Watch Leighton Read’s keynote at the Training 2011 Conference on how businesses can use game ideas to embed learning into work.
Games for the Enterprise and Embedded Learning
2 Responses to “Games for the Enterprise and Embedded Learning”
Leave a Reply
Gaming as a New Lens on Management
Occasionally we’ll tweet excerpts from our book, Total Engagement, and then give more context here on our blog:
Twitter Tidbit #24:
Games give us a new lens through which we can examine cherished ideas about management and new tools—some simple and some radical—with which to experiment. Pg 13
Tweet in Context:
Most important, this book should enable you to evaluate the arguments for a new idea that has been discussed in academia and industry labs but that is only now poised to guide innovations and practices in the workplace. We think the timing is right. A global economic downturn creates enormous stress on management and workers, and opens the door to disruptive innovation of all kinds. Games give us a new lens through which we can examine cherished ideas about management and new tools—some simple and some radical—with which to experiment. We are just starting to see applications that execute this vision and will tell you about the best examples we have been able to find. We wish we had even more; maybe they will come from you and your colleagues. It’s even possible that the early misapplication of these powerful techniques in the workplace could delay broader use until people are comfortable with checks and safeguards. To supplement stories from real companies, we’ll describe some examples that we think will advance the field, and each chapter will begin with a story like Jennifer’s that has either already happened or could happen in the very near future.
The full first chapter can be found here.
2 Responses to “Gaming as a New Lens on Management”
-
Interesting angle on addressing the issue of prioritization. As we all know, it’s too easy to overwhelm ourselves with “task” overload.
Why not take your concept and extend it too other settings as well – for example, entrepreneurs and even in personal life. The real scarcity in life is not money … but time.
-
John Rizzo says:
I am currently reading your book for a Virtual Reality course which is part of my masters work. It has been very interesting so far and I have one general question that I thought I could pose to the authors.
Throughout the book you raise the point that businesses need to pay people to work but those same people will go home and pay to play a video game. This is used as an argument to support the need for companies to make work more like the games their employees pay to play in order to increase motivation and productivity.
I am wondering if there would be any push-back on the part of employees if work became so closely meshed with a part of their lives that they consider relaxing or enjoyable. Could the attempt to merge work with what is primarily a social/personal activity be heavily resisted on the part of employees? Would this impact the sacred and often difficult to manage work-life balance?
As someone who works in a K-12 educational environment I often hear students complain when teachers try to “invade” their space on social networking sites such as Facebook. Teachers are attempting to meet students where they are and teach and engage these digital natives in new ways but student’s want school to be school and social to be social.
Leave a Reply
Gaming the Work
Occasionally we’ll tweet excerpts from our book, Total Engagement, and then give more context here on our blog.
Twitter Tidbits #22 and #23:
The highest use of games will be to redesign work so that it is more like a game and to allow work to be conducted within games. Pg 13
From “I wish my job could be more like my game,” to “I’ll take your job because my game experience tells me I can be successful here.” Pg 13
Tweet in Context:
We believe the highest use of games will be to redesign work so that it is more like a game and to allow work to be conducted within games. Even if games seem irrelevant to your business, they certainly aren’t to people you’re going to be hiring, and that’s reason enough to find out about how they work. Business needs to motivate and engage workers who have very different expectations about communication based on extensive, new, and often intense media experiences. These workers will bring new expectations about user interfaces, communication tools, and, importantly, the pace of challenge and reward. We’ve already heard the words “I wish my job could be more like my game.” Soon, we will hear “I quit that job because it wasn’t enough like my game,” and eventually “I’ll take your job because my game experience tells me I can be successful here.”
The full first chapter can be found here.
One Response to “Gaming the Work”
-
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Mark Frazier, Seriosity. Seriosity said: The highest use of games will be to redesign work so it is more like a game & to allow work to be conducted w/in games http://bit.ly/fsymDT [...]
Leave a Reply
Games are Everyone’s Business
Occasionally we’ll tweet excerpts from our book, Total Engagement, and then give more context here on our blog:
Twitter Tidbit #21:
Anyone interested in the evolution and design of work should consider how game ideas can be applied to business. Pg 13
Tweet in Context:
We think anyone interested in the evolution and design of work should consider how game ideas can be applied to business. Game psychology and technology are broadly relevant to business. There are new and important lessons for those whose work touches on recruitment, hiring, training, retention, leadership, teams, evaluation, collaboration, and innovation. The lessons are applicable across business functions—sales, marketing, research, development, production, and management. We’ll make the links as we review business issues in each category.
The full first chapter can be found here.
One Response to “Games are Everyone’s Business”
-
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Maddie, Seriosity. Seriosity said: Anyone interested in the evolution & design of work should consider how game ideas can be applied to biz. http://bit.ly/el5lgj #gamification [...]
Leave a Reply
Is Gaming a Win-Win for Businesses and Employees?
Occasionally we’ll tweet excerpts from our book, Total Engagement, and then give more context here on our blog:
Twitter Tidbits #19 and #20:
Work would be hopelessly confused with play … Pg 10
“Buying work,” where a game is sufficiently bad that you may have to pay people to play it (as epitomized by most jobs today). Pg 10
Tweet in Context:
Stranger things have happened, but we are quick to admit that the mapping is yet to be done. If successful, this would be an astonishing alignment of personal motivations and business value. Work would be hopelessly confused with play, with the result a possible win-win for the players and for the businesses that sponsored them. There is a spectrum of possibilities that runs from “stealing work” from unsuspecting players to “renting work” when players are in on the deal and to what we call “buying work,” where a game is sufficiently bad that you may have to pay people to play it (as epitomized by most jobs today).
The full first chapter can be found here.
One Response to “Is Gaming a Win-Win for Businesses and Employees?”
-
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Julie Hunt, Seriosity. Seriosity said: Is Gaming a Win-Win for Businesses and Employees? http://bit.ly/c2k8CU #gamification #seriousgames [...]
Leave a Reply
Ten Ways Games Can Boost Your Career
In July, Oliver Chiang of Forbes published a piece about how playing video games can boost your career. The article included a colorful slide show of the 10 reasons why this is so. Most of the examples are from World of Warcraft. We are happy to see Forbes, picking up on the relevance of WoW when it comes to leadership and management.
This story draws on the important work of our friends, John Hagel and John Seely Brown at Delloitt’s Center for Edge Innovation and Ross Smith at Microsoft.
The focus of this article is on the transferability of skills honed in a game into the real world of work. We are very much in agreement.
The emphasis in our thinking is that these ideas and tools are way too good to be reserved for practicing to work. We think the elements of great games should be introduced into real everyday work.
Here is Oliver’s list:
- Leadership
- If at first you don’t succeed
- It’s about team work
- Developing talent
- Learning to improvise
- Performance-driven
- Living for challenges
- Competition
- Becoming an entrepreneur
- Managing information
One Response to “Ten Ways Games Can Boost Your Career”
-
The stories coming out of EVE Online would blow most corporate management misconceptions about gaming to kingdomcom!
Great list Oliver!
Leave a Reply
For Hard Work, Games Clarify Objectives and Give Positive Reinforcement
Occasionally we’ll tweet excerpts from our book, Total Engagement, and then give more context here on our blog:
Twitter Tidbit #15:
Some work is too hard: productivity suffers because goals are in conflict or difficult to define. Pg 8
Tweet in Context:
Some work is too hard: productivity suffers because goals are in conflict or difficult to define. Sometimes it’s hard because the learning curve is too steep, or success takes a long time to achieve, or it’s not easy to measure and thus celebrate intermediate steps. Sometimes work is too hard because of interruptions and information overload. Sometimes work is too hard because other people make it that way. Good game design can fix poor work design and bring new life to well-designed jobs that are still too difficult to be satisfying. In these situations, game designs will offer new tools to clarify objectives that adapt to external challenges and will give immediate and intermediate reinforcement for progress accompanied by intrinsic training to ensure personal growth. These design principles are all mainstays of successful interactive games.
The full first chapter can be found here.
One Response to “For Hard Work, Games Clarify Objectives and Give Positive Reinforcement”
-
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Deirdre : MintPowers, Seriosity. Seriosity said: For Hard Work, Games Clarify Objectives and Give Positive Reinforcement http://bit.ly/aeDFYP #gamification #seriousgames #hr [...]
Leave a Reply
Gamification for Maximizing Employee Engagement
Recently, Byron and Leighton gave a keynote address at the LOGIN conference. Watch their speech about how businesses can and are using games to increase leadership and productivity among employees.
LOGIN 2010: Total Engagement: Using Games to Change How People Work from Cynthia L. Freese on Vimeo.
5 Responses to “Gamification for Maximizing Employee Engagement”
-
The RSS feeds for this site don’t appear to be working – My Feed Reader FeedDemon reports “Unable to locate the sites Feed” …
-
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Ken Hartmann, Ken Hartmann and Julie Hunt, Seriosity. Seriosity said: Gamification for Maximizing Employee Engagement http://bit.ly/caNcLO #gamification #seriousgames [...]
-
I really like the ideas here. It will be interesting to see where this starts to pop up and how it is accepted by the more traditional establishments. If we could only harness a fraction of the engagement and excitement some people exhibit while playing games and direct it towards our workforce we should be able to see a good increase in productivity and retention.
-
Gaming is becoming a huge player in engagement. Just looking at the rapid spread of social games like Mafia Wars and Farmville, employers can look at these examples to use in their own modified ways.
-
[...] workplace more engaging overall. Of course, the folks at Seriosity agree with me – check out their talk from the LOGIN conference for more on the motivational [...]
Leave a Reply
The authors
- Byron is the Paul C. Edwards Professor in the Department of Communication at Stanford University, and Co-Founder and Faculty Co-Director of the H-STAR Institute and Media X.
- J. Leighton Read, M.D., is a General Partner in four Alloy Ventures funds from 2001-2007 and a successful entrepreneur and CEO.
Total Engagement
A book on using games and virtual worlds to change the way that people work and businesses compete.
Search
Subscribe
Archives
Categories
- Avatar (3)
- Employee Engagement (5)
- Health (1)
- Seriosity (11)
- Serious Gaming (6)
- Total Engagement (19)
- Twitter (15)
- Work Engagement (3)
[...] om forskning i spil og læring. I det klip fra Byron & Reeves blog jeg har linket til, (Games for the Enterprise and Embedded Learning) dukker der en liste op over ting som gør de store spil så [...]
Wow, I really identify with Ted. I have a fancy Instructional Design Master’s Degree where I studied instructional simulation and game design. Then I gave up my cool simulation and game job to work for a respectable company so I can support my family and pay the bills.
What are some ways that as a mere employee I can influence my workplace to be more engaging and implement some of the pieces I know so well from the games I have studied and that I go home to play? (Remember, I am definitely not a decisionmaker at said respectable employment).