Work better, play together? Rypple on Enterprise Gamification

Work better. Play together? On Enterprise Gamiﬁcation #LOVEYOURWORK #COLLABORATE #FLOW

Outline: on Enterprise Gamification Enterprise gamification is a hot new idea. " " Great potential for benefit (and misuse) " " Misconceptions create the risk of getting it wrong " " We share our lessons learned for making it work.

Games are having their moment in the limelight

Once upon a time, they were the root of all evil.

Today, people are realizing that game designhas something to say about how we designsolutions to other problems.

Claim: “It can help solve real world problems.”

Claim: “It can drive employee motivation & performance”Just add points & rewards (cash, tchotchke’s, whatever)…

Claim: “You can get employees to engage in not-so-fun exercises”Make it look like a game so they do it!

But as with any new idea, carefullyseparate what works from what doesn’t.

“Gamiﬁcation is an inadvertent con. It tricks peopleinto believing that there’s a simple way to imbuetheir thing ... with the psychological, emotional andsocial power of a great game.” Margaret Robertson Game Designer & Consultant to EA, Sony

Misconception #1Gamiﬁcation is badges & points

“Most gamification is just ‘pointsification.’ …toomuch gamification is about zero sum games:often, for me to win, you’ve got to lose.” Matthew Jensen Game Designer Co-founder, Natron Baxter Applied Gaming, Co-founder, Gameful

(real) Games are about intrinsic rewardsResearch show that fun in gaming is from intrinsic factors – experiences of competence, self-efﬁcacy, and masteryRaph Koster, A Theory of Fun for Game Design (2004)

Misconception #2Games have to be fun

FactEconomists developed the theory of games tomathematically capture human behavior in strategicsituations. It has been used to develop war strategies,nuclear weapon strategy, and more. Serious stuff.

Classic game theory: The Prisoners’ DilemmaGames arise when multiple actors with differing objectives compete or cooperate for scarce resources. Does that sound like your workplace?

Misconception #3Games are not appropriate at work

Leveling up Leaderboards BadgesReality"Work is already ﬁlled withgames & game-elements

Example: the Career Game“We compete for jobs: the more desirablethe job, the tougher the competition. Mostpeople readily understand this. But, fewerpeople recognize that the pursuit of an openjob can be framed as one ‘move’ in amultifaceted game called ‘a career.’” Stephen MilesVice Chairman, Heidrick & Struggles Author, Your Career Game

The real question then is:How can we better design the games we willinevitably play in the workplace?

So we don’t end up with badly designed games.And unintended consequences.

The Cover-Your-Ass game“When credit and blame are mismanagedand unfair, people shut down, becomedemotivated, and focus more on coveringtheir rears rather than moving forward.When credit and blame are managedproperly, people are willing and able toexperiment, learn and grow.” Ben DattnerProfessor of Industrial & Organizational Psychology, NYU Author, The Blame Game

The Bonus Game“…when the tasks involve higher levels ofcognition or creativity, the monetary incentivesactually stiﬂe performance rather than drive it.In addition, people undertake activities forreasons of mastery, purpose, etc. rather thanspeciﬁcally for monetary reward.” Daniel Pink Author, Drive

And our favorite, the performance review game Formal with very infrequent feedback. A ritual game with billions spent in wasted enterprise effort.

Initial lessons learnt in designing "good games at work* *So far. This is a WIP

Lesson #1It’s not about features you can bolt on.It’s about a careful design process.

You can’t save a crappy " service/product/environment"by bolting on game mechanics.+

X Wrong ✓ RightWhat’s challenging or meaningful Doing work that makes a difference? about leaving the house? Now that’s difﬁcult yet meaningful

You have to design the right game And that happens slowly, carefully & iteratively 24h Reﬁne 24h Observe gameUser insight Game design Release behavior element Release 7 days 7 days

Get people on the team who " have experience designing games*! Kobi Oﬁr, CTO Marcus Gosling, UX Ryan Dewsbury, Product Previously, CTO, Virgin Gaming Co-founder, imvu Creator of KDice & GPokr*Alert: Without actual game designers working with enterprise folksyou run the risk of designing something that doesn’t quite ring true.

Lesson #2Design around intrinsic motivations.Meaning, Autonomy, & Mastery

“Game elements are like an amplifier: There has to be agenuine sound first – a value, an interest, a motivation –for the amplifier to do any good.” Sebastian Deterding Gamification & UX designer and researcher

Badges can be silly Or they can be meaningful Badges devoid of meaning can be silly. Military badges are meaningful because the For many, the badge is the only beneﬁt underlying accomplishments are meaningful. of playing the game. That’s fun & okay in The badges are ﬁlled with shared symbolism. certain contexts.

Not just a piece of metal Symbol of meaningful impact "Let it be known that he who wears the military order of the purple heart has given of his blood in the defense of his homeland and shall forever be revered by his fellow countrymen." George Washington, August 7, 1782

Peer generated Identity at work badges as reputation You reputation at work is important for a Thanks from peers & managers have intrinsichost of reasons. Managing this identity is a meaning. Creating a badge lets people powerful intrinsic driver. creatively recognize successes in their own words. Badges thus have a shared meaning, creating trusted indicators of achievement.

Lesson #3Amplify positive behaviors that already exist.

Positive Behavior Make it easy. Make it Social. To: Joy Gao Cc: Subject: Thanks! Thanks for the awesome L&L! I learnt a ton! People like giving others a thanks for Make it crazy simple to give people meaningful achievements, help, etc. thanks, and for others to see it. Recognition is tremendously motivating. Easy and social.

Positive Behavior Design ElementIn games and at work, people like to Make it easy for people to deﬁne theirembark on Epic Quests. They like to own Epic Quests, enlist contributors & pick their quests, gather the troops share real-time progress on their and take on challenges head on. quests. And to collect badges representing their successful quests.

Lesson #4 Do it slowly and very carefully Games elements have real & sometimes unintended consequences

Game element Unintended consequenceScoreboards are a common “Depending on [work context],game element. Harmless in leaderboards can feel like yet another the virtual world of games. form of control and pressure, or as merely informational and supportive” *Sebastian Deterding, Meaningful Gamiﬁcation

Game element Unintended consequences % of new users that invite coworkersInvite coworkers $25 $25 reward with "invite your team "invite your team" + to join you" reasons whyMonetary incentives should Wrong! Users emailed us saying gettingdrive activity right? After all, paid for invitations in a work context was people like rewards, and inappropriate. They preferred to invite money’s a great reward! others to simply join them on Rypple.

Lesson #5Simplicity counts

"Perfection is achieved, not when thereis nothing more to add, but when thereis nothing left to take away." Antoine de Saint-Exupéry French author and aviator

Difﬁcult Behavior Simplicity in designWe all know that getting regular feedback The easier we made it to ask for is good for your performance at work. feedback, the more people used it. But its hard (& scary) to get constructive The more complicated the process feedback from people you work with! (unnecessary ﬁelds, ratings, options… choices), the less people do it.

In summary

Helpful lessons on Enterprise Gamiﬁcation Work is already ﬁlled with games. They’re mostly poorly designed." " Get people on the team with experience in building games." " Design, build, learn, design, ... repeat." " Leverage intrinsic motivators at work. Amplify positive behaviors." " Watch for unintended consequences of game elements in the social context of work." " Simplicity counts.

Want to learn more?Daniel Debow@ddebowddebow@rypple.com1.888.4RYPPLE

http://www.scoop.it	360
http://www.linkedin.com	5
http://twitter.com	2
https://si0.twimg.com	2
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com	1
http://us-w1.rockmelt.com	1
https://twimg0-a.akamaihd.net	1
http://74.6.238.254	1

Work better, play together? Rypple on Enterprise Gamification

by George Babu on Apr 14, 2011

Accessibility

Categories

Upload Details

Usage Rights

8 Embeds 373

Statistics

Work better, play together? Rypple on Enterprise Gamification Presentation Transcript