Gamification of cooperation: A winning strategy for success

Publication date: 20.10.2023

Cooperation is a fundamental aspect of human interaction, driving progress, innovation, and success in various spheres of life. Whether it's in the workplace, education, or personal relationships, effective cooperation can make all the difference. To harness the power of cooperation and make it more engaging and productive, many have turned to gamification.

Understanding gamification

Gamification is the process of incorporating game elements. For example, it can be competition, rewards, and feedback mechanisms, into non-game contexts to encourage engagement and motivation. By applying principles from games to real-life situations, gamification aims to make tasks more enjoyable. Besides that, it increases participation, and achieves specific objectives.

Gamification has been successfully applied in various fields, including education, marketing, and employee training. When applied to cooperation, it can transform the way people work together and collaborate.

The benefits of gamifying cooperation

Increased engagement

Games are inherently engaging and can make cooperation more exciting. When individuals are motivated to participate, they are more likely to actively contribute to group efforts.

Enhanced communication

Gamification often requires participants to communicate and collaborate effectively to achieve goals. This can lead to improved communication skills and stronger relationships within teams.

Goal achievement

Games typically have clear objectives and rewards, which can help individuals and teams stay focused on their cooperative efforts. As a result, this can bring higher productivity and goal achievement.

Immediate feedback

Games provide instant feedback on performance, allowing participants to learn from their mistakes and make improvements. This feedback loop can foster a culture of continuous improvement within a cooperative setting.

Fun and enjoyment

Cooperation can sometimes feel like hard work, but gamification can inject an element of fun into the process. When people enjoy what they're doing, they're more likely to stay motivated and committed.

Powerful examples of gamification of cooperation

HP

HP is a big tech brand. Their sales team needed to be the best. Therefore, HP started work together with Growth Engineering and created a mobile app called The HP Uni App. The idea of the app was to train the sales team with help of gamification. The aim was to maximize sales teams engagement to the app and learning.

In the app they had ‘The HP Security Cup’ which had battles and winners rose up the leaderboard. The result showed that learner engagement rose to never before seen levels.

Blue Wolf

Blue Wolf serves as IBM's global consulting division specializing in Salesforce solutions. In particular, the company wanted to find new ways to raise customer satisfaction. So, they created a survey to understand the current state of collaboration in the organization.

Employees earned points when they answered the survey or shared Blue Wolf content to social media. These points were converted to rewards in the real world. As a result, collaboration and sharing rose among employees. Apart from that, productivity increased 25-35% and internal communication improved 14%.

Gamifying cooperation and its benefits

The gamification of cooperation is a powerful approach to making collaboration more engaging, enjoyable, and effective. Whether in the workplace, classroom, or community, incorporating game elements can motivate individuals to work together toward common goals. By harnessing the principles of gamification, we can unlock the full potential of cooperation. This, in turn, enables us to achieve greater success in various aspects of life. So, why not turn cooperation into a game and start reaping the benefits today?