Monday, November 19, 2018

How Gamification Won

I remember hearing Rajat Paharia on a panel discussion some years ago denouncing the term Gamification. He was at the time dubbed the Father of the strategic technical discipline. Logically, the commodification of the behavioral practice wore him out. I understand the fatigue.

We've been talking about Gamification in the Human Capital Management space for 10 years, mostly in attempt to simplify the concept to form an opinion for or against it.

A decade later, Gamification is less a buzzword, but unavoidable as a business strategy.


Expelling the G Word
Take away the badges, levels and comparisons of Call of Duty to Business Process. Eliminate the G Word from the lexicon and we can better extol the virtues of Gamification.

You start with 5 intrinsic motivators:
  • Autonomy
  • Mastery
  • Purpose
  • Progress
  • Social
Then take a look at how said motivators birth Game Dynamics:
  • Competition
  • Collaboration
  • Community
  • Achievement 
  • Progress
  • Exploration
And finally, create program initiatives that are measurable while scaling the aforementioned diversity of behavior models:
  • Points
  • Levels
  • Missions
  • Badges
  • Quizzes
  • Extrinsic Rewards
A little more expansive than a video game!


Without Intrigue Engagement Is Impossible

We can seek to develop our workforce in 3 ways:
1. Carrots (rewards)
2. Sticks (certification)
3. Gamification (intrigue)

You can dismiss the theory because your tech doesn't do it. You can pretend Gamification is infantile. You can bat your eye at technical developments.....

In reality, if you are unwilling to scale, you will fail!   

Anyone who has ever played a sport knows that if the coach micro-manages, the player will do just enough to stay in the game. Better to teach a player to fish than to pretend regulation drives progress. 

Participation trophies are continually frowned upon in certain cultures, but presenting an ongoing goal progression model works better than telling a person to do their job or they'll be fired. 

If your only motivation is to stay in the game.... you will never score!


Think of the worst boss, customer or relationship partner you've had in your life. My guess is that they shared a commonality:

The status they sought to establish in your life was based on Ego-Influenced Control!   

We all cherish the moment we walked away from a boss who bullied us, a life mate who sought to break our sense of self or the step father who pretended to rule with an iron fist. 

The minute you take control away from a bully, he/she curls up into the corner they attempted to put you in.

If the rule structures in our performance metrics turn from manager control to social amplification, the silos burn down. 

Leaderboards have the ability to promote introverts as a secret weapon!

Badges give employees a sense of purpose and a renewable application for long term success.

... neither are more important in application than the long term effect they have on process. 

The end never justifies the means.

Winning with your best players is a short term transaction. Developing every player is a long term strategy for sustainable success!

Don't Forget to Remember!

Dave      

Friday, November 9, 2018

A Chance At Gratitude


I woke up early in an East Coast town and (against my better judgment) checked my social media feed. I was met with positivity (?) Two positive posts in a row.... 2! With the mid-term election a day behind us, people may have exhausted their hatred for an hour or two. The trend was beautifully reassuring.

I headed into town for lunch in an empty barroom. I found the words of Anthony Bourdain & Jeff Tweedy. For a minute, time stood still and everyone was OK with one another.

It dawned on me that the frustration that bends my mind every day is self-imposed and that time spent arguing in a room with no doors only serves to divide us.

Little did he know, two seemingly insignificant moments would shape the rest of his life:

The most important moments of his life.... neglected

In the faint restaurant light, a man and his wife sat unreasonably close to my wife and I discussing the terms and conditions of their divorce. Their love had been reduced to a contract. The man spoke in personal terms at a level that everyone in a football field's distance could hear, fueled by four Manhattans and a lifetime of entitlement. He had one final chance to save his marriage and he was fucking up with galactic precision. My wife and I spoke not to one another out of embarrassment for people we did not know. He could have shown up and saved his family but he chose his ego over kindness (for the very person, of any person, that he should have appreciated most). There was no salvation in this story and I could hear his "wife" counting the seconds until she no longer had to endure this caveman's nonsense.

 

I will follow you into the dark

I've had the amazing privilege in life to work for people who have appreciated me. I was allowed to coach my daughter and her friends from the tender age of 2 onto their mid-elementary years. They used to really like me and now they're too-cool-for-school. But, that's OK. Our fleeting time together helped form their mentality, they will be more successful for it.

On an evening when her older brother and Mom were away, my 10 year daughter dropped her shield. No phone... no friends to stand behind... Halloween candy securely tucked away. The little butthole decided to spend a few minutes with her dad. After enjoying a few episodes of Uncle Halsted's program, we headed to bed. She waited by my side to brave the dark and for a minute she was a kid again.

What a privilege........


BIG events will come and go:

Your kids might get married or go to jail.

Your team might win a championship or win not a single game.

You might choose to be miserable in a room full of love.

You might stop trying.

Or.... Maybe..... at the moment when you are called upon to save all that is important to you.... you'll sit in the seat of the person next to you and stop embarrassing those who chose to love you.

It seemed in the course of a single day the winter had arrived in the East Coast. I jumped in a cab. I was on my way home......

Don't Forget to Remember,

Dave         

Friday, November 2, 2018

Behave Yourself


It was an honor to be included in Dr. Bob Nelson's new book "1001 Ways to Engage Employees". I shared a case study with Dr Bob which showcased how we used the SCARF methodology to enhance a major technology company's performance management strategy.

Managing employee performance has moved from annual write ups to high touch, systematic career development. The example I shared with Dr Bob was effective for two reasons:
  1. The process was simple
  2. The employee was afforded a range of performance objectives to stack rank in order to help their manager better understand their motivation
 As I enter my 12th year in the Human Capital Management space I've seen big ideas come and go while some ineffective systems have remained in-place (for lack of time to overhaul them).

Failure in performance-based systems occurs when too much user input is required or when employees are forced to conform to initiatives that don't align with their personal career goals.

Behavioral Modeling starts with a menu of 5 Intrinsic Motivators:
  • Autonomy
  • Mastery
  • Purpose
  • Progress
  • Social

We can structure a motivation path around rewards (carrots) or certifications (sticks) but employees would rather be inspired by an element of intrigue.

Some work for money. Others enjoy the glory of winning. Allowing a choice scales to all corners of Behavioral Economics.

Application
If your employee were to stack rank the 5 intrinsic motivators listed above would you help them exercise strengths without a demand to prioritize that which does not intrigue them?

Technology rules but accessibility can be an issue. Over-worked, communication fatigued employees are called upon to access multiple sites to understand the internal programs available to them. If it takes 30 minutes, 12 sites and an Ethernet cable to access a program portal, odds are said program will be under-adopted.

Buyers in the HCM space face a logic bending hurdle:
Sun-setting legacy technology involves 12 months, 2 FTE's and a significant loss in opportunity cost.

Therefore, vendors in the space are allowed to lack ingenuity without repercussion.

You don't have to overhaul legacy systems to enhance program access. There are elements of performance management than can be written on a napkin.

Trust and Transparency drive Employee Engagement. Giving employees choice for career path empowers them and provides a guide for development.

Revisiting the Engagement Ecosystem   
If you had to take 12 e-learning courses to be rewarded $50, would you do it?

If the knowledge afforded in the learning path is beneficial to your career development, won't the attainment of knowledge present applicable reward?

Do you need to be paid to thank your peers?

If you knew recognizing an overworked, underpaid member of your support team would put a smile of his/her face, would that not be incentive enough to encourage their effort?

If you complete a project on time and under budget would you prefer a gift card or a week off?

Happiness driven by profession is a myth. People are inspired by opportunity to advance which heightens their engagement in their work which inspires them to work harder which presents greater achievement which gives their work purpose. A rush of dopamine fills the brain on the way to the train on a Friday after a successful week. Those seeking to enhance their success carry said dopamine in their brain on a Monday morning as well.

The amount of money one makes does not drive engagement, it sets expectations.

Purpose-driven work that is consistently challenging is the only path to true success.

1. Allow employees to chose their path to success
2. Make programs easy to access and operate
3. Reward fairly
4. Create new challenges 

Don't Forget to Remember,

Dave