“An Organizational Guide for Gamified Learning” was written for YOU! The model I guide you through was designed based on the success I’ve seen from a large tech company needing their frontline, their contact center sales and support employees, to practice and retain skills. And I’m not talking about the forbidden fruit.
In December 2013 I walked into Microsoft, orange badge in hand, pinching myself because I couldn’t believe I had convinced one of the world’s greatest companies to hire me. The first five and a half years were spent filing vendor support roles in Customer Support, Marketing and Program Management. It was July of 2019 when the coveted blue badge, full-time Microsoft employee status, was finally earned following a year spent improving gamified learning engagement from 57% to 85%. Ending the 2021 calendar year, I am more than three years into the exciting and invigorating world of gamification, and our engagement now averages 97% monthly. I will never stop learning and making mistakes along the way. Dare I bring up the “P” word? During the global, covid-19 pandemic we realized we can adapt to new things. We also realized that if you turn our homes into our office, hotel, gym, entertainment venue, and restaurant, we are going to significantly struggle with work life balance. I question if I were ever this busy “pre-covid”. You see, the pandemic slid into my life bringing an ounce of fear and many new regulations. On top of that, my work and personal responsibilities both grew. I was suddenly a homeschool kindergarten teacher to my precious daughter, promoted to help other departments in Microsoft learn about gamified learning, and diligently working to write this book for you. Why am I setting this scene? To let you know the idea behind the content of this book is to help you avoid the errors I’ve seen so you more quickly arrive at the benefits of gamification. Enough about me, for now, as I am sure you are still wondering if this book is worth the read. So I’ll ask you this, “Why?”. “Why are you interested in gamified learning?” “What goals are you trying to achieve by possibly utilizing a game-based learning platform?” And most importantly, “What is your hesitation?” “What is stopping you?”.
As I’ve embarked in panel discussions and networking with learning curators, the biggest tip I give is to ensure your team hires a Program Manager (PM) to oversee your gamified learning efforts. If your organization is larger, like mine, a full-time person is the way to success. If your organization is smaller, you might be able to hire one program manager to cover multiple programs. This leads us to your next step. I challenge you to read this book beginning to end as we walk you through a journey of building the case for both gamified learning and for the PM to run the show. And as my mentor always says, “Don’t raise your voice. Improve your argument”. Ah yes, it isn’t just me here. I’d like to take a moment to introduce my friend, mentor, and fellow gamification nerd Karl Kapp. Professor at Bloomsburg University and experienced learning professional, Karl literally wrote the book on gamification of learning and instruction. In addition to several published achievements, he is a consultant, entrepreneur, speaker, board member, scholar, L&D coach, and researcher. He’s the real deal and has integrated his wisdom throughout this book to help back my experiences and data with industry trends and science. When this book leaves you eager to get started, be sure to research the Learning and Development Mentor Academy, a member-only consortium of L&D professionals founded by Karl. This elite group is provided self-paced courses and live, monthly education on top of a treasured place to collaborate. If you do get to speak with him, be sure to note his last name is pronounced “cop” despite the numerous times I have tried to change it to “cap”. Now that we are all acquainted, let’s get down to business. In the following pages you will learn from the model I use for my team, as well as for the others I’ve coached as they began their gamified learning journey. You’ll probably want to grab pen and paper, to go along with your snack, as we will not shy away from the noteworthy details. And please do me a favor by choosing yellow if you’re going to highlight the words, it’s my favorite color after all. You can do this!
