24 Jan Gamification and Project Management: Chocolate and Peanut Butter
Project management (PM) is among the most vexing facets of business. It demands reliable organizational strategies, an undisturbed workflow, the seamless cooperation of employees across teams and departments, and basically no mistakes or surprises ever.
Dealing with all of that, while meeting the demands of a rapidly-changing market and struggling workforce, project managers can no longer rely on the tools that they once did. They must find new and innovative strategies to keep ahead of the curve and continually motivate their team.
Thought leaders suggest a broad range of strategies and techniques for a fresh project management approach. Top suggestions include creating a strong testing culture, implementing task automation through simplified PM tools, incorporating skill-building into company culture, and using innovative tools like gamification to enhance employee motivation, engagement, and ideation.
Gamification, or game elements incorporated into common or non-gaming activities, has been a popular tool in the educational sector for some time now – think Kahoot! However, the technique has grown in popularity over the last few years in business and project management, and for good reason.
Gamification, or really the cooperative play that gamification cultivates, has been proven to activate the hippocampus and trigger the release of dopamine, serotonin and endorphins. This combination not only makes participants feel good but also allows them to increase their ability to think creatively, retain information, and problem-solve. Additionally, it reduces stress, increases one’s capacity to process information, and mitigates the effects of cognitive overload. This breaks participants out of the mundane and routine nature of today’s corporate environment and biologically enhances their brain’s ability to think, ideate and learn.
When utilized effectively by project managers, gamified activities can unify a team to collaborate on common goals while simultaneously encouraging them to be more productive and effective. With anonymous game tools workflow planning can be essentially crowdsourced. Not to mention that the team might actually enjoy themselves in the process!
GoodGames offers numerous gamified activity tools that can be utilized by project managers in this capacity. These tools can be incorporated seamlessly into meetings, workshops and creative brainstorming sessions. To not only make collaboration and exchanging ideas fun, but also keep these ultra-important sessions moving in a constructive direction. This leads to more productive sessions and provides managers with the results that they need.
When you gamify risk assessment, brainstorming, or workflow changes, something funny happens. You start to have fun! You start to feel more connected to your team. And as you play, the things you learn become stories attached to strong positive emotions.
But you don’t have to take our word for it. We host free games online every Thursday. Here’s the link to our next stream. Join us and experience what gamification can bring to your audience or team.
