3 Ideas to Implement Low-Tech Gamification in Corporate Training

There is a new generation of workers taking over key positions in your organization and in your meetings.

This generation is younger, yes, but they’re also different in ways that will definitely change how business is done — and those differences are driven by one central factor: growing up playing video games.

Data from the Kaiser Family Foundation shows 8-10 year olds spend more than an hour a day with video games. The immense amount of time spent with games during a child’s formative years has led them to be literally “hard wired” in a different way than those who came before.

The G Generation (Gamer Generation) will soon outnumber their elders in the workplace. Their way of thinking will soon pass the business tipping point and become standard operating procedure.

Sooner or later, those who grew up without video games will have to understand the gamers. That means not only learning what they’re all about, but finding ways to redesign your organization’s on boarding, engagement, loyalty, and training programs.

Welcome to gamification.

Gamification is an important and powerful new strategy for influencing and motivating people. It takes the elements of your favorite games like Clue and Angry Birds and applies them to everyday life. Simply defined, gamification uses game mechanics and rewards for non-game applications in order to increase engagement, knowledge transfer, and loyalty.  

You can take the game mechanics that game designers had been using for years such as competition, real-time feedback, and goal-setting, and apply them outside of gaming.

Gamification works to drive behavior because it is based on satisfying fundamental human needs and desires.

Gamification does NOT mean making a computer or a video game, and expecting it to motivate people … it’s about much more than the technology. It means taking the concepts around games and great game design, and using them in an authentic way to drive the behavior you want to get.

For example to implement low-tech gamification in your corporate training you can:

1. Organize a module of training into quests with challenges that individuals or teams must solve
2. Turn a review of new information into a highly-charged, audience-driven process where teams work to solve scenario-based problems before time runs out
3. Ask participants to create avatars or identities they will use when participating in activities

Gamers think differently than you do… are you ready to think differently about how to connect, motivate, and engage with them?

Implement gamification in your corporate training TODAY, download Gamification Design and Implementation - A Starter Kit.

About the Author:  Monica CornettiFounder and CEO, Sententiawww.SententiaGames.com
www.monicacornetti.com

A gamification speaker and designer, Monica Cornetti is rated as a #1 Gamification Guru in the World by UK-Based Leaderboarded. She is the author of the book Totally Awesome Training Activity Guide: Put Gamification to Work for You, writes The Gamification Report blog, and hosts the weekly Gamification Talk Radio program.

She is a professional consultant and known for being one of the leading players in thinking differently to create uncommon results. In fact, as an early adopter, she has been designing and delivering gamification programs for her clients since 2008.