Why We Chose to ‘Gamify’ and ‘Storify’ Mandatory Compliance Training

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It’s of absolutely no concern to me whether or not anyone agrees on what exactly the definition of ‘gamification’ is. My skepticism around the term stems from the narrow view that to ‘gamify’ a process is to simply issue badges and create leaderboards.  For me, as an end user, these ‘game mechanics’ while useful, feel like very ‘short-term’, fun fixes which quickly become boring.  They are by their very nature, ephemeral.

Personally, if I’m working really hard and excelling at my job, I want two things: recognition and a raise.  All of these points need to ultimately take me to a better economic place and get me authentic recognition.  Everything else is nice, kinda fun and ultimately short lived. Badges and leaderboards ultimately leave me empty and wanting more.

When we set off to build True Office, we knew that we wanted to focus on one of the most tortuous tasks ever inflicted on the workforce – mandatory compliance training.  We wanted to bring the best consumer web experiences (primarily games and mobile apps) to a woefully outdated business process, which is still stuck in the early 80′s.

Moreover, we felt that we were on a dual mission to expose and educate employees on high risk issues and complex ‘grey’ areas, such as insider trading, workplace harassment and even construction site safety.

When we set out to design True Office, we knew that adding an element of entertainment to the mix was critical, but we generally hated most of the’edutainment’ (an exponentially more horrid term than ‘gamification’) products and so called ‘business simulations’ that we’ve ever seen.

So what we did was to really embed real-life stories and juicy narratives into games; in the form of lightweight mobile and browser based apps, which transform the classic tick and flick, 3-ring-binder, lecturing approach of mandatory compliance training.  We’re actually able to cover all of the key legal issues through telling great stories and great game mechanics.  And we also add testing to the into the mix to boot and make that part of the game (and story), too.

Why we chose to ‘braid’ stories into our game design is simple: engagement and retention is just so much higher when you teach using stories.  It’s been happening for centuries.  The delivery vehicle – mobile app, bedtime story, campfire – can be practically anything.

While this approach may on the surface seem to be quixotic, we see no better way to help companies reduce risk and to help expose employees to inherently risky and highly complex business issues.

Having fun and adding play to the process is the way to win.  And yes, this can include all the legalese and best elements of consumer apps and games out there.

Below is a very short, animated video which tells our story and download the app at True Office.

By: adam Category: The story so far

8.26.11: Treat Other People’s Money As If It Were Your Own

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Yesterday I had lunch in a rain drenched NYC with a rain drenched advisor (Ed Busby was literally soaked beyond the point of recognition when he arrived) and we finished up with a short discussion on the importance of raising quality capital – perhaps for an ark if Irene hits…

The one dominant thought that came into my mind wasn’t necessarily *who* the investment partner was, but how any business – young or old – treats other people’s money.

It reminded me how fortunate I was to spend time with the late Ray Anderson, filming him for 50 Lessons, my former company. Although Ray is considered a visionary business leader, best known for transforming a carpet tile company, abundant in hazardous petrochemicals, into a model for environmental sustainability, he is also one of the most experienced, humble entrepreneurs I have ever met.

As the filming rolled on, I was pleasantly surprised to hear Ray candidly share his first-hand experiences of being an entrepreneur as well as CEO and Chairman of a global organization. In fact, he recalled many of his difficult experiences in starting Interface, Inc, ‘in the teeth of the worst recession since 1929′.

The most profound lesson Ray shared, was on the importance of treating other people’s money as though it was your own. It was profound, brutally honest and had an incredibly deep impact on me. His story centers around a concentrated series of acquisitions which were funded by others people’s money in the form of bond offerings and selling stock. In Ray’s words, ‘it was too easy’.

He concluded the session like this: ‘If we’d been spending our own money, we would have thought very hard about those acquisitions. In the long run, they turned out to be a mistake, and six, seven years later we began to dismantle this distribution system and liquidate it, selling the businesses back to the owners or back to the employees. And we might not ever have undertaken that unfortunate series of investments if we’d been investing our own money. We would have questioned it.’

Ray’s wisdom has stuck with me and it’s central to how I act and behave both professionally and for that matter, personally. At the risk of climbing up on a soap box, I believe this lesson should be a mantra for any organization (public or private), any size.

I’m not sure of you can still watch the video if you are not a 50 Lessons subscriber, but we published the lesson in print in our Harvard Business Press series ‘Straight Talk From The World’s Top Business Leaders‘.

Sadly Ray Anderson recently passed (9 August 2011), but his legacy lives on.

Adam Sodowick

 

By: adam Category: A life well lived, The story so far

8.6.11: Corner Office Confidential App launches!

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Milestone hit! We’ve launched the first mobile app in our portfolio, Corner Office Confidential.

This is business learning through play – literally. We’ve ‘gamified’ and ‘storified’ some of the most painful, embarrassing business training ever inflicted on the workforce. An entirely new – dare I say fun – learning experience is the result.

Check it out. It’s free and it’s the first of many!

Download it, play it and let us know what you think.

By: adam Category: The story so far

7.11.11: Mandatory Gamification: sexual harassment prevention training. Take a sneek peek at our latest app!

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By: adam Category: True Office

7.7.11: Gamification + Storification = Education

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Learning really important business stuff through stories and games sounds totally soft and very ‘non-businessy’.

Despite having built a hugely successful storytelling platform – 50 Lessons – and selling that company to Skillsoft, I still had an itch that needed to be scratched.

My epiphany came when I bought my first iPhone about three years ago.

What that little black rectangle helped me realize was that despite being a true, multi-platform media play, 50 Lessons was still very much a ‘one to many’ broadcast model. It was a ‘lean-back’ learning experience.

We were fighting for 3 minutes of attention within the context of someone’s very busy work schedule. And no matter how relevant or contextual the content was – and they were and still are damned good – the primary activity was still viewing.

What was missing was the addition of what I now see as a very necessary and real game ‘layer’ – not just badges – into the learning mix.

Moreover, smart phones and tablets combined with an ‘app-centric’ approach allowed our new business to emerge from the entrepreneurial primordial soup.

A picture tells a thousand words and below is a slide which sums up what problem we’re tackling and what tools we’re using here at True Office.

Today, we have submitted Corner Office Confidential, our first App, to Apple and we hope to have it in your hands shortly. Onward!

 

 

 

By: adam Category: The story so far
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