Gamification – the game as a method!

Team events – more than just fun!

Team building, training, workshops – many management levels have come to realise that successful and regular team events have positive effects on the employee and team level, which have an impact on the company in various ways.

Low acceptance + low motivation = little effect

Employees often have reservations about team events: they are perhaps expecting boring workshops, ineffective training or team building make it feel like a waste of their time. Whether the reservations are based on experience or expectations is of secondary importance, as both lead to little acceptance and motivation. The employees “must” appear at the events. When employees “want” to participate, they’ll get a greater benefit as they are more motivated and are more amenable to change in the first place.

How to turn “have to” into “want to”.

One of the most efficient methods to increase motivation is the use of game elements, also known as “gamification”. In the specific case of team events, the use of game elements with a coherent game, leads to participants playing a game and learning subliminally – which create less resistance and a greater impact.

Gamification: Playing into the future?

Gamification is “the application of game-typical elements in a non-game context” (cf. also Unger, T. Gamification 2015, p. 190). A few concrete examples illustrate how it works:

• One of the largest international companies from the chemical and pharmaceutical industry has developed a software-based simulation game in which employees can train their managerial skills and get to know the widely ramified company with its sub-divisions.
• One of the world’s largest software manufacturers identified an important routine activity in its own work processes, but one that was boring for the employees and which was often postponed, thus holding up the work process. As an incentive, a computer-based skill game was designed and linked to this activity.

Both examples have successfully shown that gamification can increase motivation in certain activities. On the one hand, natural play instincts and curiosity are addressed, and on the other hand, the game mechanics used offer incentives to perform even unpopular activities.

In the meantime, it has also become apparent in the areas of health care, customer loyalty or knowledge transfer that embedded game principles can help to achieve goals more efficiently.