Level Up! Why Social BPM and the Social Enterprise should be more like WoW #bpm #socialbpm #gamification

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Gamification. I’ve been a gamer since I was small and pestered my poor folks for an Atari 2600. 30 years on and I’m still playing. So I find it funny sometimes when I read on the next thing to hit BPM and business because I can guarantee half of those writing about it don’t play, haven’t played in years or have never played. A quick blast or mention of Farmville is enough to get attention these days but you really have to understand the mechanics and mindset of both the game and the gamer to unlock how much potential this really could have. I keep mentioning the Cabal Process and how Valve structured their teams (repeatability vs. creativity article), I did say look to other industries for direction and innovation.

I’m reading a fascinating book called “Reality is broken“, by Jane McGonigal and the parallels between gaming and business are far reaching. It’s more than just rewarding points and badges, it’s involvement and direct social connectivity (and what is later coined as ‘ambient sociability’ by Jane), continuous feedback and appraisal. It’s making sure that what we do in business has a clear objective and steps to reach that goal. That the intrinsic satisfaction of completing a set of tasks (or process steps) to achieve the (customer based) outcome has far greater power than just the (not so) almighty dollar.

I would say read the first six chapters and understand the concepts within, then look at how your Social BPM stacks up against it. One of the more interesting topics (technically) touched on is ‘Phasing’ which happens in WoW, where each player is shown a different view of the world depending on their own accomplishments. Perhaps this is something that could/ should translate into business context a lot more, and in Social BPM, visibly seeing the impact of your work and how it affects the organisation around you. And I don’t mean BAM and MI. Please think a little more abstract when you apply social context to these tired concepts.

Do we split Social BPM into Hardcore and Casual streams ?
Casual processes, ones that offer one off hits, quick and dirty customer fulfilment ?
Hardcore processes that take longer and more effort but the rewards are more visible and longer lasting ?
Food for thought if you’re looking to explore gamification beyond just ‘business games for innovation’

As Jane puts it “The best-designed game work feels more productive because it feels more real: the feedback comes stronger and faster, and the impact is more visual and vivid……gameful work is a real source of reward and satisfaction.”

Gamification. It’s the latest darling buzzword of 2011 and it’s coming to BPM near you soon. But when you look for advice, ask the most important question first: Do you play ?…..

Republished with author's permission from original post.

Theo Priestley
Theo Priestley is Vice President and Chief Evangelist at Software AG, responsible for enabling the marketing and voice of the industry's leading Business Process, Big Data/ In-Memory/ Complex Event Processing, Integration and Transaction suite of platforms. Theo writes for several technology and business related sites including his own successful blog IT Redux. When he isn't evangelizing he's playing videogames, collecting comics and takes the odd photo now and then. Theo was previously an independent industry analyst and successful enterprise transformation consultant.

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