What is the Ultimate Tool to See Your Business as a Game?
Calling businesses being games is not new. Many say that our lives, including what they do at work, are games.
These sayings often go into this direction, “It’s a tough game.” But sometimes also, “Control your game,” or similar.
However, one thing is to say something is a game, and another is really to see and treat it that way as if we were both designers and players of that.
Here is what I mean by that.
When you see something without judgment, you give that a chance to surprise you. And games are full of surprises.
On the other hand, if you meet something with prejudice, then disappointment is guaranteed.
Truly seeing something is being open-minded and willing to have fun. Not to expect to have fun but to be open to discover it, wherever it might be, also in unexpected places.
A quick reminder: Fun is an essential criterium for success. Both having and not having fun shows.
Below is the ultimate tool that will help you to see your business as a game or a collection of games. And through that, you will learn how you can improve your business definitions and processes, not by forcing the change, but by getting inspired by how the games are made and structured.
Become aware of the parallels between games and your business
Becoming aware of the parallels between games and real life, including the business part of it, is the ultimate tool in seeing your business as games. Awareness is such an amazing and empowering tool.
Here is my favorite definition of awareness:
A nonjudgmental, non-preferential seeing. It’s an objective, noncritical witnessing of the nature or what we call the ‘isness’ of any particular circumstance or situation. It can be described as an ongoing process in which you are bringing yourself back to the moment, rather than complaining silently about how you would prefer this moment to be. — Ariel and Shya Kane, Practical Enlightenment
There is a whole multifaceted science, which, in its modern form, is based on awareness — anthropology. It is a science of studying humankind and the cultures it embraces.
One foundation of anthropology is the comparative approach, in which cultures aren’t compared to one another in terms of which is better than the other but rather in an attempt to understand how and why they differ as well as share commonalities. This method is also known as cultural relativism, an approach that rejects making moral judgments about different kinds of humanity and simply examines each relative to its own unique origins and history. — Cameron M. Smith, Anthropology For Dummies
One of the fantastic cultures — or rather a great group of cultures — to learn from is anyone (and anything) connected with games.
There are many great reasons to learn from games. But the most spectacular one — and one that surprised me the most, also because it is almost obvious, you could say hidden in plain sight — is that any business, any project, and any task have the same main components as any game.
Let’s take a closer look.
I quote the following definition often because it reveals the truth both about games and real-life projects. It is from one of the most known virtual reality game designers, and game advocates, Jane McGonigal. Here it is:
What defines a game are the goal, the rules, the feedback system, and voluntary participation. Everything else is an effort to reinforce and enhance these four core components. — Jane McGonigal, Reality Is Broken
Let’s list these four components:
- The goal,
- The rules,
- The feedback system,
- Voluntary participation.
Do businesses possess these components too? Most certainly!
The goals have their roots in the mission and vision statements of the company, which are usually formulated in business plans for the first time and then displayed on the website(s) and official documents and presentations of the business.
The rules are all the decisions businesses make for products, services, operation, and all the other aspects of their companies. Many of these will be found in business policies. But there are industrial branches, which simply call them “business rules.” When I describe business rules to others, I call them the knowledge base of all decisions you make in your business. However, you could also say that they are rules defining the gameplay in your business game.
The feedback system is all the documentation you maintain to document the progress on all levels of your business game. There are so many on so many levels. These are road-maps, reports, project management sheets, time-sheets, and so many more.
Voluntary participation is especially visible upon the start of a business. It also reveals itself when an entrepreneur switches her interest from one venture to another. I met several serial entrepreneurs who build a business, “play” it for a while, and then leave it for whatever reason. Some of the serial entrepreneurs come back into the field or company again and create a new version of their business game. Others, or the same entrepreneurs but in a different context, create a new business altogether.
From real life to games and back
The more I learn about and from games, the more I realize the following.
Many games are at least partly simulations of real life. Of course, this makes sense since game designers are humans too. They take what they know from experience, learn something new, and create games. They brilliantly simplify the real-life processes to make them less overwhelming and more structured. They add fun and exciting challenges accompanied by varying doses of imagination and fantasy and create enticing rewards, which are often connected to leveling up and striving to do more and learn more.
Businesses can be as simple, as complex (for leveling up), as enticing, and as fun as games. Or even more so. Because we can mix games and game thinking into them, as well as serve others and create a better world. Many games are created nowadays to benefit the world and all those who live on it too.
Yes, we can learn from games and game designers and make developing our businesses along with their missions and visions rewarding, engaging, and fun for all involved, and also through that serving all involved.
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About the author:
Victoria is a writer, instructor, and consultant with a background in semiconductor physics, electronic engineering (with a Ph.D.), information technology, and business development. While being a non-gamer, Victoria came up with the term Self-Gamification, a gameful and playful self-help approach bringing anthropology, kaizen, and gamification-based methods together to increase the quality of life. She approaches all areas of her life this way. Due to the fun she has, while turning everything in her life into games, she intends never to stop designing and playing them.
