The Use of Games In Corporate World

During recent years the use of Gamification in corporate settings has become more common, and companies have begun to use games to improve employee morale, productivity and innovation.  As an employer, you could have this line of reasoning:   if people spend countless hours on social networks like Facebook, why not try to ue that time more productively?  Additionally, recent studies have shown that video games improve your thinking, so why not try something along those lines?

I recently attended a webinar introducing Keas, a leading online game platform that aims to promote health behaviors among employees.  It is similar to Facebook, and allows employees to create individual profiles and teams.   Team members define their particular health goals, and if achieved, both the team member and team get points.   For example, if a team member has the goal of working out for 1 hour in the gym, and they achieved it, they would be earning points for themselves and their teams, and the more points you have, the better chance of winning prizes and recognition by the company.

After the webinar, I received a follow up call for feedback, and I asked the person how a company could ensure that team members don't cheat, just to get the points and win the prizes.   The company representative was in awe of my question, saying that it usually boils down to trust.    I am not saying employees should not be trusted, but in some company settings employees try to "game the system" just to get results and recognition.   As Dr. Deming used to say, this behavior is almost always a consequence of inadequate management, but gaming the system is common when trying to meet sales targets, production targets or inventory targets.

So what do you think?  Should we Gamify the workplace?  What obstacles need to be overcome to do so?