1. Game On!
What is the National Coordination and Dispatch Center (NCDC) doing to make learning “FUN” in the work place? They are literally playing
games. The NCDC has incorporated “Gamification” into the work place. It is intended to create a fun learning environment for new hires, to
be an official class that someone could sign up for, and even help with recurring training for existing employees. While learning about
internal processes, the players learn to test their knowledge, meet SLA’s, and get outages repaired in a timely fashion.
The board game is called “Dispatch.” The object of the game is to fix the “out of service” (red) and “impaired“ (yellow) sites. The sites are
cell towers, Capacity Adds, Trans Ops, and Customer Network Solutions (CNS). Dispatches are represented by poker chips. Players may
lose or gain dispatches along the way. While moving any direction on the board, the technician (player), will have to pick a card to either test
their knowledge, take action, or spin the wheel. The player game piece is represented as a truck - NCDC Field Service Vehicles (Red, Blue,
Yellow, and Green). After they roll the dice, they can move any strategic direction on the board, as long as they don’t repeat a step, while
driving to the site. Before they can perform any troubleshooting, we must determine their skillset. The player must answer the question
correctly before they can collect the point. If they don’t get it right, other players have the opportunity to steal the point. The more outages
they fix, the more points they get. The game is over when all markets are “Green.” The player with the most repairs and dispatches
remaining wins the game.
Most of the employees who played the game enjoyed it. Also, the employees that know their jobs very well have an advantage over others
who don’t. This game encourages friendly competition, while having fun at the same time.
According to a blog on www.concur.com:
“Productivity metrics are at an all-time low in the U.S., with 70 percent of people in the current work force labeling themselves as
“disengaged” or “actively disengaged” at work, according to a recent report from Gallup.
To reverse these declining engagement trends, several leading companies are turning to Gamification. What is Gamification,
exactly? Gamification is the concept of applying game-design thinking to non-game application to make them more fun and
engaging. If this concept seems new to you, get this: Gamification has actually been around for a long time. Think, employee of
the month or salesperson of the quarter.
But only recently has Gamification become big business.
“Injecting fun into something that is generally seen as boring or task oriented not only can increase engagement but also drive
innovation and productivity, which is something your company desperately needs,” says Jessica Miller-Merrel, HR veteran and
founder of Blogging4jobs.com.”
Article Written by Tina McDuffie—National Coordination and Dispatch Center