Almost overnight, millions of people worldwide (including some of your employees) became hooked (read engaged) in an augmented reality battle for rewards, badges and points with the launch of Pokemon Go in 2016. As of October 2016, the game had generated an estimated revenue of US$1.56 million daily.

One of the superlative adoption statistics that Pokemon Go achieved is that people got fired for playing it on the job. It was reported that six businesses fired their employees for spending too much company time on the game.

What caused the fired employees to keep playing Pokemon Go, to the point of dismissal? It was so fun, so they played past the point of caring about the consequences of dismissal.

In this post, we explore how organizations can profit from the gamification lessons in Pokemon Go’s runaway success. For now, let’s leave Fun aside, and go back to an organization’s priorities. Gamification looks like all fun and games. But, the improvements through gamification is serious and business-like.

Recognizing Sidelined Objectives

You may already be familiar with the Eisenhower Matrix that helps focus on tasks by urgency and importance. Many of us already know that urgent and important tasks should get tackled first. The challenge is in quadrant 2 — the Important/Not Urgent tasks.

Personal goals could be exercising or being with family members. To organizations, it could be planning and attending training, or tackling long-term strategy. These are the to-do lists traditionally made as new year resolutions. At SelfDrvn, we have a name for these Important/Non-Urgent tasks — the graveyard of good intentions.

Resurrecting Good Intentions Through Fun

Why do these good intentions die? It is because they are always displaced by urgent tasks. We know we must do them, but it won’t hurt us if we don’t do them immediately. Few people (and organizations) have the self-discipline to tackle all their important/not urgent items.

Many select just one or two items too important to ignore and junk the others. For some people, important tasks neglected may include exercising, self-renewal and family time. For organizations, it could be long-term innovation, leadership renewal and employee engagement.

What Pokemon Go Teaches Us

In the case of the fired employees, they placed `Unimportant/Not Urgent tasks (playing Pokemon Go) in quadrant 1. It became personally important and urgent to the dismissed employees. Why did that happen? Because of the fun that employees derived from the game. Pokemon Go uses mechanics considered fun by many. These include competing, exploring, teamwork, collecting, customizing, receiving rewards and leveling up.

Using similar mechanics, organizations can engineer urgency and spontaneous behaviors towards targeted good intentions. Tackling Important/Not Urgent items more often and more willingly, through fun.