Buzz to Bang! How to Implement a Successful Gamification Training in Your Organization?
Training Leader’s 5-Step Method to Deliver a Successful Gamification Training Campaign!
Organization is a dynamic environment with multiple variables at play. It’s important as training leaders and as L&D professionals to follow a foolproof strategy to design and execute gamification training in a way that captures maximum mileage for your brand.
In this post, we will cover in brief some important steps that you need to take to set up your gamification training for success. They are:
- Begin with the end in mind- Predicting the outcome of your gamification training
- Communication Strategy- Your messaging needs a carefully crafted plan
- Branding Strategy- How to perfect your messages through all modalities?
- Strategic Partnership- Your success will be measured by others. How to create alignment with stakeholders and get strategic contributions?
- Communicating Success- How to have others talk about your success?
Step 1- Begin with the end in mind- Predicting the outcome of your gamification training
You want to run a super successful campaign, right? Here are some questions you need to think about before you begin anything else.
1. How does success of a gamification training look like to the leaders of the organization?
Think through every detail. What will be a successful campaign for them? Get ideas /opinions from others. It will be best if you can involve a few leaders and take first-hand opinion on what they consider a successful campaign.
The answers you receive will act as a definitive guide to your efforts!
Your objective is to identify specific stakeholder’s expectation of impact in his area of work. Get as much granular information as possible.
2. Identify key metrics that your gamification training will be designed to deliver on.
It can range from participation numbers / performance indicators /cost, etc. Look into the current imperative of the organizations and try to find metrics that will be most relevant to leaders given the current focus. This step is important because your communication of success will be in these terms.
3. Align your gamification training to the current organization’s focus areas.
Every organization constantly focuses on few areas of improvement . Be aware of those and understand what the leaders are talking on open forums. Once this information is with you identify how much of that can be the scope of your campaign.
Step 2- Communication Strategy- Your messaging needs a carefully crafted plan
Communication is an important part. How well you communicate will drive the upfront engagement with your audience; any other eventuality will usually be a subset of that.
Communication to your audience needs to be clear and compelling. They should get excited with your communication and stay excited.
Here are some ideas that will ensure that your campaign communication is set up for success.
1. Communicate how your gamification training ties up with the bigger vision and mission.
Aligning your campaign’s overall impact with the organization’s mission and vision should be clearly communicated to your audience. This way the audience will be prepared to absorb all that you present to them.
2. Design an “Elevator Pitch”- a 2-min introduction of your gamification training.
This is like a story that you will use to sell your initiative internally to leaders and audience.
3. Use the communication planner and stick to it.
Here is a plan template you can follow.
| Stage | Objective | Ideas |
|---|---|---|
|
Pre-Launch |
Establish Rationale | Build Business Case in brief, Outline Challenges and Objective of Initiative |
| Engagement | Conduct Survey/Quiz etc. to get involvement | |
| Excitement | Send a teaser for your program, use physical/visual communication through posters/danglers wherever possible/start an e-mail campaign with countdown and interesting quotes | |
| Leadership Endorsement | Get leaders involved, hold mini launch events | |
|
Launch |
Clarify Structure Off Program | Share detailed plan of different milestones of your initiative |
| Drive Participation | Promote early bird incentives for participation/ nomination etc. | |
|
During Launch |
Build Credibility & Trust | Share updates on metrics achievement/participant- leaders opinions |
| Intensify Engagement | Publish leaderboard – announce rewards /share spotlight with top performers | |
|
Closure |
Communicate Success | Metrics achievement/campaign success video, Create and publish infographic/leadership comments |
Step 3- Branding Strategy- How to perfect your messages through all modalities?
Craft Brief Communication- Make It Copy Perfect. Here is how.
1. Create a logo for your initiative
Images have a higher recall value. Get Some Free Logos Here
2. Create a punch-line and copy for your initiative
Imagine the biggest benefit your audience will get, say it in a single sentence, review and revise till you can’t take away anything from it and it resonates with your audience.
3. Create a video teaser or explainer video to entice with your offer.
4. Make it visually thematic, appealing, interesting and unique.
Step 4- Strategic Partnership- Your success will be measured by others.
Remember success is a perception that can be created by results you deliver, likability that people feel towards you, contribution others feel they have done to your campaign and trust that you have built as a person.
Getting different leader’s sponsorship and endorsement is the single most important factor to create a long lasting buzz in your organization – it gives you an opportunity to network with leaders you don’t usually interact with, and have them take notice of your leadership skills in planning and executing the campaign, thus building your brand.
Your job as a Campaign Strategist is to get important stakeholders and influencers to shout out its success, rather than you taking that burden. So, how do you do that?
Here are some guidelines.
1. Identify key stakeholders
Identify the leader with whom you plan to partner with to drive your initiative. Remember all leaders whose universe you will touch or not, are important.
2. Start communication with them before any formal launch
Update them about your campaign, take their expectations/ideas to make it more effective. Set expectations about the kind of support you need from them.
3. Get department leaders to sponsor your campaign
Let their endorsement be known through live events and keep them updated while the campaign is on, keep taking their feedback and fine tuning the engagement.
4. Leverage leaders during closure phase of your campaign.
Step 5- Communicating Success- How to have others talk about your success?
A big part of success attribution comes from how the success is communicated. Here are some tips to make your success stand out-
1. Identify points where this initiative has made a leap over the previous ones.
2. Get same leaders to share their views about the campaign’s success.
Use that in communication.
3. Create a videos/infographics/mini live events of your success, wherever possible.
Involve as many leaders as possible to speak about it and recognize the good performers with reward announcement during the event. Keep it short, fun and meaningful.
Further Reading On Gamification
1. Basics of Gamification- Get introduced to all things that make up gamification- right from gamification definition to the 7 key gamification elements that make the gamification experience enchanting and engaging.
2.Different Types of Gamification and Choosing the Correct Strategy- Both the terms-gamification and serious games are used interchangeably, but they are different. Learn what the difference between them is, what are their characteristics, and when should they be used.
3. Benefits of Gamification over E-learning- Get introduced to the TOP 10 reasons why training leaders are vouching for Gamification over e-learning.
4. Top 7 Key Gamification Elements and Employee Motivation- Do the 7 key gamification elements motivate learners in any way? Read what the research on motivation says.
5. Gamification Elements-Motivation-Psychological Perspective- What do the books of psychology say about motivation? How does this relate to our 7 gamification elements? Read to know the answer.
6. When to Use Gamification? Is gamification the magical elixir? Is it the solution to all the problems? Maybe not! Read the 4 situations that warrant the use of gamification.
7. How to Design a Successful Gamification Experience? What are the TOP 4 often overlooked gamification techniques that can make or break your gamification experience? Get the answer here to design an engaging gamification experience.
8. Implementing Successful Gamification Program- Get introduced to the “5-Step Method” of ensuring a successful gamification training campaign in your organization. Learn how to deliver right from planning, communicating, strategic partnership, to claiming success.
