Gamification Mechanic Monday: Multiple resources
At the weekend I downloaded the iPad version of SimCity, which has been a game I loved on computer for years, but had stopped playing because I was getting too engrossed. What I love about the game though is that you have to manage multiple resources to keep your citizens happy and your city thriving. In a lot of ways this reflects how business decision and governmental decisions are made. You have multiple resources and each of them needs to be at an optimal level in order to function and not all of them are in unlimited supply. Sometimes you have to wait for a factory to be built, before you can construct better houses, money may run out hence you need to make it.
In some of the solutions I work on, having a multiple input dashboard with real-time data, is exactly what employees need to know in order to manage their performance. The more I work with giving people the information as well as the benchmark of what constitutes a great day’s work or the targets often leads to increased performance. The challenge in most work places is that we don’t have a visual on our performance and often not against real time data, most of the time data in the workplace are historic. On one project recently sales agents were set a number of calls and duration target, largely self-chosen at the morning meeting within given parameters. One agent was topping the leaderboard and another was close, the leader hung around until he was sure his next follower wouldn’t beat his target. There was no push from management to do this, but it definitely was a key driver for the leading guy.
Although that example might be extreme for some, it is indicative of some of the psychology behind it. Give employees the freedom to set their own targets within given parameters and then give them the instant real-time feedback on performance so they can manage their own success. It feeds motivational drivers of achievement and empowerment. As long as your data is measuring the behaviour you want to encourage, you are then enabling people to give it their best shot and everyone wins.
