Office Quest:

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  • Hey Hey hey! A post about 'gamification'! I know Mcgonigal hates that term herself (as do I), but that's what it is.

    I know a bit about gamification, so here are some comments/critique:

    Would you say the people in your department are doing their jobs because the are intrinsically motivated to do them? I assume from your scorecard that they do some form of illustration (and who hates illustrating stuff?) so I guess they would be? Intrinsic motivation is the most powerful and thus, most desirable form of motivation. Currently, it seems your game system is reliant on extrinsic motivation. Research says that solely using extrinsic rewards actually decreases intrinsic motivation in players/users. Have you seen anything like that occurring since you implemented your system?

    Your system seems to be a useful tool for monitoring the productivity of your minions *cough* I mean... employees. However, it might also be decreasing their motivation to do work. You didn't seem to mention that they seemed particularly more productive, but I suppose you can't tell because you didn't have this system in place before to measure their productivity - a bit of a Catch-22, it seems :).

    Either way, I would advise tweaking your system to align with Self-Determination theory (how to create Intrinsic Motivation). In order to do that your players need to feel three things: competence, autonomy and relatedness.

    Competence: They have to feel they are getting better at something. (Give them feedback on their work and productivity so that they can visualise their improving skill.)

    Autonomy: Give them choices in how to go about their work or task. (The trickiest one usually - this comes down to delegating - not micromanaging, perhaps.)

    Relatedness: Give them an opportunity to relate to others' performance/experiences. (Make your chart public to all - perhaps stick it up somewhere.)

    Here's an article on how to gamify your team, if you're interested.

    Awesome to see you trying something like this. :)
    Thanked by 1hanli
  • Thanks for your feedback.

    "Would you say the people in your department are doing their jobs because the are intrinsically motivated to do them?"
    They definitely extrinsicly motivated as with repeated corporate design work, it quickly becomes the norm & no longer interesting.

    What I've found is that the system now encourages them to work, regardless of how mundane their work as they can now see progress. It gives a visual bar so they can see their efforts, adds a sense of acomplishment. Also they can see that making the same mistakes on their work is not conducive to their points, mistakes take time out of their day & corrections don't amount to much points. Previously making mistakes would affect the company more than them. So I've found a way of visually showing them & creating a system that helps them see the affects of their actions. In saying this I quickly learnt not to minus points but to rather reduce the amount given.

    Another incentive is that the progress they accumulate directly affect how they are rewarded at the end of the year with bonuses. So there is a clear reward in site to perform well, nothing gets taken away. Even the different tiers are named with no negative association in mind. (average / good / great / excellent).
  • Hmm.

    This doesn't feel very game-like to me though. @Bensonance makes some really great points and is suggesting some powerful stuff, but right now to me this just feels like a work tracking system that should actually exist in almost every shared work environment. The sad reality is that's usually not the case (or the tracking system is implemented in a harmful way)...

    What do these points DO for your workers? Can they trade them in for extra leave? Do you have a tier of rewards that you offer each week if the whole team hits X points? (Like 200 points total = a drinks fridge refil with free stuff, 500 points total = meal for everyone on friday, etc. Build a store of these things and pick 3 each week for people to aim for, that way you can change them if they're balanced wrong)
    Thanked by 1Oliver
  • True it is more like a work tracking system currently but the goal is that it becomes more like a game, I believe it has potential & is a good starting point. Unfortunately it's not my own company so I can't implement bigger rewards than year end bonuses. However it is built with gaming constructs in mind. It's not a perfect system, hence my post, was curious to see what feedback it got. The main thing is that it's not harmful, it adds to a staff that complain about mundane ruotines & projects. It does not take away, just requests productivity data which is a standard request. Adding: visual progress reports / goals / acomplishment for mundane work /clear understanding of effects / rewards = data for the company. Ideally I would like to have avatar characters that grow as they make progress with gain XP. This can unlock all kinds of rewards but that can always be added.
  • I missed something, why is post 1 just a single minus sign?
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