Gamifying your business: Eight essential elements

By Richard Tyson

Over my 50-plus years as a businessman, I have ebbed and flowed on my views of what author and business guru Jack Stack has called “The Great Game of Business.” During periods of success and prosperity, business is, indeed, a great game. But in times of grinding to deliver outcomes required by customers, employees, shareholders, vendors, bankers, etc., I’ve found it very difficult to describe it as a game — much less a great one.

The pressures that weigh down on owners, entrepreneurs and CEOs are significant. As my wife has often said, “the only thing more overrated than running your own company is natural childbirth.” Having experienced the latter — and living with a man who has, for many years, done the former, her perspective has often been amazingly accurate.

When you, as the leader of your enterprise, feel such pains, you must understand that your business can once again be a great game, one that you can enjoy.

To accomplish this transformation, you must engage your various stakeholders as your teammates in the game, rather than your opponents, and address eight essential elements of any good game:

1. Objectives that extend from a clear purpose and mission.

2. Rules to govern the way the game is played (your company values).

3. Visible scorekeeping milestones that define progress toward successful achievement of the objectives.

4. Deliberate and decisive pacing through the milestones.

5. Interactivity between teammates with recognition and rewards for individual and collective contributions.

6. Strategic options that empower teammates to perform at their highest level.

7. An exciting challenge that is realistic, while stretching the capabilities of the team.

8. It’s fun! Team members are enthusiastic about playing the game, each and every day!

With these elements in place, your great game can be amplified by gamifying it. This is done by focusing on elements 3 through 5 above.

Your selection of visible scorekeeping milestones outlined in Step 3, liberally shared, will provide continuous metrics of success for your team. As that success is achieved, recognition and rewards for individual and collective achievement of those milestones (Step 5) will accelerate your success.

One of my manufacturing clients created his great game of business as follows:

The company’s purpose was to become a global leader in their product category, while consistently delivering a quality product, on-time and to the customer’s specifications. While doing so, their financial objective was to exceed 6 percent pre-tax net profit, which represented a three-fold improvement over their previous best year.

The rules of the game: Don’t cut corners. Integrity, quality, profitability were the key inviolable values.

The visible scorekeeping began with a physical manifestation of the financial goal. The client produced “6+” posters and placed them throughout the plant. He also made “6+” desk paperweights for each of his executives and engineers.

His monthly scorekeeping compared the company’s actual performance to the target of “6+.” Graphs illustrating actuals compared to the objective were posted in several key areas throughout the offices and the manufacturing floor.

Company meetings provided the pace: a tight feedback loop, where performance was reviewed, evaluated and revised on a regular and continuous basis.

All team members were encouraged to give their best ideas on how to achieve the desired objectives. Leadership initiated regular recognition and rewards for strong individual and team contributions.

While each team member was empowered to focus on their own job, they also were invited to offer strategic ideas on how to win the game.

The challenge, initially, seemed to have more stretch than realism; the company had never had more than 2 percent pre-tax net. However, as all stakeholder engaged together, the goal seemed increasingly doable. When they clearly understood the game, team members engaged enthusiastically.

The results of this game were impressive. At the end of the first year, pre-tax profits came in at 11 percent. However, early in the following year, warranty claims forced a review and a recommitment to the rules. The heavy stress on profitability had led to efficiency improvements at the expense of quality. A recasting of profits after warranty claims reduced the first-year net to 7 percent. Even so, my client was delighted with the outcomes of the first round of his great game of business. And it set the stage for the next year’s game, as well as higher profits into the future.

Transforming your business into a great game requires some real work and creative thinking, but it can provide a whole new perspective on what is too often the greasy grind of business.

Richard Tyson is the founder, principal owner and president of CEObuilder, which provides forums for consulting and coaching to executives in small businesses.