Productivity Games - Ross Smith

How Gaming Transforms the Workplace | Casual Connect Seattle

2011-09-24T08:58:00.000-07:00

http://casualconnect.org/lectures/business/how-gaming-transforms-the-workplace-ross-smith/

With widespread access to broadband, social networks and multiple connected devices and tools on a daily basis, people are increasingly engaging in a fully connected and often gaming-centered digital world. This digitally-savvy population is also entering the workforce in larger numbers than ever — inciting vast changes in the workplace and re-defining our very understanding of how work “works”. Gaming and applied game elements, in particular, can make a dramatic impact on the quality of productivity, management, and even team-work itself. Whether you’re talking about making key personnel decisions, motivating employees, setting objectives or facilitating collaboration – these new ways of working will continue to shape the 21st century. Join Microsoft’s Ross Smith as he describes his experience and vision around how “productivity games” can help shape our working lives.

Delivered at Casual Connect Seattle, July 2011.

How Gamification Works

2011-05-30T11:29:00.000-07:00

How Stuff Works

"Gamification" describes turning real-world situations into games. Gamification is a neologism -- a newly invented term that's becoming commonly used. The word gamification was likely born in the realm of casual conversation to convey the idea of turning something into a game. People like entrepreneur and author Gabe Zichermann, though, have given gamification its own unique definition. Zichermann, a respected authority on gamification and its applications, defines the term as "the process of using game thinking and mechanics to engage audiences and solve problems." In short, he describes gamification as "non-fiction gaming."

Ribbon Hero 2

2011-05-29T17:38:00.000-07:00

Clippy is back!

Ribbon Hero 2 uses game mechanics to teach players how to use Office.

Download here

CNN coverage is here

The storyline with Clippy keeps a theme across levels of learning.

"In Ribbon Hero 2, you'll hop on board Clippy's stolen time machine and explore different time periods. With each time period, you get to explore a new game board with challenges you must complete to get to the next level."

YouTube video here

Crowdsourcing Can Help Companies Find Scarce Data Analysis Skills

2011-04-02T13:44:00.000-07:00

IT Business Edge

As Darren Vengroff, a former lead researcher for Amazon's recommendation engine, said in a Forbes article, Netflix "spent the same amount and got thousands, probably millions of engineer-years."

So it's not too surprising to see other companies trying to attain similar R&D returns by offering big bucks to folks who can help figure out the answers to complex data analysis questions.

As The Wall Street Journal reports, California physicians group Heritage Provider Network Inc. is offering $3 million to the participant who develops the best model to predict how many days a patient is likely to spend in the hospital in a year's time. Contestants will receive "anonymized" insurance-claims data to create their models.

Heritage executive Jonathan Gluck says the goal is to reduce the number of hospital visits, by identifying patients who could benefit from services such as home nurse visits.

Lync IM an Expert

2011-03-27T14:16:00.000-07:00

IM an Expert helps connect people asking questions with a set of self identified experts via IM. Experts compete via a leaderboard to answer questions using Lync instant messenging. Great example of a productivity game :-)

from http://lyncteam.com/archive/2011/03/23/2272.aspx

Are there experts in your enterprise that would like to share their knowledge? Do you find yourself trying to find the right person to answer a particular question?

IM an Expert for Lync Server 2010 can help connect experts in an organization with those seeking their advice. Unlike forums, distribution lists or other existing methods, IM an Expert can provide almost immediate assistance by searching for available experts and using IM to contact them

It Doesn't Feel Like Work--the Power of Intrinsic Motivation

2011-03-12T21:07:00.000-08:00

MiX

It is amazing how much can be accomplished if no one cares who gets the credit." - John Wooden

Rewards and punishments are often thought of in terms of "extrinsic" motivators--incentives that go beyond, or are greater than, the task itself and which are offered up by someone other than those performing the task. A child receives a piece of candy for sitting still or a salesman gets a trip to Hawaii for selling above quota. External motivation can often take the form of punishment or manipulation as well.

Most of us have to work to earn a living--with the evidence on display in that legendary contrivance known as a paycheck. There are many powerful inducements to show up and perform each and every day, whether you enjoy it or not, but the paycheck is often the most compelling.

In 1905, Howard Washington Odum wrote:

Well, you wake up in the mornin',
You hear the work bell ring,
And they march you to the table to see the same old thing.
Ain't no food upon the table, and no pork up in the pan.
But you better not complain, boy,
You get in trouble with the man.

On the contrary, we all have seen those intrinsically motivated people perform each of their tasks for the enjoyment or satisfaction of the task itself. (It's awe-inspiring--and sometimes jealousy-inducing.)

In "Social Influences on Creativity: The Effects of Contracted-For Rewards" (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, p383), Teresa Amabile suggests that "people are intrinsically motivated to engage in a particular task if they view their task engagement as motivated primarily by their own interest and involvement in the task".

Does a paycheck, salary bonus, raise, or promotion put more work in to work? Well, it sure seems like lavish raises, exotic vacations, those coveted employee-of-the-month parking spots, and massive bonuses would make work more fun, doesn't it? The research suggests otherwise: rewards, or worse, the threat of punishment actually make work less enjoyable and perhaps even reduce productivity. These extrinsic elements can make work feel like work.

People who are offered rewards tend to "...choose easier tasks, are less efficient in using the information available to solve novel problems, and tend to be answer oriented and more illogical in their problem solving strategies. They seem to work harder and produce activity, but the activity is of a lower quality, contains more errors, and is more stereotyped and less creative than the work of comparable non-rewarded subjects working on the same problem."

Perhaps a goal of the "take the work out of work" moonshot could be to shift from extrinsic motivation to intrinsic--to build teams of people who are self-motivated by the tasks themselves; inspired by the vision or mission of the organization, rather than by the promise of a paycheck, a bonus, or a raise. Confucius said, "Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life." (John Condry “Enemies of Exploration: Self-initiated vs. Other-initiated Learning” p. 471)

And in one of the perhaps all-time greatest testimonials to the power of intrinsic motivation, Theodore Roosevelt, in Paris in 1910, said:

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

So, as we move along the path away from extrinsic rewards towards intrinsic motivation, we begin with external regulation--performing a task to get a reward or to avoid a punishment.
As Alfie Kohn, author of Punished by Rewards, suggests:

"Sure, bribes and threats can produce temporary compliance. Offer a reward to adults for going to the gym, or to children for picking up a book, and it may work -- for a while. But they come to think of themselves as extrinsically motivated, so when the reward is no longer available there's no reason to continue. Indeed, they may wind up less interested in exercising or reading than they were before."

Let's survey a few recent submissions on the MiX and look for evidence that might support this idea that an increasing the level of intrinsic motivation in the workplace could help to take the work out of work.

The Gamification of Work

2011-02-12T19:21:00.000-08:00

MiX

Gamification, the use of game elements, or game play mechanics, for non-game applications, is getting a lot of attention these days. Later this month at the Game Developer’s Conference, the "Great Gamification Debate " will dispute the merits of adding game elements to real life. Check out Jesse Schell’s Gamepocalypse talk, Jane McGonigal, author of Reality is Broken on Colbert, and Business Week’s recent article

In the renowned "Homo Ludens", Johan Huizinga, describes play as "an activity which proceeds within certain limits of time and space, in a visible order, according to rules freely accepted, and outside the sphere of necessity or material utility. The play-mood is one of rapture and enthusiasm, and is sacred or festive in accordance with the occasion. A feeling of exaltation and tension accompanies the action, mirth and relaxation follow." (Homo Ludens, Johan Huizinga, p. 132)

Wow! Wouldn’t it be great if that’s how you described your workplace? Douglas MacGregor, in Theory X, suggests that "work is as natural as play." Perhaps, we can follow the lead of these HCI M-Prize innovators and "gamify" our work—adding more game elements, beyond the typical player vs. player competition and zero sum, winner-take-all rewards so commonplace in corporations today. Perhaps we could all achieve the success that these M-Prize folks have brought to their workplace.

Business Week: 'Gamification': A Growing Business to Invigorate Stale Websites

2011-01-29T15:09:00.000-08:00

Business Week

When done right, games exert a strong psychological influence over consumers, says Amy Jo Kim, a game designer who worked on hits such as Rock Band after earning a PhD in behavioral neuroscience. "What games do is help you come up with stories about yourself," she says. Earning points or reaching new levels creates the illusion of progress and is akin to "telling you a story about yourself getting better and stronger and more powerful," she says.

Social status is another motivator. "We have this tendency to care about what image we portray," says Dan Ariely, a professor of behavioral economics at Duke University. In real life, there are mansions and handbags. "In the gaming world," says Ariely, "there are badges."

Giants’ safeties wish Tom Coughlin would be more like Rex Ryan

2011-01-22T14:09:00.000-08:00

From NBC Sports

We are approaching the NFL Super Bowl in the U.S., and throughout the playoffs, there’s been a lot of talk about, and by, New York Jets coach Rex Ryan. Last week, two New York Giants players, who are not in the playoffs compared their coach, Tom Coughlin, to the Jets Ryan. Safety Antrel Rolle said about Coughlin, “If he just loosened up just a little bit, run the ship the way you want to run it, run the program the way you want to run it but let us have a little fun, because at the end of the day that’s what it’s all about. . . . I like the coach, I understand what he’s trying to do but he has to understand it’s 2011, man, things have changed.”

Nissan Leaf rates you against other drivers, creates a high score list for hypermilers

2010-12-30T17:09:00.000-08:00

From Engadget
http://www.engadget.com/2010/12/26/nissan-leaf-rates-you-against-other-drivers-creates-a-high-scor/

Xbox Live and the Achievement system kind of reinvented the high score list, letting you compete against your friends even when you're roaming solo through a stark, barren wasteland. It looks like Nissan is doing much the same with the Leaf -- but minus the bloatflies and the supermutants. As the cars are now rolling out to eager owners we're learning more about just what its Carwings system can do and another neat trick is the "Regional Rankings" page, where one driver's driving efficiency is rated against others in the area. There are bronze, silver, and gold medals up for grabs but, if you cover the thing with speed tape and only commute downhill, you might just be awarded the platinum award. What does that get you? Why, a little picture of a trophy, of course. What were you expecting?

DOD Launches Casual Games site

2010-12-30T10:23:00.000-08:00

http://clc.dau.mil/games

from Armed with Science

On December 1st, 2010, Defense Acquisition University (DAU) launched the first ever Department of Defense casual games site with 13 mini games designed specifically to enhance Acquisition workforce education.

DAU’s Global Learning Technologies Center became determined to launch a site of this nature when it was realized that DAU students were similar in demographic to users of other casual games sites. The rationale behind the site was to serve as a place where professionals in the Acquisition workforce could go to play games that were related to the “core competencies” that are central to Acquisition. The result was a game site that mirrors some of the functionalities that most sites use today, including the ability to create a login to store, rate, and comment on games as well as collect badges for achievements in play.

MiX: Here's a Resolution Worth Working On: Have More Fun

2010-12-27T09:24:00.000-08:00

MiX

Happy Holidays!

As we close out 2010 and look forward to the New Year, let’s take a look at a well honored tradition – the New Year’s resolution.

Celebrating the New Year is perhaps one of the oldest traditions we know of. Over 4000 years ago, the ancient Babylonians celebrated the new moon on March 23rd. Years later, in 153BC, the Roman Senate selected the god Janus to represent the beginning of the calendar year. In 46BC, Julius Caesar established the Julian calendar, securing January 1st as the official start of the year.

read more

How Video Games Are Infiltrating--and Improving--Every Part of Our Lives

2010-12-17T14:02:00.000-08:00

Fast Company

Pretty soon, every soda can and cereal box could have a built-in CPU, screen, and camera, along with Wi-Fi connectivity. And at that point, the gaming of life takes off. "You'll get up in the morning to brush your teeth and the toothbrush can sense that you're brushing," Schell said. "So, 'Hey, good job for you! Ten points' " from the toothpaste maker. You sit down to breakfast and get 10 points from Kellogg's for eating your Corn Flakes, then grab the bus because you get enviro-points from the government, which can be used as a tax deduction. Get to work on time, your employer gives you points. Drink Dr Pepper at lunch, points from the soda maker. Walk to a meeting instead of grabbing the shuttle, points from your health-insurance provider. Who knows how far this might run? Schell said. He offered psychedelic scenarios, like the one in which you recall a dream from the previous night where your mother was dancing with a giant Pepsi can: "You remember the REM-tertainment system, which is this thing you put in your ear that can sense when you enter REM sleep, and then [it] starts putting little advertisements out there to try and influence your dreams." If the ads take hold, you win big points for discounts at your local grocery store. "Then there's your office mate," Schell continued, "and he's like, 'Check out this new digital tattoo' " that he got from Tatoogle AdSense, and when you show him yours, you realize you're both wearing Pop-Tart ads. You get paid for the ads, plus 30 additional points just for noticing.

Full article

Whistle While You Work (but only if you are winning)

2010-12-05T18:48:00.000-08:00

Management Innovation Exchange

We're all for smiling at work—that is, until we start losing.

Just watch what happened when the Arizona Cardinals quarterback Derek Anderson was caught smiling and laughing during the Cardinals 27-6 loss to the San Francisco 49ers on Monday Night football. A short video clip of the lighthearted moment has triggered a bit of a frenzy. Post-game questions about the incident resulted in a tirade from Anderson and set off a storm of discussion in locker rooms and sports talk radio shows all over the country.

Here is a NY Times blog post. Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard spoofed the Anderson episode here.

more....

Forrester: Product Managers Take Note: Microsoft Is Using Serious Games To Product Test (And You Can Too)

2010-11-19T17:42:00.000-08:00

Forrester TJ Keitt

In September, Forrester's TJ Keitt published a case study of Microsoft's Windows and Office Communicator (now Microsoft Lync) teams' use of "productivity games."

What are productivity games?

Put simply, they are a series of games produced by a small group of defect testers to encourage rank-and-file Microsoft employees to put software through its paces before it is released to the public.

As many technology product managers can attest, getting employees of your company to take time away from their tasks to run a program in development and report any problems can be a Sisyphean effort: Bug checking doesn't have the allure of being an exciting, sexy job -- but it happens to be necessary.

It will come as a surprise, but since 2006, Microsoft has used five games to look for errors in Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Office Communicator; a sixth game -- Communicate Hope -- is currently in the field to test Microsoft Lync. Why so many games, you ask? Well, they work.

How Videogames Trained a Generation of Athletes

2010-08-22T12:31:00.000-07:00

Wired Magazine

Just before he reached the end zone, with 17 seconds remaining, Stokley cut right at 90 degrees and ran across the field. Six seconds drained off the clock before, at last, he meandered across the goal line to score the winning touchdown. For certain football fans, the excitement of a last-minute comeback now commingled with the shock of the familiar: It’s hard to think of a better example of a professional athlete doing something so obviously inspired by the tactics of videogame football. When I caught up with Stokley by telephone a few weeks later, I asked him point-blank: “Is that something out of a videogame?” “It definitely is,” Stokley said. “I think everybody who’s played those games has done that” — run around the field for a while at the end of the game to shave a few precious seconds off the clock. Stokley said he had performed that maneuver in a videogame “probably hundreds of times” before doing it in a real NFL game. “I don’t know if subconsciously it made me do it or not,” he said.

See also: DOUBLE PLAY: ATHLETES’ USE OF SPORT VIDEO GAMES TO ENHANCE ATHLETIC PERFORMANCE

When Playing Videogames At Work Makes Dollars And Sense

2010-08-15T20:30:00.000-07:00

Forbes

In most workplaces playing videogames will get you fired. But at some companies it may actually get you promoted.

Communicate Hope: Using Games and Play to Improve Productivity

2010-08-07T18:18:00.000-07:00

http://www.managementexchange.com/story/communicate-hope-using-games-and-play-improve-productivity-42projects

As the demographics of the workplace shift and more employees actively play games outside of work, the opportunity to use games to improve productivity expands. Organizations can leverage the appeal of game play, game theory, and competition to attract discretionary effort and increase productivity. Productivity games do not require a multi-million dollar first person shooter high graphics development effort – but can be rudimentary, with limited investment – and still yield tremendous results – particularly when compared with Six Sigma, TQM, and other tradition business process improvement initiatives. Communicate Hope is a productivity game in use at Microsoft to help encourage pre-release usage and product feedback for Office Communicator.

How 'Gamestorming' May Change the Way We Work

2010-08-01T16:48:00.000-07:00

IT Business Edge

Gamestorming encourages a quicker and more democratic way of working than most of us are used to. Visualization, improvisation, good listening and language skills become more important than they have been in the past, which may be a challenge for many folks. One key is not forcing it. Says Gray:

It's an approach to work that's about engaging people in collaboratory activities. It's not a game if people are forced to play, so you need to have people and projects that stir people's curiosity and emotion.

Gamestorming won't work in every work environment. It's a good way to try out different scenarios and test the results. While the approach is great for fostering creative energy and innovation, it isn't useful for work that demands a predictable, consistent approach. Says Gray:

You don't want people playing too many games in the accounting department.

Unlike factories or other workplaces where folks are engaged in highly visible tasks, many knowledge workers have trouble envisioning how their work fits into a bigger strategic picture. Gamestorming offers a way to help overcome this lack of transparency and the cubicle layouts common in many offices, which aren't exactly conducive to collaborating with coworkers.

How Playing Videogames Can Boost Your Career

2010-07-25T16:35:00.000-07:00

Forbes.com

How Playing Videogames Can Boost Your Career

Game-play can teach you valuable leadership and strategy skills.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Elliot Noss, chief executive of domain name provider Tucows, has spent the past five years training to become a better leader. How? By playing "World of Warcraft" for six to seven hours a week.

"'You have these events [in "World of Warcraft"] that are very leadership-driven," Noss says. "For example, when you're in a raid that's poorly led, it's really easy to see how valuable are skills like managing the social dynamic, making sure there was the right level of preparation and making sure that there was a clear hierarchy in terms of who is performing what roles."

In "World of Warcraft," each action, even a small task like hunting an animal, has a purpose and fits into a broader framework. Similarly, Noss has set up frameworks at Tucows ( TCX - news - people ) that allow employees to understand how day-to-day tasks impact the company.

In Pictures: 10 Ways Videogames Can Boost Your Career

He does this, in part, by giving employees a broader narrative and context for their work. Noss does a regular lunchtime series called "Tucows Lore." Around 20 employees come to each session. Noss plays the company poet, telling tales of Tucows over the years--its heroes, villains, battles with large telecommunications companies or the early days of the domain registration market. "The feedback is fantastic. It helps people feel they are part of something bigger," Noss says.

Noss' efforts seem to be paying off. He says he has seen employee satisfaction rise and turnover decrease by a noticeable percentage.

To be sure, videogames have long been thought of as distractions to work and education, rather than aids. But there is a growing school of thought that says game-playing in moderation, and in your free time, can make you more successful in your career.

"We're finding that the younger people coming into the teams who have had experience playing online games are the highest-level performers because they are constantly motivated to seek out the next challenge and grab on to performance metrics," says John Hagel III, co-chairman of a tech-oriented strategy center for Deloitte. Hagel has been studying the effect that playing videogames has on the performance of young professionals in the workplace.

Hagel cites Stephen Gillett, a gamer who became chief information officer of Starbucks ( SBUX - news - people ) while still in his 20s. By playing "World of Warcraft" Gillet developed the ability to influence and persuade people through leadership rather than trying to order them around.

Serious Games Festival 2010

2010-05-23T19:23:00.000-07:00

http://www.seriousgamesfestival.com/Serious_Games_Festival/Welcome.html

The Serious Games Initiative, with support from the Federation of American Scientists and other partners presents an event showcasing leading serious game projects and research to assist developers, sponsors, and partners operating in the serious games field.

This event kicks off Games Beyond Entertainment Week 2010 which offers a slew of events dedicated to exploring the edgier possibilities for videogames in today's global economy.

Check out Ribbon Hero from OfficeLabs

2010-01-19T10:52:00.000-08:00

The Office Labs team has built a cool game to help learn the ribbon user interface in Word, Excel, and Powerpoint 2007, and the upcoming Office 2010.

Check it out here
http://www.officelabs.com/ribbonhero

http://www.officelabs.com/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=88

and on Facebook
http://apps.facebook.com/ribbonhero/

ZDNet
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=29685&tag=col1;post-3558

Windows 7 Language Quality Game

2009-11-08T15:34:00.000-08:00

The Windows Language Quality Game enabled native language speakers to help assess and improve the linguistic quality of localized editions of Windows 7.

There is coverage on Spanish TV - link is here - about minute 13

and

• Computerworld (German) - here
• Pacific NW Software Quality Conference - here
• Jim Mockford on Twitter - here
• Microsoft Press Blog - here
• Techflash - here

Google Test Automation Conference - Video and Slides

2009-11-08T15:28:00.000-08:00

GTAC 2009 - Zurich - 22 Oct 2009

Video is here

Slides are here

Paper is here

Score One for Quality

2009-10-17T17:58:00.000-07:00

Google Test Automation Conference
Zurich - Oct 22nd 2009

http://www.gtac.biz/abstract-bios

Paper is here:

Abstract:
Research into the generation gap between current managers from the Baby Boomer era and the incoming group of Gen X, Gen Y, and Millennials shows that video games are a significant distinction to separate the two. Those generational differences indicate the need, as we seek to understand this research, for experimentation in how test teams find bugs. Bug Bash 2.0
We found a very powerful mechanism for communicating organizational priorities effectively and quickly. People engage quickly, and games can drive QA behaviors that help improve both product quality and employee morale. This creates a virtuous cycle where standard productivity metrics improve as engagement improves. The game discussed here introduces a new level of quality into the localization efforts by using “the crowd” – a diverse worldwide employee base in this case. We predict that “Games at Work” or “Productivity Games” carry a huge potential for influencing not just the software engineering workplace, but all industries and employee populations.

Portfolio selection and game theory in defect prevention

2009-08-23T12:33:00.000-07:00

Microsoft Press : Ross Smith: Portfolio selection and game theory in defect prevention:

Guest post on Microsoft Press blog

"Portfolio selection and game theory in defect prevention"

link

BBC News - Games at work may be good for you

2009-08-22T18:11:00.000-07:00

BBC NEWS Technology Games at work may be good for you:

"Games at work may be good for you"

Scientists from the University of Utrecht have studied the effects of game playing on 60 employees in a Dutch insurance firm.

The results suggest that, instead of games being a waste of time at work, they might help personal productivity and make people feel better about their jobs.

Addressing World-Scale Challenges : Computer Games and Learning

2009-07-12T19:04:00.000-07:00

Microsoft Research Faculty Summit
http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/events/fs2009/default.aspx

Addressing World-Scale Challenges
Computational approaches provide a powerful means for addressing previously unsolvable problems. Increasingly, computing technologies are what makes the difference in enabling new approaches applied to world-scale challenges in such diverse disciplines as medicine and healthcare, energy and the environment, and educational and social progress.
In response to these significant global challenges, the Microsoft Research Faculty Summit 2009 investigates how computing technologies can best help scientists make progress in these important areas. Attendees will have the opportunity to participate in creative, open discourse on research topics.
Identifying computational enablers for solving critical social and scientific problems is a main theme for this year’s faculty summit:
• Energy Sustainability.
• Addressing climate change.
• Transformational improvement in healthcare.

Computer Games and Learning: Best Practices Using Games to Teach—in Academia and at Microsoft
Chris Franz, Microsoft; Jennifer Michelstein, Microsoft; Ken Perlin, New York University; Ross Smith, Microsoft
The Games for Learning Institute is a joint venture with Microsoft Research, New York University, and affiliated New York regional schools. Nine months into its efforts, it has prematurely published its annual report discussing the latest research about how to make great games and how to make great game vehicles for teaching. This talk is complemented by three efforts at Microsoft where product groups are using games to teach the esoteric features of Microsoft software, facilitate learning, and improve software development. See some very cool stuff and learn how to get your kids to love math (as does Ken Perlin) or find out how to use a feature in Microsoft Office Word you have not yet discovered.

Looking for a great quote

2009-05-19T17:21:00.000-07:00

I was preparing a slide deck for an upcoming presentation about Productivity Games. I needed a quote to help show how the generation gap is only going to get wider. I opened Mike Muetzel's book, "They're Not Aloof... Just Generation X", because I knew he had a lot of great ideas in there about the challenges existing managers have working with Gen-X employees. It didn't take long, and I found one in the intro.

"And if you think managing Gen X employees and managers is a tough assignment today, then I can tell you the next generation will take you over the edge and push your existing management styles to limits you never dreamed existed."

That just summed it up so well. The age-old management techniques that many of us have learned in our careers so far are just not going to be as successful with the incoming generation of employees as they were with us. We need to start innovating how we manage people now so that we can find the best ways to help the Gen Y and Millenial generations come into the work place feeling engaged, appreciated and motivated.

That's where productivity games can play a role.

Serious Games in the Enterprise

2009-05-09T07:12:00.000-07:00

Farmer's Insurance

IBM introduced Innov8 2.0. and Farmer's Insurance is running a pilot for using the game to train employees on call center operations and and claims processing .

Article in Manufacturing Business Technology here

More here and IBM site here

The IBM site has a link to play online and try it out. link

Google's Image Orientation Captcha

2009-04-18T22:29:00.000-07:00

Google's new image orientation captcha is a good example of a productivity game. The core skill required is an ability to discern between an upright image and a not-upright, or incorrect, image.

Players use these core skills to work at re-orienting the images correctly.

The paper is here:
http://www.richgossweiler.com/projects/rotcaptcha/rotcaptcha.pdf

"Given a large repository of images, such as those from a web search result, we use a suite of automated orientation detectors to prune those images that can be automatically set upright easily. We then apply a social feedback mechanism to verify that the remaining images have a human-recognizable upright orientation."

CNET http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10222514-2.html?tag=newsEditorsPicksArea.0
PCWorld: http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/163334/google_offers_top_tip_to_help_beat_bots.html

Tech Blorge: http://tech.blorge.com/Structure:%20/2009/04/19/google-tries-out-picture-captchas/

2009-04-10T07:41:00.000-07:00

View an archived version of the Productivity Games webinar

PDF of presentation with speaking notes
Also includes links to some of the research and sources that were discussed

Productivity Games Webinar hosted by Snowfly

2009-03-22T16:47:00.000-07:00

Snowfly will host a webinar on Productivity Games on April 2, 2009

"The increasing presence of the "Gamer Generation" has forced many organizations to come up with a better way to motivate and inspire employees. When you take into consideration the obvious effect that video games have had on today's workforce, there seems to be a perfect opportunity to design work as a game and re-engage employees and improve productivity."

More info link

Snowfly is a Wyoming-based company that develops employee incentive software. Their approach rewards employees with game play, using random point-yielding games to drive productivity improvements. link

A recent article in Canadian Business describes more:

"Capstone gives employees who meet their objectives a chance to play online games from which they earn rewards such as cash in the form of a reloadable Visa card (the most popular option), electronic gift certificates and gift cards." - link

Patriot Points and Blog

2009-03-15T07:35:00.000-07:00

See http://patriotpoints.blogspot.com/ for more information and a link to the full proposal.

An American investment in infrastructure – schools, broadband, energy-efficient buildings, highways, etc – should include a “national point system” to provide an incentive scheme for people to volunteer and help America grow. To create a new spirit of cooperation will require a bit of a nudge. The demographics of the country illustrate that a large percentage of citizens have grown up with and/or actively play video games. There is a sense of optimism about what Americans can accomplish, but hard work will be required. The establishment of a “Patriot Points” system will provide a way to attract volunteers, encourage cooperation, and track progress in a cost-effective and entertaining way.

Benjamin Franklin: Using Chess to learn Italian

2009-01-17T07:18:00.001-08:00

Happy Birthday to Benjamin Franklin today, January 17^th…

"The Game of Chess is not merely an idle amusement several very valuable qualities of the mind, useful in the course of human life, are to be acquired and strenghtened by it, so as to become habits ready on all occasions for life is a kind of Chess, in which we have points to gain, and competition or adversaries to contend with, and in which there is a vast variety of good and ill events, that are, in some degree, the effect of prudence, or want of it. By playing at Chess then, we may learn:

First, Foresight...

Second, Circumspection...

Third, Caution...

And lastly, we learn by chess the habit of not being discouraged by present bad appearances in the state of our affairs, the habit of hoping for a favorable change, and that of persevering in the search of resources. The game is so full of events, there is such a variety of turns in it, the fortune of it is so subject to sudden vicissitudes, and one so frequently, after long contemplation, discovers the means of extricating ones self from a supposed insurmountable difficulty, that one is encouraged to continue the contest to the last, in hopes of victory by our own skill, or, at least, of giving a stale mate, by the negligence of our adversary." Benjamin Franklin, The Morals of Chess.

That final paragraph is inspiring to read, even 300 years later.

Benjamin Franklin was born on January 17^th, 1706. Today is his 303^rd birthday. He grew up in Boston. He was the youngest son, and had nine brothers and seven sisters. He loved to learn – to read and write. He liked the game of chess and a game called "Magic Squares" - http://www.pasles.org/Franklin.html

He trained to be a printer, traveling to England for two years as a teenager to learn the trade.

In 1750, Benjamin Franklin wrote "The Morals of Chess" about the game he had been playing for decades.

The game of Chess is not merely an idle amusement. Several very valuable qualities of the mind, useful in the course of human life, are to be acquired or strengthened by it, so as to become habits, ready on all occasions. For life is a kind of chess, in which we have often points to gain, and competitors or adversaries to contend with, and in which there is a vast variety of good and ill events, that are, in some degree, the effects of prudence or the want of it.

Most importantly, though, from a productivity games perspective, is that in 1733, as he was learning languages, he had finished with French and was learning Italian. He found a friend who was also learning Italian, and enjoyed chess. As with the video gamer today who plays Halo late into the night at the expense of homework, Franklin realized that the time he spent playing chess was taking away from his progress on learning Italian. He and his friend decided that they would use the game as a way to drive their linguistics progress:

" I had begun in 1733 to study languages. I soon made myself so much a master of the French as to be able to read the Books with ease. I then undertook the Italian. An acquaintance who was also learning it, used often to tempt me to play Chess with him. Finding this took up too much of the Time I had to spare for study, I at length refused to play any more, unless on this condition, that the victor in every Game, should have the Right to impose a Task, either in parts of the Grammar to be got by heart, or in Translation, &c, which task the vanquish'd was to perform upon honor before our next Meeting. As we played pretty equally we thus beat one another into that Language." (1, p.30)

Franklin's use of chess to drive him to learn the Italian language shares many of the characteristics of successful productivity games. Italian was a volunteer or "citizenship" behavior for Franklin – he was a printer, and learning the language was a way to EXPAND his skills, not part of his regular job. The game appealed to both player vs. player (he and his chess partner), player vs. self (the present Franklin vs. his future "fluent-in-Italian" self) – and player vs. environment (Franklin vs. the challenging language). The games were short in duration – each game of chess resulted in the loser performing a lesson, and then a new game would commence. Just as with productivity games, the goal was to keep playing (keep the chess games going as a way to motivate the Italian studies. The game was a diversion to keep him diligent in the task of learning a challenging language. Franklin's use of chess to learn Italian in the late 18^th century shares many of the characteristics of successful productivity game deployment today.

Finally,

And whoever considers, what in chess he often sees instances of, that particular pieces of success are apt to produce presumption, and its consequent, inattention, by which more is afterwards lost than was gained by the preceding advantage; while misfortunes produce more care and attention, by which the loss may be recovered, will learn not to be too much discouraged by the present success of his adversary, nor to despair of final good fortune, upon every little check he receives in the pursuit of it. – The Morals of Chess.

Games like chess can not only teach great life lessons, but can be incorporated in deliberate, planned, and consistent work towards goals, whether in the workplace or in life.

Note: Thanks to Thiru for his interest in Franklin…

Does Gaming at Work Improve Productivity? – PCWorld

2008-12-23T07:07:00.001-08:00

Interesting article in PC World on how playing games at work can be beneficial. http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/155284/does_gaming_at_work_improve_productivity.html

Red Orbit has a similar article - http://www.redorbit.com/news/technology/1610355/offices_use_video_games_to_raise_morale_productivity/

It still seems that the more interesting, innovative approach is to combine the two. One of the companies mentioned, Snowfly, appears to taking this approach. There still remains a custom element that can be challenging to overcome. Many areas of expertise for a given organization are unique – that's why people are hired to work, and so a generic game doesn't capture that uniqueness. However, there are other areas that are core competencies of all workers, and tasks that require those skills that can help the organization. These "organizational citizenship behaviors" are a far better place to build games than the unique "in role" tasks – not only from the emotional perspective of the employee ("why are you inviting everyone to come do my job with this game, am I not doing it OK myself?" , but also from a return on investment perspective. Productivity games do not have be expensive to build, but they are not free either.

Since most people probably just a game of Solitaire, then a spreadsheet and use Alt+Tab when people walk by the idea of a custom game to play to help the organization is probably appealing…

Changing the Game on CNET

2008-12-13T08:55:00.001-08:00

Daniel Terdiman reviews Changing the Game on CNET

'Changing the Game' book shows how games can help business

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-10110298-52.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

And in the audio interview, the authors talk about Productivity Games, including the Windows Vista Beta1 and Beta2 games …

http://podcast-files.cnet.com/podcast/danielgameauthors.mp3?tag=mncol;txt

Productivity Games Interview – FIR - The Hobson and Holtz Report

2008-12-01T20:21:00.001-08:00

http://www.forimmediaterelease.biz/index.php?/weblog/the_hobson_holtz_report_podcast_400_november_24_2008/ (episode #400) – about 4:10 mins into the show

The Hobson & Holtz Report - Podcast #400: November 24, 2008

about this Thursday's show; Michael Netzley interviews Microsoft's Ross Smith;

Get FIR:

Download the MP3 file

FIR #400 show notes at The New PR Wiki

Theory Y Meets Generation Y

2008-11-21T03:29:00.001-08:00

The Management Innovation Lab has published an article on productivity games, trust, and innovation.

Theory Y meets Generation Y

Julian Birkinshaw and Stuart Crainer look at a Microsoft team that is changing the way it works by incorporating the interests of its young employees to increase creativity and productivity.

Go to www.managementlab.org

and click on "latest issue" on the right or here -->

http://www.managementlab.org/files/LabNotes10.pdf

A Few Good Links

2008-11-13T20:32:00.001-08:00

"You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else." – Einstein

Lots of interest in productivity games these days - here are a few links to explore….

Changing the Game http://www.changingthegamebook.com/

- buy this book!

NY Times blog (link)

Edge – Changing the Game (link)

The Economist - http://www.economist.com/daily/columns/businessview/displayStory.cfm?story_id=11997115

HBR – Learning Leadership Online - http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/hbsp/hbr/articles/article.jsp?ml_subscriber=true&ml_action=get-article&&articleID=R0805C&pageNumber=1

IBM Gaming and Leadership Report - Studying management practices in on-line games

New Gym Features Video Games - http://www.kcci.com/health/17971532/detail.html

http://www.entrepreneur.com/magazine/entrepreneur/2007/august/181648.html

The Name of the Game is Work – Business Week

http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/aug2007/id20070813_467743.htm?chan=innovation_special+report+--+the+power+of+gaming_the+power+of+gaming

Gaming may pay off at work http://www.canada.com/topics/technology/games/story.html?id=5e294b2e-c374-4fcd-b118-750a2e82e2ed&k=47110

IBM's Innov8 – BPM - http://www-01.ibm.com/software/solutions/soa/innov8.html

Play the News game – http://www.playthenewsgame.com

America's Army – Recruiting - http://www.americasarmy.com/

Re-mission - http://www.re-mission.net/

Incident Commander–emergency response - http://www.incidentcommander.net/

Joseph Campbell’s Monomyth and OCBs

2008-10-12T18:27:00.001-07:00

In 1949, Joseph Campbell (www.jcf.org ) wrote "The Hero with A Thousand Faces", and although he did not coin the term monomyth, he made extensive use of it to characterize his thesis that stories through the ages shared fundamental elements that made them successful.

Many successful Hollywood projects have either deliberately or unintentionally followed the Campbell formula to create blockbuster hits. Star Wars, Thelma and Louise, Northern Exposure, and Raiders of the Lost Ark are a few of the many familiar film and television hits that drew upon the principles of the monomyth.

Over the last several years, video game designers have been evaluating these same principles as a foundation for successful storytelling in games. As we think about the use of games at work, and how to design effective productivity games, these same principles are worth considering.

Campbell's monomyth is based upon the idea of a hero.

A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.^[1]

Presumably, the hero in a productivity game is the employee. I would assert that most employees would not describe additional work as a "region of supernatural wonder" – but perhaps "the world of common day" does apply. Therefore, the game design must draw the employee out of their regular work into the "region of supernatural wonder".

This definition aligns perfectly with "organizational citizenship behaviors" – OCB's – (Wikipedia link) – which are work-related, but "are discretionary, not directly or explicitly recognized by the formal reward system." Therefore, since these behaviors are not recognized by the formal reward system, a well-designed game can provide an informal or secondary reward system. As Dennis Organ asks of managers in his book Organizational Citizenship Behavior (link), "What are the things you'd like your employees to do more of, but can't really make them do, and for which you can't guarantee any definite rewards, other than your appreciation?"

Combining the "region of supernatural wonder" of Campbell with the definitive goals of citizenship behaviors provides tremendous opportunities for productivity games. The goal of productivity games is to attract and retain players. The more players, and the more frequently people play the game, then more work gets done. Building upon the structure of Campbell's "Hero's Journey" is a tremendous way to engage players, and draw upon those fundamental elements of the monomyth to challenge the hero.

The successful deployment of the monomyth in Hollywood keeps movie-goers from leaving the Star Wars showing as Luke faces the atonement of the father with Darth Vader, or Clarice recites the story of the lamb in Silence of the Lambs, or in Titanic, when Rose has her doubts about marrying Cal despite her mother's concerns with money and status. These examples of the monomyth work well for Hollywood, so it's safe to assume that a well designed story could keep the hero at work engaged in the "region of supernatural wonder".

References:

Joseph Campbell Foundation

Hero with A Thousand Faces on Amazon

Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers Amazon

Organizational Citizenship Behaviors – Wikipedia link

Organizational Citizenship Behavior: Its Nature, Antecedents, and Consequences (Foundations for Organizational Science) Amazon

Screenplay, Story Structure link

Vista games in The Economist

2008-10-04T15:28:00.001-07:00

Recently, The Economist published (link) a review of the upcoming book by David Edery and Ethan Mollick – Changing the Game: How Video Games Are Transforming the Future of Business. The article talks about the use of games in the development of Windows Vista. These games were also mentioned in chapter 5 of The Practical Guide to Defect Prevention, and in a review in Inc. Magazine. (link)

Using Games in Testing

2008-06-22T20:33:00.001-07:00

See Google's Testing Blog on Productivity Games

For those of you that came from there…

see Circular Reference - A circular reference, sometimes referred to as a run-around, is a series of references where the last object references the first...

Also, see Time Magazine's great article on Games in preparation for the Olympics this summer.

http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1815747_1815707_1815705,00.html

Play is elemental to being human. All of us, when tiny children, tossed colored balls around, or watched lights dance before our eyes, or marveled at the patterns on our mothers' skirts. All of us once threw a pebble, a stick or a ball; all of us, sooner or later, enjoyed playing with a sibling or a friend, hopscotching down a pavement, running along a dirt track.

All of us sooner or later formed teams — though usually something far less formal and serious than that implies — to compete (without knowing the word or its meaning) in games of skill or chance. We have all played games; play is part of what and who we are. "Play cannot be denied," wrote the great Dutch sociologist and historian Johan Huizinga in 1938, in his magisterial book Homo Ludens. "You can deny, if you like, nearly all abstractions: justice, beauty, truth, goodness, mind, God. You can deny seriousness, but not play."

Serious Games Summit 2008

2008-02-28T03:49:00.001-08:00

The Serious Games Summit was held Feb 18-19^th in San Francisco.

More info on the conference is here

Ben Sawyer presented his taxonomy here, which includes "Games at work" – what we're calling "productivity games"

Our slides are here.

Also, check out the Top Brand Names and Top Magazine Covers in these pairwise voting experiments.

We are trying to apply some learning from Malcolm Gladwell's book Blink

Presidential Blink Game

2008-01-22T22:00:00.001-08:00

Please send this link around if you are so inclined – I hope this is a fun game to play (it's loosely based on the book Blink) and the goal is to strictly to generate some traffic/interest in the Defect Prevention site/book  (we use some games like this on our team) – and should hopefully provide an interesting view of the upcoming election.

Pairwise comparisons - 2008 US Presidential Candidates
Vote on which US Presidential candidate you prefer in a series of pairwise comparisons.

http://www.defectprevention.org/pairs.aspx?group=753ba178-4bf9-4868-a6e7-e4bd293a1e37

The Practical Guide to Defect Prevention

2007-11-03T07:50:00.001-07:00

The book is finished and available.

Chapter 5 covers Productivity games.

and includes some examples, as well as how to design useful productivity games.

See http://www.defectprevention.org/

Check out the XBox360 faceplate game here

Step on a Crack

2007-03-17T22:45:00.001-07:00

"Step on a crack, break your mother's back."

...a productivity game for walking to school.

Few kids walk to school anymore, so this game is probably less popular than it used to be. Just like Ring around the Rosy, there is an unfortunate history behind this one. (you'll have to do your own research)

An interesting observation about this game, in the context of walking to school, is that depending on the size of the kid, or more importantly, the length of their stride, this can either be an aligned game or an incidental game. An aligned game is one where the scoring is aligned with the goal and helps the player be more productive towards that goal. So a smaller child who must lengthen their stride to avoid a crack, this game helps me get to school faster and in fewer strides. If I am a tall kid, I might have to shorten my stride to win the game, and even though the scoring is incidental to my goal of getting to school, it is a fun game to keep me occupied during my trip.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luck

In this case, to tell us about luck – but that assumes the game is not played to win – that it is "unlucky" to step on a crack, and not a deliberate action to avoid the crack.

Depending on how it's played, the "step on a crack" game could be an example of an aligned game or an incidental game. An aligned version of this game would have the sidewalk leading the way to school, and students playing the game on their way to school, increasing the speed or likelihood with which they arrive. An incidental version of the game has the game taking precedence over the route. Students go out of their way to find cracks to step on or avoid – independent of whether or not they are en route to school.

Games to Build Pyramids

2007-03-14T08:58:00.001-07:00

One of the greatest testimonies to work and productivity is the ancient pyramids. There are many theories on how these great structures were built -- everything from slave labor to aliens. What motivated the workers to accomplish these tremendous feats?

Former President Jimmy Carter said, "I'm surprised that a government organization could do it that quickly."

The Great Pyramid has approximately 2.3 million stone blocks, weighing an average of 2.3 metric tons each. The estimate is that 35000 workers built these great structures. Originally, the theory was that it was slave labor, but archeologists now think it was a predominantly volunteer effort - farmers, masons, carpenters, masons and metalworkers – all contributing for the sake of national pride.

So the question relevant here, is, how did these people stay motivated? Did they use productivity games?

The answer is yes. (Otherwise, I wouldn't be writing this J)

Workers were organized into teams or "phyles" (tribes) - "Friends of Khufu" and "Drunkards of Menkaure", left and right, green and red, and the evidence seems to indicate that these teams competed with one another to improve productivity. Stones were tagged with color to indicate the team.

From http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/data/2001/11/01/html/ft_20011101.5.fulltext.html

The workers were organized into competing teams," he explains, "which may have helped them psychologically. You know, 'Let's see whose team can do this job faster.'"The workers were organized into competing teams," he explains, "which may have helped them psychologically. You know, 'Let's see whose team can do this job faster.'"

From http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/pyramid/explore/builders.html

So the phyles then are subdivided into divisions. And the divisions are identified by single hieroglyphs with names that mean things like endurance, perfection, strong. OK, so how do we know this -- you come to a block of stone in the relieving chambers above the Great Pyramid. And first of all you see this cartouche of a King and then some scrawls all in red paint after it. That's the gang name. And in the Old Kingdom in the time of the Pyramids of Giza, the gangs were named after kings. So for example, we have a name, compounded with the name of Menkaure, and it seems to translate 'the drunks or the drunkards of Menkaure.' There's one that's well attested, actually in the relieving chambers above the Great Pyramid, the Friends of Khufu gang, the Drunks of Menkaura gang, and then you have the green phyles and then the powerful ones. None of this sounds like slavery, does it?

And in fact it gets more intriguing. Because in certain monuments you find the name of one gang on one side of the monument and another gang, we assume competing on the other side of the monument. You find that to some extent in the temple, the Pyramid temple of Menkaure. It's as though these gangs are competing. So from this evidence we deduce that there was a labor force that was assigned to respective crew gang phyles and divisions.

From: http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/pyramidworkforce.htm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/egyptians/pyramid_builders_07.shtml

NCAA Productivity Games

2007-03-11T20:11:00.001-07:00

Tonight marks the release of the 2007 NCAA Tournament Men's College BB field of 64 (women's is to be released tomorrow), prefaced by a host of articles on the lost productivity brought on by office pools.

Seattle Denver Philadelphia Fort Wayne Longmont

According to some studies, 23% of companies have office pools, and the cost of lost productivity is over a billion dollars. Several articles suggest that employers are happy with the "morale benefits", saying that it builds camaraderie and fosters closer relationships between staff members.

Perhaps the answer is to integrate the everyday tasks of "real work" into the fantasy of the office pool. According to one survey, employees spend over 13 mins a day checking scores.

Why not openly post results, but attach metrics and measures related to real work to the results of the pool?

For example, an insurance company might hold a contest to allow claims processors to fill out one bracket per 10 claim forms processed. Highway patrol gets a final four pick for every 5 speeding tickets written J School bus drivers get an entry for every kid delivered safely to and from school.

The point of productivity games is to align the game with the goals of the organization, and if people are spending their work time checking NCAA results, then integrate that behavior into the task at hand.

This provides a brief opportunity to explain the difference between aligned games and incidental games.

Aligned

Productivity games that are played while pursuing the goals of the task are called "Aligned" games. An example of an aligned game for a janitor might be to see how many garbage cans can be emptied in an hour. NCAA tournament picks that are awarded as a result of doing a task in line with company goals might be "aligned" games.

Incidental

Incidental games are played during the course of work and do not contribute or directly affect the outcome or accomplishment of the task. Incidental games probably will help improve morale, keep people from straying too far off task, and may foster community. However, they do not directly relate to the goals of the job. An example might be a hotel maid who lines up pillows in certain patterns from room to room, or a truck driver who waves to Volvo wagons for the fun of it. These incidental games keep people thinking and minds working, but do not necessarily improve output. NCAA tournament watching - as it is today - is a great example of an incidental game.

What are Productivity Games?

2007-03-10T22:39:00.001-08:00

Productivity games, as a sub-category of Serious Games, are games and competition used to make real work happen.

Examples include McDonald's Billions Served, # days accident free signs on a construction site, etc.

There are three components of productivity

Effectiveness. the ability to produce a desired result
Efficiency. more useful output per unit of input – less waste
Reliability. the ability to repeat a task with the same result or goal

Each can all be addressed and influenced by game play and competition.

These games don't have to be based on a fancy UI or dramatic game design.

A simple game of H_O_R_S_E among dock workers lifting boxes - get a letter for losing a "unload-the-truck" competition - can provide a boost in morale and productivity.