Gamifying the Workplace

Can gamification be bad whlie games are good?

Compared to the times the concept has emerged a few decades ago, it may not be the buzzword it used to be. Nevertheless we are guided in our lives probably more than ever by this very ‘tactic’. In a world focused on quantification and competition, where technology is utilized by all means to convert our every single action into numerical data, it is high time to ask the old question once again, now in the face of gamification: is life a game?

Gamification; what was it, again? And gamification of work? Check this piece by Petre as an introduction to reflecting on the subject.

Anyone who has read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer no doubt remembers the fence-painting scene. Consigned as a punishment by his Aunt Polly to spend a Saturday whitewashing 30 yards of wooden fence, Tom instead recruits neighborhood boys to do the chore for him. He convinces his marks that fence painting—far from being drudgery—is an inherently pleasurable activity. Tom spends the day relaxing in the shade as the boys pay him in marbles, apples, and other childhood treasures for the privilege of taking a turn with the paintbrush.

According to Rajat Paharia, founder and chief product officer of the business gamification company Bunchball, the fence-painting scene teaches a timeless and simple lesson: the difference between work and play is “completely in our heads.” With the right tactics, writes Paharia in his book Loyalty 3.0, “anything that is considered work can be turned into play—something that people want to do.”

...

Read the full article here, download the pdf below, or see it on Public Books where it was first published.