Gamification and LSP

How gamification is changing business by Caitlin Fitzsimmons BWR. Online editor “Gamification on its own doesn’t do a lot, it needs to be integrated with your overall business strategy, particularly with your digital, mobile and social strategy because they all relate to each other,” M. Raftopoulos, StrategicGamesLab chief executive. “In a Lego Serious Play process, every single person has to build their own model and tell the story of what they built to others.” “Often companies want to set out new values or set their strategy for next year and it can be very intangible concepts. People don’t really relate to a PowerPoint show but if you get them to build something out of Lego and tell the story and interpret it, they are much more committed and have much more ownership.” Meyerson from MCI. Imagine this: Your number plate is photographed as you drive through an intersection and if you are obeying the speed limit, you enter a lottery draw to win the fines paid by the people who broke it. The so-called Speed Camera Lottery was the winning idea in the Volkswagen “The Fun Theory” contest a few years ago and it went on to become reality in Stockholm, Sweden. A three-day trial showed a 22 per cent reduction in speed from an average of 32 kilometres per hour down to 25 kilometres per hour, with nearly 25,000 cars passing through the intersection in three days. StrategicGamesLab chief executive Marigo Raftopoulos describes this as an example of how the positive rewards of good game design can drive behaviour-change more effectively than a compliance-based approach. It is a lesson more companies are taking to heart as gamification – the concept of turning any process into a game – catches on in the enterprise. A growing number of companies are using games to engage and guide staff and customers. Not just fun and games Raftopoulos told the audience at AMP’s recent Amplify Festival that gamification has been “hijacked” by marketers and it can be valuable in that context but has greater worth as a strategic management tool. She points out that playing games is not just about having fun. She says interactive play causes an “amazing cocktail” of chemicals such as dopamine, serotonin, testosterone to flood the brain and body, with a huge effect on engagement. “The areas of the brain that are being stimulated are learning, processing emotion, sensory alertness, spatial navigation and long-term memory,” Raftopoulos says. “What is actually happening through game play is, apart from having fun . . . that it does stuff to your brain and your system that helps you learn, and helps you engage.” The director of education at Management Consultancy International, Denise Meyerson, agrees, saying that research shows that adults as well as children learn through play Businesses are facing challenging conditions, yet only a small proportion of staff are engaged with their work. Raftopoulos cites research by Towers Perrin, involving hundreds of thousands of employees worldwide, suggesting that in an average organisation, only 20 per cent of staff are actively engaged on the job. A further 40 per cent are engaged but not committed, while 40 per cent are actively disengaged. The same study found that workplaces that had higher than average levels of engagement far exceeded the financial performance of workplaces that had average engagement levels. Meanwhile, Raftopoulos points to a 2010 study from Deloitte Centre for the Edge identifying a steady decline in return on invested capital since 1965, and work done by Foster and Kaplan on the Standard & Poor’s 500 shows that the average longevity of companies is now a mere 15 years, compared with 75 years in 1958. “It’s game-over for our current business models,” Raftopoulos says. “We’ve seen very important and structural changes happening in our business and our economy that’s making us start to think that what we’re currently doing has to change because we’re just going to produce the same results over and over again.” The vice-president international for business consulting firm Bluewolf, Sue Goble, says the term gamification is new but the concept is not. “If you look at sales reporting and sales leaderboards, it’s basic gamification because what you’ve done is create a competition,” Goble says. The current twist is that businesses are starting to apply game thinking to other areas. Goble says it is particularly effective for change management. Bluewolf implemented gamification internally for its 500 global employees to encourage staff to share sales leads on Salesforce Chatter, and write blog posts and engage on social media. From a technical perspective, the company used the Bunchball gamification engine and integrated it with Salesforce.com. The project was so successful that the company now offers gamification to its clients, using a newer product called CloudApps. Other consulting companies have identified a similar opportunity – for example, Capgemini now has a global partnership with gamification engine Badgeville. Wide range of applications Case studies in gamification are varied and plentiful. For example, accounting software company MYOB has replaced its traditional paper-based performance management system with Salesforce product Work.com, a product also used by the likes of Facebook and Spotify. MYOB chief financial officer Richard Moore says the implementation includes the collection of badges and the visual representation of goals all set on a social platform. “The most important thing for us was not only to get a platform that is much more real-time and fun . . . but also to get a tool where you could link company objectives right down to individual objectives,” Moore says. “All the goals are public . . . so you can see how all of your team members are progressing to their goals and when somebody does a great job and is thanked by a peer or their boss or anyone that’s public too. “You build up this bank of information and when you come to do your performance review at the end of the six-month period, it allows upward, downward and peer feedback.” MYOB also uses Yammer for internal social messaging to allow staff to ask each other questions and reach out across the organisation. Meanwhile, financial institution Suncorp has used gamification throughout its business, both internally for staff and externally for customers. Suncorp’s executive manager of superannuation customer distribution Cathy Duncan says the bank worked with technology consulting firm ThoughtWorks to build gamification elements into its Everyday Super product launched earlier this year. “We know that a lot of consumers don’t have a lot of natural engagement with their superannuation and there’s a lot of disengagement and inertia so we saw it as a way to try to get people to engage more,” Duncan says. The super account is available as a click-through from internet banking and customers earn points for completing actions in their account, such as providing their tax file number. The points translate into building a cartoon house that starts off basic but gains embellishments, such as a driveway or swimming pool. Offline play The term “gamification” is often used to describe software-based systems that borrow from video game mechanics such as points and badges and levelling up. However, the actual definition is wider – Raftopoulos describes it as “the use of game elements in a non-game setting”. This can include a collaboration software tool like AvayaLive Engage, which is not competitive but uses avatars and virtual settings. It can also include offline play sessions using Lego conducted by trainers registered in the Serious Play system, such as Meyerson from MCI. Meyerson is one of a handful of people in the world trained to the highest level in the Serious Play methodology and she says the sessions can bring intangible concepts to life and ensure participation of all staff. “In meetings you often have 20 per cent of the people talking 80 per cent of the time,” Meyerson says. “In a Lego Serious Play process, every single person has to build their own model and tell the story of what they built to others.” “Often companies want to set out new values or set their strategy for next year and it can be very intangible concepts. People don’t really relate to a PowerPoint show but if you get them to build something out of Lego and tell the story and interpret it, they are much more committed and have much more ownership.” Companies such as Fleet Partners, Toll People, Telstra , SAI Global, Origin Energy and Qantas have used Lego Serious Play, according to testimonials on the MCI website. Effective game design “Often companies want to set out new values or set their strategy for next year and it can be very intangible concepts. People don’t really relate to a PowerPoint show but if you get them to build something out of Lego and tell the story and interpret it, they are much more committed and have much more ownership.” Bluewolf’s Goble says the company went through a steep learning curve in the principles of good game design. “We found that it’s important to keep the games relevant and fresh when you’re thinking about the levels and the journey,” Goble says. “When the user has posted their first blog and earned 50 points, they’re excited and engaged so what comes next? It was important to make sure that people still felt they had something left to achieve. “Another thing is that you may have different job roles so if your game is very much focused on sales, it would drive sales, but if you’re trying to drive a big corporate change, you need to have something that’s relevant for the different groups.” Raftopoulos says the number one job of a game designer is engagement as opposed to traditional business systems, which are designed around efficiency and throughput with engagement a “sorry last”. “Rather than think systems, think of enabling participation,” Raftopoulos says. “Instead of thinking structures and hierarchy, think of creating experiences for people by evoking emotion and participation. Instead of thinking strategy and skills, think of creating possibility spaces. In terms of staff and style, or culture, facilitating community and connections for people.” She urges businesses to look beyond the current industry examples and make sure any gamification strategy is not stand-alone. “Gamification on its own doesn’t do a lot, it needs to be integrated with your overall business strategy, particularly with your digital, mobile and social strategy because they all relate to each other,” Raftopoulos adds.