Total Engagement
Byron Reeves
This book studies the present and future cross section of games and work. It is thorough. I consider it balanced with a tilt that "there is a way to better incorporate the excitement which video games generate in people and the boredom that is so present and inefficient in the workplace."
This is not a utopian "games solve all" thesis. It is well studied and thought and considered. Truly. I have read books that are outrageously tilted to "cater to the game generation or live at your own peril."
The book is chalk full of seemingly infinite considerations that suggest alone that we are at the infant stage of really understanding "games" at a next level let alone integrating video games effectively into business. Nothing at all wrong with that to be sure.
And, yes, there is a mix of issues that sometimes collide and go unaddressed in the book between video games, alternative reality spaces that do not involve games, play, "traditional games" etc etc and that is also ok so long as we see "second life" as an alternative world NOT a "game" per se so we may want to discuss the distinction between these different topics as opposed to lumping them altogether. Again, I don't sense the authors on a mission so much as to contribute to solving a problem.
So... What is the problem.
Boredom.
The problem they identify is boredom in the "workplace".
Boredom.
And here I do have some thoughts. The first thought is that of the people I am very very lucky to know so many of them LOVE LOVE the work they do and are in no way in need of a solution to boredom because 95% of the time they are not bored!
Do they mix in games into their work life? Maybe a touch here and there and why not! Do they "play" - YES. "Play" does not mean there is a game. Stuart Brown's book Play gets at the spirit of "play" and the more play the better but you can be in a "game" with out "play" spirit for certain. (Stuart discuss how many golfers do not bring a spirit of "play" to their weekly golf rounds while my friend Andy Mecca wrote a separate book about the cross section of play and golf for people like you and me and him...)
So establishing "games" does not establish "play".
When we set up Coburn Ventures my brother Ted connected me with a good friend Art Laffer of "Laffer Curve" and future Nobel Prize fame. Art ran a small firm like we were setting out to do ourselves and Ted thought it would be a great discussion for me to learn something whatever that might be. Art didn't use email back then at least so it took a while to get connected. When we finally did he said in the most buoyant non-Wall Street voice "pip, I am sorry, I have been running around travelling like a nut... How can I be of help... I am all yours...?"
I wasn't attuned to the genuine upbeat tenor if not joy in his voice... So...
The first thing that popped out of my mouth was "Art... First of all can you tell me why you are so happy???"
Without skipping a beat Art said "pip... I get to play with my friends all day long on topics I deeply care about and I get to make a good living doing it... Why shouldn't I be happy?"
Was Art "playing" -- oh yes... Was he in "games" -- I don't think so. Was he serious about his charge and his clients? VERY much so.
So... I think we confuse the ways in which "play" and "games" intersect and the ways they most certainly do not... So "play" spirit can be an opposite of "boredom"... At least as a description... And "gamifying" society or the workplace may or may not solve the boredom problem if the games aren't exquisitely and personally developed. (I won't discuss the cost of doing such or the roi for now at least but such endeavor won't be cheap...)
Back to boredom...
I see the following issue: "games" may be a tactic to cure boredom...
Back to my friends -- I don't know any that require a tactic to get out of boredom of a job because, well, they aren't bored. If nothing else the community of friends I am lucky to know have a common thread of passion for their work and the passion obliterates boredom as a problem.
Will "gamification" or even "playification" generate a passion for one's work???? I do not think so. Not at all. Can "gamification" complement the other daily activity inside an already workable work place? I strongly think it can!
BUT can gamification solve the lack of passion? I don't think so. Passionate workers don't require tactics and tactics won't generate passion...
So... This book might have been directed toward how to "inspire" ("to breathe life into") as opposed to how to cope with boredom more effectively. Almost two ends of a problem-solving spectrum: inspiration on one end and tactics on the other end.
So... As a test... Let's suppose you had a 25-year-old son or daughter who was terribly bored with the work they were engaged in.
And then a year later they were suddenly no longer bored and you asked "what happened?"
And there were two answers:
#1. "We got a new leader at the firm who just helped me see the connection of the work that we do and the meaning that it provides me in a personal basis and from there, wow, the whole thing is fresh and exciting and I study on the side now even when I don't get paid and I would run through a wall --- I feel inspired."
#2. " They started a new program of turning our work into video games so I don't have to deal with the clients anymore... They created an amazing way of making the job a lot more fun... The work still apparently gets done - even better - so clients are happier but without the monotony of the past."
I would hope for answer #1.
there are SO many topics that the authors get into and CERTAINLY games could be used to generate inspiration! But the heart and soul of the book will be seen as a coping mechanism to overcome boredom in the work place toward greater efficiency... When I think there is something more significant to strive for -- inspiration.
I have a separate set of related thoughts and experiences...
I coach soccer...
There has been a serious movement in coaching to "gamify" practices in an almost "how to you get them to learn and get in shape without them really noticing" mentality... "Running" to get in shape without a ball or a game involved (eg - as in line drills) is a very very dirty word in this school of thought.
Meanwhile, we are aiming to "generate self-esteem" which some parents think us coaches hand out to kids along with a ball and a uniform.
I call our soccer team an exercise in purposeful fun... There can be tons of room for purposeless fun but when being part of the team I coach purposeful fun is the order of the day. I don't see self-esteem development and fun at odds... But I also see that "SELF-esteem" is from experiences of setting sights on an objective and then accomplishing it -- self-esteem is sort of like "I learned that I CAN do something I set my sights on!!!!!!! And it feels GREAT!!! And I can author my life". Kids who think they can author their lives because they experienced doing it is FAR more powerful then listening to some older person like me just telling them that they can which is meaningless...
So while we don't resort to line drills at soccer to put kids in a position to experience that THEY can do far more than they think we DO build everything we do toward having the opportunity to have those experiences... In other words, if you "trick" kids into getting into shape they won't gain the deep knowledge that THEY can do it with eyes wide open... Imagine the loss of experience if the marines "tricked" recruits into gaining what they needed instead of going through an experience that had them KNOW their capacity...
So... To the extent that gamification can support core passion and meaning in our work force I am all for it!!! To the extent that gamification is used as a coping mechanism I am watchful of the potential downsides and lost opportunites.
I am thinking that the sequel to this first book fron clearly inspired authors will be even more useful than this start. I think the authors will move from laying out the landscape in the infant-stages of a movement to picking up critical nuances.
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Radical Evolution: The Promise and Peril of Enhancing Our Minds, Our Bodies -- and What It Means to Be Human
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Future Shock
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Absolute classic on change and society... nearly a must read