Making Work More Motivating (Addictive?)
Some Thoughts On: Your Path To Progress
I love moments of serendipity - and over the last fortnight there was an interesting one. The same week that a much awaited Bethesda video game (Starfield) was released, happened to be the same week that I started reading Dr Jason Fox’s book: Game Changer (a book about learning from game design to stimulate motivation). After a couple of nights staying up a little later than intended exploring the new virtual space-themed world at my fingertips - it was clear that some reflection was in order… What was it about Starfield that made me want to “just keep playing”?
I landed on two elements that the game designers are masters at creating.
One - a sense of progress, and
Two - a sense of exploration.
(Both are things that you’d reasonably expect in a space-themed role playing game).
And interestingly, both are relatively easy to leverage into your work design.
A Sense of Progress & Feedback
We humans like moving forward. We like ticking things off. We like seeing bars go up.
We like progress. It gives us feel good hormones.
It’s why when we’re feeling lost or unsatisfied we often start tidying our house or clearing out our emails → both are activities that provide an immediate sense of progress.
Agile boards and projects schedules are also good at meeting this need.
However we humans also like being rewarded for our progress, either through actual reward or some form of feedback loop that feels both fair and challenging. It’s this feedback loop closure that often falls short in our modern workplaces - where our early ancestors either succeeded in a hunt (food for dinner) or failed (it got away) - in our modern knowledge-based work it can be really hard to show that immediacy of real impact.
And so that’s the first reflection for you today:
How can you better provide a sense of progress along with immediate feedback within your improvement programs?
Scoreboards, journey meters, OKRs, - all are good. Just remember to show progress towards both inputs (tasks) and outcomes (hrs saved etc.)
We like meaning and purpose. It makes us happier.
A Sense Of Exploration
The other thing that Starfield absolutely nails is the sense of exploration and variety. There are entire solar systems to explore, filled with in depth stories and worlds to get absolutely lost in.
And it’s wonderfully addictive.
It’s that sense of New.
Fresh.
Even challenging.
But how do we capture that in our work design?
How can you encourage your team(s) to try something new?
Note - trying something new means failure is a genuine risk. That has to be OK, or no one will even try.
TL;DR - Here’s The Crux of It
Boiling it all down, the question to ponder this week is really:
Through conscious and proactive work dynamics design, we can make work more purposeful and fun. In what small way does that look like for your team(s)?
It’s a problem worth thinking about, because not only will work output be higher but so will retention and satisfaction.
For most of you, these are things you already know. However, operational demands and the imperfection of reality means that there’s often a gap between knowledge and application.
So this is a gentle nudge - for the sake of your staff, I encourage you to bridge the gap and put something new towards these into place.
See you all next week.
BB