Important Lessons That Gaming Can Teach Small Business
Posted by aonenetworks On May 17, 2014
Game theory is one of the most powerful tools a business (any business) can bring to bear on a problem. It doesn’t matter what it is, game theory can help you solve it. Even better, the solutions offered by game theory in general, and gaming in particular can help your company run better, faster, smoother, and more efficiently than it ever has before. That’s not only bound to do great things for your bottom line, but using game theory in your business will almost certainly increase employee morale and decrease turnover rates. If you want to know how, keep reading, and understand that this is by no means an exhaustive list. Just a little taste of what’s possible.
Training isn’t an agony
By properly “gamifying” training, and catering to the different learning styles your employees may have – there are seven main ones in all – you can make training fun and engaging. Doing this will lead to a much higher retention rate of the information you are wishing to impart on your employees. They’ll not only be more committed to learning it, but they’ll remember and apply it more consistently, simply by changing your training approach.
Your people will be more productive
Gamification can easily be adopted by any company to create real, genuine positive feedback loops inside your company where compelling rewards are offered for excellence of performance. One drives the other in an arena of friendly competition that sees employees more plugged in, engaged, and productive than they ever have been.
It is empowering
Game theory is all about empowerment. Empowering the game’s players to make strategic, interesting, meaningful decisions, and trusting them with that power. There’s absolutely nothing stopping you from implementing it in your company, starting tomorrow, and reaping those same benefits, company wide.
It knocks down barriers
There are no “turf wars” in gaming. Game theory is about the open ended sharing of information. By gamifying your company, Bob in Accounting won’t feel that he has to “defend his turf” when John from Finance comes by and asks for people and resources. In fact, in a gamified company, Bob might actively seek John out and offer his assistance. That’s something you rarely see in most corporate cultures. Easily fixed.
Work is just more fun
Have you ever taken a tour of someone else’s company and been absolutely dazzled? Everywhere you look, you seem employees laughing, smiling, cutting up, and having fun. “Stuff” is absolutely getting done. In fact, you may be on a fact finding mission at one of your competitors to find out how the heck they keep beating you to the punch. When you leave the place, you’re more confused than ever. They looked like a bunch of slackers, how it that possible?!
In a word, gamification.
Look, at the end of the day, your employees know they have a job to do. Everyone knows that if they don’t get it done and done well, there won’t be a company, nobody will get paid, and everyone will have to go look for new jobs somewhere else (including you). So having put that all on the table, now everyone can relax. In a gamified company, you trust your employees, and they trust you. You know that they know what their jobs are, and you give them the power and the tools to do that job really well.
You also give them the flexibility to goof off now and then, and that’s okay. In fact, it’s even more okay if you’re comfortable enough to goof off with them. These are people who will burn the midnight oil for you when it counts, because they know you trust them. Be that boss. Be that company.
