Playing Games with Collaboration
Friday, September 12, 2008 at 6:59PM | Bruce Henry Before I go to a conference I like to spend some time reading and listening to "big idea" stuff. In preparation to go to the NY Web 2.0 Expo next week I was listened to both Malcom Gladwell and Jane McGonigal speaking at The New Yorker Conference 2008.
Watching Jane McGonigal's talk got me really fired up about the future of collaboration. As disclaimer, I want to say that ever since I saw her talk at SXSW 2008 I have been a big fan of her thinking and speaking.
Anyway, you should watch the video of her talking about Saving the World through Game Design.
At LiquidPlanner we are designing a system for collaboration with a bunch of people. It is at once social software and very game-like in the way we think while designing it.
One of Jane's best points, that games give clear mechanisms to make people feel happy about what they're doing, weighs heavily on my mind when I'm thinking about our project management software. She points out that good games obey an "economy of engagement". That they give you:
- satisfying work to do.
- the experience of being good at something.
- time spent with people we like.
- the chance to be part of something bigger.
For too long project management has been a chore. Scutt work for the bean counters and their ilk. If we do our work right, we can transform it into playing the getting the project done game. That would be pure awesome!
Clay Shirkey's talk about Cognitive Surplus also got me thinking that our tools should enable people to work on things whenever we are "having good thoughts" about our work. Our tools should enable people to burn up some of their cognitive surplus in a useful, productive, and pleasing way. They should yield an architecture of participation.
Having watched Clay's talk I am going home and canceling my cable subscription.
Okay, that's it for my "big ideas" for this afternoon. Come see us at our booth at Web 2.0 Expo. I am sure you'll be able to spot us. (More on that later)
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Reader Comments (5)
I'll take my stab at the prize:
People enjoy recognition. I'm not talking about the Academy Awards, I am talking about the Plumbing Industry Awards or the Financial Account: Best Tax Dissertation Award.
You have a pretty considerable amount of data on who is pulling their weight and who isn't. Why not start handing out weekly or monthly awards to people? Maybe mix in a little voting to make sure you don't miss anything. Insert trophies into their avatars on the site so that other people know they rock. There must be plenty of things that you can reward people for algorithmically: fastest response time to messages, earliest completions, most popular threads started, latest hours logged in, most curse words in interoffice messages, etc.
The flipside is that you can use the same technique to shame people - also a popular pastime. Most incomplete tasks, most unresponded to threads, etc. Might be a little cruel, but it'll certainly get people working fast.
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The prize better be liquid, and by that I don't mean a liquid planner mouse pad.
At a consulting gig I'm at right now, we're doing Agile (Scrum/XP hybrid) and I love the concept of "playing the getting the project done game". Small victories, consistently attained, which lead to bigger and bigger challenges, are exactly what many of the best games are all about.
What's non-game like?
Think of filling out documents for documentation's sake. This is killing rats in World of Warcraft - pure drudgery, and you only do it because you have to. Only the very dull or those with no options stick around for this.
Being forced to take on a huge challenge without the proper resources or even any real expectation of success? This is like jumping right into "Expert" mode on Far Cry 2 without any preparation. You'll get frustrated and leave.
Dysfunctional team? You can get crappy teams in virtual worlds as well; but quite often the best gaming experiences come after a hard-fought victory against a superior opponent, where teamwork makes all the difference.
Nice post, and great outbound links to McGonigal and Shirky. Have fun at W2.0
Gotta say, so far Nick is in the lead.
Well, just for fun, I'll toss out some ideas from a non-tech person, but someone who deals with people a lot. When putting together something to inspire the masses, keep in mind the various learning and personality styles people have. There is a reason there are so many different types of on-line games out there. People respond to different things. What I would suggest is making the software either have variable perks/rewards for doing good, or, let it be set up by the user to appeal to their likes (kinda like picking your background and music for a myspace page). Some people might want constant encouragement, in small ways - like a pop up smiley face when they do a small, boring, yet necessary task. Others would find that trivial and stupid, and just want a big fireworks show at the end. So, that's my suggestion. Think about school - some kids lived for getting those stars on the chart - to show progress. Others couldn't care less about that, but really wanted that individual "Good Job" from the teacher.
Have fun.
Go buy a Wii Fit. The answers are all in there.
Encourage/stay positive, suggest spots to work on at each check-in, "unlock" greater difficulty levels/functionalities once someone shows competence/excellence in a given area/skill/workflow. Oh yeah, and poke a little fun/lovingly jest at backsteps/failures.
Make successes AND failures measurable in a way that shows improvement/long term evolution.
It'd be nice to have the finance dept give me an accolade like "okay, you submitted your expenses late again, but you were two days LESS late than last time, yay! Now just get it down another day, and you're good next time!"... Rather than "you're late. AGAIN. Bad dog!"
So, yeah, "Wii Fit for Business" needs to happen. :)
I'd also say that I disagree with the previous poster - I may have met people who want to AGGREGATE their small successes in a large recognition, but I haven't met anyone who doesn't appreciate tracking the smaller improvements as a motivator... Put another way, there are people who celebrate each milestone, and people who celebrate project completion... But they're both tracking progress, and want to know when they hit a snag, if things are running late, etc.