All games – whether we’re talking sport games, board games, or video games – share common elements: goals, rules, and feedback. A good game is a goal-driven, challenge-intense and feedback-rich experience geared towards progress.
Goals are important. But there is more to goals than specific, measurable targets. In games, goals provide narrative, context and meaning – something missing from much of our real world work.
But from a motivation design perspective, unpacking the three elements of games is critical, as it shines a spotlight on the two overlooked elements in our goal-obsessed world: the importance of rules, and the power of feedback.
Rules are what make up games. Remove the rules from a game of golf, and then you’d be able to achieve the goal (getting the ball in the hole) however you like. It’d become too easy to achieve the goal, and therefore less fun. For while some might believe people play games to escape work, the reality is they play games to engage in well designed work.
Feedback is what sustains motivation. When asking the question “what gets people most enthusiastic about doing work?”, researchers found that ‘a clear sense of progress’ was more effective than clear goals, incentives, rewards or any other factor. This ‘progress principle’ was recognised as Harvard Business Review’s #1 breakthrough idea in 2010.
And it makes a heap of sense. We have a finite amount of energy, time and attention available to us each day. It makes sense that we are more inclined invest it towards things that contribute to progress. Game designers know this. The feedback loops in all good games are tight – you can see how your effort is contributing to progress.
All work can be viewed through the lens of game design. For example, a project has objectives (goals), there are budget and time restrictions (rules), and there are key performance indicators and milestones to achieve along the way (feedback). If you’ve ever cooked a meal, this too could be seen to be a game. There’s a goal (cook good food well), there are rules (ingredients, sequence) and there’s feedback (was it tasty?). In fact, much of life could be viewed through the lens of game design.
Except, most of the games we play are poorly designed – or barely designed at all.
If you’re looking to get more motivation and engagement from your staff, the easiest thing you can do is offer a reward. Indeed, most of gamification (very different to game design) is about creating fancy incentives to influence behaviour.
But if you want to change motivation in a sustainable and significant way, we need to change the game. The goals, rules and feedback of games correlate to our modern understanding of motivation: purpose, mastery and autonomy. And while I’m loathe to dumb things down to a set of simple ’tips’ to follow, here are three quick wins you can generate from your business by thinking like a game designer.
1. Build narrative and instil purpose. The concept of ‘starting with the WHY’ isn’t a new one, but it’s often missed in day to day work. Make sure your staff know how their work contributes to something bigger.
2. Compress challenges. Sometimes important work doesn’t get done because there are no clear parameters around it. People default to the familiar rather than progressing through the uncertainty of making new ideas happen. But some companies organise deliberate ‘hack days’ or productivity blitzes to tackle the challenges critical for progress. Here, the challenge is clear and intense, and the parameters are tight (24–48 hours).
3. Make progress visible. Reduce the latency between effort and meaningful feedback. Develop shared structures and rituals around progress. This could be a high level Gantt Chart and a daily team huddle. Or it could simple collaborative software and a weekly team check in. In some companies, there are ‘progress walls’ devoted to highlighting current challenges and where things are progressing.
Dr Jason Fox is the author of the recently published book The Game Changer: how to use the science of motivation with the power of game design to shift behaviour, shape culture and make clever happen.
