent of workers are actively looking for or open to new jobs.  

Business leaders, looking to place blame somewhere other than on themselves, might argue that low engagement equals low motivation — an entitled up-and-coming, addicted-to-smartphones, everyone-gets-a-trophy millennial generation. But they’d be wrong.

The Science of FUN for L&D

by Jonathan Peters, PhD - Chief Motivation Officer, Sententia Gamification

https://www.vecteezy.com/members/twilightmoon

I overhead this question during the July 4th holiday, and I've been thinking about it, “Why do we, as adults, still take a break from learning in the summer?”

That thought germinated as I read the book Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-Element in Culture by Johan Huizinga. (I don’t recommend the book; it’s old, not written in English, and very academic.) 

Seven Ways to Add Stories to Your eLearning Courses

We all know that stories are a great way to engage an audience, yet it seems so few people actually study and use the tool in a manner that truly impacts their audience.

So what does it actually take to create a story that is not only engaging but also a highly effective training tool?

Summertime Memories to Make You Smile

Let’s go back for a moment… What are your favorite memories of summer from when you were a kid that make you smile? What were you doing? Who were you with?

People and Ideas I follow

by Jeffrey Riley
​Practical Learning Concepts, LLC

There are several people I follow in the learning and development world. I hope listing their blogs or websites here will help you as well.

Tom Kuhlmann The Rapid eLearning Blog A must for Articulate users but of benefit to anyone who wants to know more about eLearning and design. Did I mention Tom is a PowerPoint guru?

Cathy Moore's Blog has a lot of great ideas. She may be best known for Action Mapping and Scenario Design.

How to Design Game Boards in PowerPoint

Do you have BIG ideas for your eLearning, Gamification, or Instructor Led Training programs, but your time and resources are limited? Are there ways to find a cheaper way of doing things? A way to make the best use of the resources that you do have?

Are You Ready to Take the Learner Persona Challenge?

Learner Personas are a fictional representation of your targeted learners. They are based on real data about learner demographics and behavior, along with educated speculation about their personal histories, motivations, and concerns.

How are Learner Personas Created?
Learner personas are created through research, surveys, and interviews of your target audience. That includes a mix of new and seasoned employees – both “good” and “bad” -- who might align with your target audience. You’ll collect data that is both qualitative and quantitative to paint a picture of who your typical learner is, what they value, and how your program fits into their daily lives.

Gamification Design for Training and Talent Development

How will you use gamification in your employee engagement and talent development programs in 2017?

Designing gamification for learning and talent development programs is FUN and fulfilling. No more dry, boring lectures or eLearning programs! I want to share a sampling of the designs done by just a few of the 100s of professionals who took our Level 1 Gamification Apprentice Certification in 2016.

Why Apply Gamification?

Let’s face it, gamifying a training takes a lot of extra work. It’s easy to deliver information in a lecture. Shouldn’t it be the participant’s responsibility to take our information, remember it, and apply it? After all, they are adults. Why is it our responsibility to make it fun and engaging for them?

Some Talent Development folks are satisfied throwing some points, badges, and leaderboards (PBLs) at a training and being done with it. They don’t have the time and resources to consider other mechanics, develop player personas, create narratives, and determine KPIs.

They ask why they should do all this extra work. Participants should be motivated enough by PBLs.

Gamification Challenge: Dollarize It! - ROI vs. ROE

It’s probably no surprise to you, but investing in employees pays off.

Learning opportunities result in higher levels of employee promotion, retention, satisfaction, skills and knowledge, and this translates to better organizational performance. In fact, research shows the more a company invests toward developing employees, the higher its stock value goes the following year.

Yet demonstrating a real, bottom-line, Return on Investment (ROI) remains a continued challenge for those of us in Learning and Development fields.

5 Things You Should Know About Gamification

As a business owner, leader, manager, HR or talent development professional, you can learn how to create fun and rewarding gamified experiences to achieve the business objectives that are crucial for the success and profitability of your organization. But you’ll have to begin with a willingness to think differently.

Here are 5 things to consider in gamification design.

Corporate Training: What's your Why?

Gamification of real-world training and development is a powerful technique which can motivate people and help generate loyalty to your organization, its products, and its message. At its core, Gamification is about finding the fun in the things that we have to do.

But like any of our training or learning programs, before we begin to design with gamification, we must first answer the question Why?

Gamification & Analytics – What’s Possible?

As gamification becomes more pervasive in learning programs across the globe, training professionals have an unique opportunity to generate powerful analytics that can shape future learning experiences.

Traditionally learners and their managers have focused on capturing who took the test, when they took it, and what the final score was on the program. While that is important, they are missing out on other important data that when used effectively encourages autonomy and mastery.

Throughout this interview listeners will be able to better understand how to set-up their training programs to enable them to measure “real” results and what tools & platforms are best to leverage in order to make them a success. In addition we will address Tin Can/X-API and how standards such as these can create personal learning experiences.

Game Thinking and the MVP of Instructional Design

On this episode of Gamification Talk Radio, I interviewed special guest Zsolt Olah and our topic of discussion was: Game Thinking and the MVP of Instructional Design.

Zsolt participated in Kevin Werbach's G.A.M.E. (Gameful Approaches of Motivation and Engagement) along with researchers and practitioners of game design and gamification such as Karl Kapp, Amy Jo Kim, and Sebastian Deterding.

While researchers and practitioners might have disagreed on many levels about gamification, there was one big take away for L&D we all agreed on.

The Gamification of Learning Part 2: Measurement and Behaviors

This week on Gamification Talk Radio, we continue by exploring two more of the seven continents on our journey, and about keeping score and how the game is played.

Level 3:  Jungle Standoff – How are you keeping score?
How will you know the gamification program you put in place is driving the behaviors you need in order to meet your business objectives? What are the KPIs or benchmarks you will use to measure progress? Define the business metrics or quantifiable output indicators on the basis of achieving your business objective. Decide what numbers you must hit in order for your gamification program to be deemed successful.

Gamification Design: We All Play Games

The reality is… you enjoy playing games. We’ve been playing games since the days of cavemen, and it is your nature to compare yourself to see how you measure up to others.

Games drive emotions, build loyalty, and create character.
What if you could take game mechanics like competition, collaboration, and chance -- and apply them to your organization to teach, persuade, and motivate people?

Is it possible to make dull training; or difficult, tedious, or challenging tasks just a little more fun?

The answer is YES!

Forward thinking organizations understand the power of Gamification to increase engagement, and are quickly learning how to leverage its power.

Gamification does NOT equal technology or playing video games. It is an important and powerful strategy for influencing and motivating people. Simply defined, Gamification uses game mechanics and rewards for non-game applications in order to solve a wide range of business problems.

An excerpt from an Introduction to Gamification class with facilitator Monica Cornetti, Sententia Founder and CEO.

Here are three factors to consider as YOU explore how Gamification can help you and your organization.

• Clearly Identify the Business Objectives – Instead of asking, “How can we leverage Gamification in our organization?” begin with clearly defined business objectives and an analysis of the suitability of Gamification to achieve those business objectives.
• Think of the Audience as Players not Puppets – Slapping some meaningless points, badges, and leaderboards into your event or marketing strategy does not mean that you’ll be able to get people to do what they’ve been unwilling to do before. Engage the target audience with meaningful incentives.
• Design for Player-Centricity –The sweet spot for Gamification is where the business objectives and player objectives overlap. Gamified applications must be designed to motivate players to achieve their goals.

At its core, Gamification is about finding the fun in the things that we have to do.

Making business processes compelling by making them fun. It's about the most fascinating and coolest thing that I can think of. 

More Gamification Articles:

• The 4 Questions to Ask Before Implementing Gamification
• Gamification Simplified

For information on earning a Gamification Certification for Learning, Talent Management and Organizational Development Professionals visit www.SententiaGames.com

About the Author:  Monica Cornetti
Founder and CEO, Sententia
www.SententiaGames.com
www.monicacornetti.com

A gamification speaker and designer, Monica Cornetti is rated as a #1 Gamification Guru in the World by UK-Based Leaderboarded. She is the author of the book Totally Awesome Training Activity Guide: Put Gamification to Work for You, writes The Gamification Report blog, and hosts the weekly Gamification Talk Radio program.

Columbus or Gilligan?

Judi, a friend of mine, told me about a training program she attended, Fundamentals of Finance and Accounting for Non-Financial Managers. Her goal was to learn to use financial documents to create ratios to guider her business decisions. I know, it was already a boring topic, but the presenter didn’t help things out. He was so ineffective that Judi gave up in frustration. She couldn’t learn from the subject matter expert.

She told me, “Monica, it was like trying to steer a ship without a map, and at this point, I don’t know if I’m Christopher Columbus or Gilligan!”

Judi had the desire to learn about financial statements. She needed the information the expert had to give. And she was motivated. And yet, the presenter could not give her directions she could use. Her three-hour-tour resulted in a shipwreck.

Millennials - the Largest Living Generation... Is Your Workplace Ready?

Millennials have surpassed Baby Boomers in the United States as the largest living generation.

According to a recent analysis of U.S. Census data by the Pew Research Centerr, millennials - defined as those ages 18-34 in 2015 - now number 75.4 million, surpassing the 74.9 million Baby Boomers (ages 51-69) for the top spot.  And the ranks of millennials are expected to swell nationally to roughly 81 million by 2036.

What does this mean for you?

Johnathan Peters - WHY We Play

People don't fit nicely into categories, and we're in the people business. So, what if we looked at things differently? 

Once we know why people do things, we can anticipate what they enjoy doing and what they consider fun. 

Once we know that, we can add game elements that they'll actually enjoy, that will cause them to want to play. 

Find your personal gamification guru

A curated list of games and gamification experts that offer practical tips for your L&D needs.

Introducing new learning methods can involve an overwhelming amount of information. A Google search for gamification in business has more than 1,340,000 results.