Leaderboard

Any exercise which utilizes elements of games (situations/step-by-step escalation/challenges/awards/comparative dashboards/points/levels etc) in order to enhance the experience of the participants similar to that of the wide myriad of games can be called as Gamification. It is intended to create a gaming-like experience of achievements and rewards in a real life situation so as to build motivation, sense of competition, build engagement, etc. We get to see gamification being used to achieve a lot many things such as :- a. Increased sense of competition: - Comparison dashboards or leaderboards for different sites/teams in an organization b. Training & Skill Development: - Different levels of achievements through Badges, Belts(LSS YB, GB, BB, MBB is also after all a way of building skills taken from the level of mastery in Judo) & learning apps which gives have built in skill development through multiple levels of achievements and rewarding users with recognition for achieving the same c. Maintaining a streak of good performance: - At the entrance of the many manufacturing organizations we can get to see streaks mentioned such as 0 Near Misses, 0 Accidents Reported since so and so dates. d. Engagement: - Competition built within different departments of organization through competitions e. Healthcare & Habit building Tech.: - A lot of wearable tech and fitness apps also gamify exercises and health routines giving the users an external stimulus to maintain their streak of achievements for maintaining their practices of exercise, habit building such as waking up in a particular time, journaling, etc. f. Marketing: - Almost any store, payment app, credit/debit card we use, we can see them send some points, credits, awards which can be collected and then used for taking part in some contest/ lottery/ any other uses in order to build customer retention. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Some of the risks associated with gamification which we can see are: - 1. Obsession leading to harmful consequences: - There can be risks of obsession fuelled decision making in order to gather more points at the expense of their well-being. Buying unnecessary goods only to improve tally of points by customers, using unfair practices by people in organizations to reach and remain at top of the leaderboard, etc. are all true events which have become very common. 2. Discontentment: - Poorly designed gamification can lead to discontent and disillusionment to creep amongst participants just like any poor decision making. For eg. Counting the no. of hours someone spent reading a content. People may simply keep the window open for hours and go about doing something else. They will surely benefit over others who actually read through diligently and closed the window). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We can utilize gamification in the following ways to improve LSS Training : - A. Point Systems During trainings we see that the interaction of the trainer and only a minority of trainees happen frequently. Majority end up remaining silent spectators or are too shy/disinterested to interact though they may a lot to add. For getting more interaction the below ideas can be implemented, such as:- 1. Building a points systems for meaningful interaction. Giving points for active participation which do add some value to the training program and having a leaderboard for the same. Off course this needs to be thought out well else there would a cacophony of pointless talk just to score some points. Something which is hilariously visible in Group Discussions. 2. Points systems for the amount of time the camera had been switched on. Only if the participant is having the camera on and focusing on the content for a minimum amount of time should he/she be given attendance or some points. This can address the rather troublesome challenges we see in online classes were people will join the meeting but will be simply working on something else. 3. Profiling an Ideal Trainee. An image of an ideal trainee should be created who will be having some minimum no. of pts. for abovementioned activities, on-time arrival/joining, etc). This would act as a benchmark for the trainees. Creating a real time profile of the participants based on these parameters will help create a sense of comp etition and also motivate the trainees to reach the ideal level. Offcourse, this has to be enabled by using some AI tool to track the sessions. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- B. Content Delivery We can also improve the training through gamifying delivery of Content 4. Phase by Phase Buildup, gamification of the skills developed being part of a puzzle which eventually leads to the completion of an image/art of the training. This will give a sense of achievement and satisfaction to the trainees. 5. Gamification of Sub-section quizzes. Most of the gamification in learning platforms are limited to different phases of LSS training i.e. D-M-A-I-C. However, a layer of gamification can be added to the different stages within the Project. Such as different exercises within each phase. For eg. micro-quizzes for CTQ identification, VOC/VOP/VOB, QFD, SIPOC,As-Is, Resistance Analysis, Project Charter etc. during the Define phase. This will help in keeping the training engaging. 5. Role-play gamification of a case study. Where, branches of scenarios and decision trees are built. Each decision would lead to a scenario which would lead to another scenario. This will help the trainees understand the concepts better and also help explain how and where common mistakes can occur. 6. Toll gating/ Mile stoning with a roadmap of different stages of the training rather than just a %age completion of the course. This would be a visually appealing added feature that would keep the trainees engaged. 7. Revealing the content level by level. While handing over reading materials and other contents to the trainees will be helpful to them to prepare themselves for the training, however it can be seen that it can also overwhelm trainees with a lot to absorb. Revealing the Content Page and progressively enabling access to them would allow for bite-size consumption of the material thereby improving retention of the same. This would also build an anticipation for the next part of upcoming sessions which would also fire up the curiosity of the trainee. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- C. UNPREDICTABILITY/ANTICIPATION 8. Surprise rewards within the training. During the training certain elements of surprise gifts should be included. This would hook the participants to focus on the training by giving them a short term reward. This can be anything from a cashback, licensed access to a paid-library, discount for other trainings, premium subscription to online tools etc. This will ensure that the trainees are given a short term achievement by focusing on the training.