Have you been wondering if Gamification is just a buzz word or if it really does work? Having successfully implemented a gamification platform with a top MNC bank, I can tell you for sure, it does!

I have seen some amazing performance transformations and engagement levels in the journey, change in water cooler conversations from idle gossip to winning points and badges, child prodding his mother to perform better so that she could bring in home a master blaster badge, one employee even changed his mind about quitting. Having said that, there have been some learnings.

If you are in the midst of a roll-out or are planning to bring in gamification into your organisation, I would urge you to keep the following aspects in mind. I call them the ‘Ethos of Gamification‘.

  1. Have a sponsor at the senior level: We were lucky that we had a couple of extremely engaging and positively challenging sponsors for the program. It helped drive the engagement and the concepts both, up the line and down the line. Whilst one sponsor constantly challenged us to make the program better, the other sponsor’s infectious energy levels brought the program alive.
  2. Clear tangible outcomes: Be very sure of the outcomes you are seeking from your gamification platform/program. There has to be a measurable tangible impact on either the top-line or the bottom-line. Increase in Sales, improvement of margins by reducing costs, improving customer experience or build engagement, as long as you have a measurable outcome set right at the beginning, the program is sustainable.
  3. Keep it fun & engaging: Gamification is not a replacement for your performance management system, don’t make it one. Neuroscience of play states that we are at our productive best when we are in a state of play. It allows for our withheld intelligence to come out because our threat responses are suppressed. The game design, platform launch, dashboards, rewards etc all have to be aligned towards keeping it fun and engaging for 100% of the participants. This brings me to the next point.
  4. It is for your average and bottom performers: Simply because your top performers will perform in-spite or despite of gamification. Your game design, target setting etc must factor for the fact it encourages every individual in the team to perform at their optimum potential. It is those incremental improvements across the board that will give you the quantum jump that you are seeking from the program.
  5. Target setting: Set targets which are a stretch but achievable. Gamification is not a magic wand that will help you achieve the impossible. Every individual in the team having the same target is akin to thinking all my team members are Usain Bolts. Bucket the participants in ranges as per their performance and set stretch targets for those specific buckets. Important aspect to keep in mind is to ensure that the outliers are taken out of the equation else target setting is bound to be erroneous. Another factor is that the target setting & the platform must also factor for the checks and balances to keep the poor behaviors away.
  6. It’s not about Points, Badges & Leader: The most common misconception that exists is that as long as I have fancy points, badges and leaderboards, gamification will be successful. Gamification is about engaging at the core belief level. Its about tapping into those core drivers that make us push ourselves that little extra step more than what we would do normally. Read up on Yu Kai Chau’s ‘Octalysis principle‘ or better still watch his video on YouTube before you start working on your gamification program.
  7. Reward & Recognize – Its not all about : The reward & recognition strategy is critical to the long term sustainability of the program. There has to be a healthy balance between intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. Sometimes, a pat on the back in front of the entire team can go a longer way than a monetary reward. Also, do not go overboard on extrinsic rewards. You may be tempted to give out iPhones, expensive watches, cars, bikes etc, which, understandably will have to sit in the topmost percentiles of the performance curve. The real question to ask here is, if that’s going to motivate the real target segment of people gamification is designed for or will they just give up even before they have started.

It has been an exciting journey, consulting with the client, helping them get their gamification strategy right, conceptualizing, designing, developing and implementing Coroebus, our Gamification Platform.