Successful business leaders know better than anyone that sometimes it’s the most untraditional methods that have the most significant impact.
If you want your company to stay ahead of the pack and succeed, you’re willing to try it all.
The pursuit of being the best in the biz doesn’t mean you can’t have fun!
Playing games and having fun at work can increase overall performance for your business.
Here’s how:
Promote Deeper Learning
If you’ve ever witnessed someone become so engrossed in a video game that they lose focus on everything else, you understand how captivating games can be. Why not wield this incredible power to engage and hold attention for the benefit of the workplace?
Major organisations, like the NFL and even branches of the US military, have started training their teams with Learn to Win, a user-friendly platform that allows instructors to build educational modules. Teams can then learn right on their phones through games and interactive lessons that provide instant gratification and feedback.
Utilising games, video or otherwise, to train and educate employees works with humans’ natural inclination to explore choices. Games provide necessary motivation, consequences, and rewards that can make learning effective and fun.
Improvisation Enhances Sales
While studies have shown that games can indeed promote deeper learning, there is also a role for games and play in boosting sales. While many will roll their eyes at improv performances, improv and theatre games are an excellent tool for getting employees out of their comfort zone and allowing them to explore perspectives different from their own.
Improv is all about supporting your scene partner with an affirmative “yes” response to whatever they throw your way. It teaches people to roll with the punches and carry on with what they have.
Take, for instance, a role-playing game that allows a salesperson to step into the shoes of a potential customer.
By experiencing an interaction from a buyer’s perspective, the salesperson may learn what is and isn’t compelling about their pitch and gain insight into what customers value.
Encourage Team Performance
Games have also proven to be excellent for building strong teams. When people work together towards a common goal, whether in a video game, a relay race, or an escape room, they gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of each other’s strengths.
Team games allow people to see how the attributes of others can complement their own without the professional restraints, high stakes, and competitive nature of a workplace.
The better a team knows and values each of its members, the better they will collectively perform. Play can also help promote positive professional relationships that make work more fulfilling. It’s a win-win.
Ready, Set, Play
With a myriad of benefits for individual employees and your organisation as a whole, fun and games can be good for business.
It’s time to rethink our views on gaming!
What do you have to lose? Implement some of these ideas in your workplace and see the results for yourself.
Read more:
How Games Can Help Your Business