Make a Game of It: Using Gamification to Build Better Habits

Gamification: Build Better Habits Graphic with Duck

You've probably noticed a recent uptick in games and likely get ads to download apps to play them. Global gaming and entertainment is a billion-dollar industry, and you’ve probably utilized gamification in your own efforts to change your personal processes, such as saving money or losing weight.

Gamification has a way of taking those burdensome tasks nobody wants to do and turning them into a prize you wake up wanting to win... it's a scientific fact. Gamification equals motivation, and the desire to create a new pattern or practice, even with monotonous or uninspiring tasks, is fueled by the dopamine our brains get when completing competitions or games.

Even when completing the most arduous tasks, your brain very quickly realizes the game, and specifically “winning,” aspect delivers pleasure and satisfaction - thus, those “OMG I hate these” tasks are transformed into “I absolutely have to do these things before I start working on anything else” tasks. It’s almost out of your control. Your brain wants that feel-good dopamine, and gamification delivers.

This is just one reason why so many professional service firms are turning to gamification to inspire their teams and build strong habits around initiatives that haven’t always been crowd favorites.

Let's take a deeper look into what gamification is, how it works, and why so many professionals are utilizing this brain science to build accountability and better engagement within their firms (specifically as it pertains to business development efforts).

 

What is Gamification?

Gamification refers to introducing a gaming component that transforms non-gaming activities into playable actions. The act of gamifying activities at work makes mundane tasks more fun and interactive. Marketers have long used gamification to encourage users to complete surveys on their sites, and advertisers have long used the tactic to build audience engagement.

Remember Ralphie's diligence in decoding what turned out to be an advertisement?

 
 

 Gamification is a strong motivator that tricks our brains into making play out of what some would call the most monotonous of tasks. Now, we're not here to knock your industry or practice, but we can speak confidently on seemingly mundane tasks in business development practices and know just how hard it can be to instill enthusiasm and accountability in young and seasoned professionals alike.

That's exactly why we made certain that gamification was a staple of our INform technology, and it's why we think every industry that survives off building a book of business could benefit from gamification in the workplace.

 

Gamification: It's All in Your Head

Why is gamification effective for improving employee behavior? It's psychological. Gamifying taps into the brain's internal circuitry. Games contain a natural reward loop. This is why most people get hooked on games like Pokémon, Farmville, and Sim City.

When rewarding employees for their job performance, you create an incentive loop for performance within a workplace. Boosting dopamine levels in the brain can have additional benefits – many of which most leaders do not even recognize. Neurotransmitter signals generally assist in maintaining a mental state that becomes associated with the tasks at hand and create an overall more enjoyable work environment.

 

Why is Gamification Important in the Workplace?

Ok, how many times have you tried to launch a new marketing or business development plan that's crystal clear to your in-house BD team and even some of the partners or c-suites in the office, only for the entire vision to be lost on the majority of your employees? Enter gamification.

Gamification allows your roadmap to be paved with actionable tasks that offer quick feedback and provides guidance to employees. Showing the entire picture of a campaign with the clearly outlined steps you need your firm to take is a good way to get every employee on board, even the most resistant. Performance can be improved if employees take actions geared towards improving their results and working as a collective towards a common goal.

 

Get on Your Employees' Team 

We talk a lot about being a team player. A common question when making small talk is “who is your favorite team?” and we also hear tales (both fiction and non-fiction) of people wanting to be “part of the team,” right?

While we love a strong team effort and helping firms form cohesive BD initiatives that rely on collaboration, success isn’t reserved exclusively for big groups, and our favorite (and by far most fun) way to crush BD goals is for every kind of firm – from global to the solo practitioner.

The best gaming technology is truly one-size-fits-all and is designed to create a more seamless, informative, comprehensive, and FUN approach to business development - while also increasing employee engagement.

 

How Employees Experience Gamification 

“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” We’ve all heard it, and it’s true, which is another reason gamification and game elements are crucial aspects of workflow management that help attorneys and professionals build positive habits around their long-term business development goals.

Ask any of your employees how they'd feel about turning in their least-liked and monotonous work tasks into a game. We'd bet anything you'd get an overwhelmingly positive response. But the benefits of incorporating gamification features to employees are just half the action here. You might be creating a better and happier workday with quality of life rewards for employees, but you're also building practices that support business growth while you're at it.

 

Gamification Creates Reinforcement 

We have a natural instinct that encourages us to repeat actions that we have enjoyed, and positive feedback heightens this instinct even more. An employee's desired behavior may continue long after their behavior results in a positive outcome, which brings your business goals closer in view and more attainable to meet.

On the flip side, a lack of response or recognition for employees completing tasks builds resentment and adverse reactions to habits around abstract tasks like business development and marketing campaigns.

 

Gamification Creates Motivation

There have been numerous studies aimed at learning more about self-motivation and achieving goals. Feeling disjointed from a certain department in your firm, like your in-house BD department, can create division and a lack of motivation among your employees who are not privy to the goal-tracking progress bars on initiatives in which they are involved.

Having to participate in campaigns and projects without clearly defined progress metrics and feedback can feel like running an unfair race. No amount of pep talks or enthusiasm from upper management can instill motivation in what feels like a losing race. If a company is lacking motivation, it's almost impossible to reach goals and growth fully.

This is an important aspect to remember, now more than ever, as many firms work remotely and struggle to build engagement and connectivity to motivate progress. Gamification is particularly useful in remote jobs when employees are distributed across several places without much time to talk to each other.

However your firm is positioned, it's important to build in engagement and motivation, and implementing gamification is an easy way to do this – and do it well.

 

Gamification Makes Learning Fun and Engaging 

Gamification is said to increase the ability of individuals to retain information three times as easily as those learning without gamification. Gamified learning increases a person's interest in learning through interactive activities. The most challenging aspect of acquiring knowledge is personal interest.

We know that not everyone lives and breathes BD like we do at Society 54. That's why we strongly encourage our clients to implement gamified practices in their business development workflow to help employees with pacing, incentive, and building stronger habits.

If you don't buy the science, just take a look at the anecdotal evidence. More than 75% of users say using gamification at work improves their work productivity, decreases stress, and elevates their overall work performance.

Big firms love gamification, and boutique and solo practitioner clients see just as much success from this addictive and exciting way to approach BD tasks.

If you'd like to get in on the action of gamifying workflow, tasks or business development, reach out to one of our pleasant pheasants today to learn more about the gamification built into our INform technology.

 

Start playing, and more importantly, start winning!

Morgan LewisGamification