Gamification Mechanic Monday: Time-out
In several sports a time-out is used to re-group, discuss new strategies and to allow players to take their breath in a tense moment. In one of my favourite sports basketball, time-outs are often used even tactically to defuse the tension, when high pressure or high scoring stakes are at risk. It is often a tactical tool to disturb the flow of the opposing team, especially when they are gaining on you.
In business having a time-out when things are not working the way you want or when the pressure is high, can be a useful technique to defuse tension and stress levels. It takes a courageous manager or worker to call for a time-out, it takes no technology whatsoever, just insight into people and how the environment or stress levels can impact performance.
Managing productivity and performance doesn’t essential vary whether you are working in a sports or a business environment. In both you will find peaks and throughs in both performance and tension. Stepping out of the pressurised situation can allow you to re-group and get perspective on what is important. Equally it allows the team to spur each other on and to point out some obvious risks that maybe people at other angles can see more clearly than the person closest to it.
In which business situations have you seen this approach applied and used to great effect?
