There are many barriers that could be contributing to this situation: shyness, lack of motivation (do I really need to go and talk to this guy?), lack of opportunities and setup, among many others. And this is where gamification could play a big role in overcoming these barriers and provide not only the setup, but also boost motivation and give guests plenty of reasons to go out of their way to meet new people and expand their network.
When crafted correctly, a game-like activity provides a fair and even playground.
Everyone from the company leader to the newest guy is a player like each other. At a recent event we produced, one of the outstanding cases was a young man who had been for less than a week in the organization. He barely knew anybody, he was the only participant who didn’t even have an @thecompany.com email (he had to use his university email). Despite that, he took the game seriously. How serious? I’ll put it like this: When I was waiting for my ride to the airport, I bumped into the top leader of the organization, and these were her very words: How about XX? He was hired 6 days ago and now everyone in the organization knows who he is, they know he’s a winner, and I even told him that the next time I visit his city, we’re going for lunch.
There are strong social enhancers in games. They are a natural social catalyst. People who struggle socializing in real life often find a safe space to expand in games, or in this case, a game-like context. Many people at the aforementioned event were impressed by this phenomena, saying things like: “I have met more people here than in every other convention I’ve been, put together”, or “3 different members of my team have told me they’re meeting people from departments they didn’t even knew existed”, and one of our favorites, “Who would have thought I would have made so many friends over trading stickers”.
As gamers and gamification experts, we knew the social benefits games can have. However, we were almost as impressed by the success and overwhelming result we saw at this event. We are now polishing the edges of what already worked, and looking for new and better ways to make these social dynamics more effective and lasting. We can’t wait to put them in place and see how many colleagues we can transform into players, and then transform those players into friends.
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