Game-based eLearning and how they influence positive morale at your workplace



Are you a leader? Have you noticed that your employees or team members find it hard to perform at 100% all the time? All of us know that there are days when one can be at their best, sometimes one can exceed expectations. These set new benchmarks and when performance plateaus or does not hit home from time to time, it can be extremely frustrating as a team leader. So how does one tackle this using game-based elearning? To understand that, let us try and focus on the reasons why people work.

People work primarily for survival. But apart from survival, the main reason why people work is to experience validation. If you look at it, validation is nothing but the feeling that is generated as a reward for good work. This is the core motivational drive that you should be tapping into. A tool that can be used to effectively achieve this is games. Game-based learning is not a novel concept. It has been used as a learning medium all through human history. It employs teaching via cyclic repetitions, failures and goal centric missions, which on completion generates an appropriate reward.

But what is this “appropriate” reward? Does the same reward work for all employees? One would think to reward their employees with money (wage) should be a big enough motivator to give 100%. It allows them to win their bread. But that right there is fundamentally the reason why it fails. Sure, money is important, it guarantees survival in the world and influences social status. But, you’d notice that there are employees that get by with bare-minimum performances. Performances that guarantee their monthly bread. So how does one make sure that the overall team morale isn’t affected by this contagious attitude of mediocrity?

Interestingly, this scenario has all the key elements to be a game-based elearning simulation. It poses a leadership-training challenge that needs to be overcome. With the world moving fast, it is important to stay ahead in this game. As a leader, you can make use of game-based elearning, custom creating your leadership training game and experiment to impact your team’s performance and business positively.

PLAYER: The leader.

GOAL: Improving workplace morale to positively impact performance.

LEVEL OBSTACLES: Contagious mediocrity in team morale.

REWARD: Increased productivity & positive workplace morale.

So how would you tackle this challenge? What is the key to succeeding in this leadership training simulation? Well, let’s start by understanding your employees. Get to know them. Figure out what keeps them ticking. What is their motivational trigger? Motivation is subjective. It can be brought on by various factors but can broadly be classified as intrinsic or extrinsic.

If an individual enjoys engaging in activities for the sake of bettering themselves, then they are intrinsically motivated. If the person simply engages in an activity to earn all the accolades in it, then they’re extrinsically motivated. Once you know an individual’s motivational drive, it is easier to craft their goals and rewards. Therefore, it is important to custom curate your innovative solutions in the game.

This kind of leadership training game seems simple enough, right? It is, but there are obvious precautions one would need to take in creating such a game-based elearning module, like not offering an intrinsically motivated employee an extrinsic reward, or in the process of customizing your game-based e-learning experience, do not offer a reward to make an activity seem like play rather than work. If employed in the right method, providing the right reinforcers for each employee would really tap into their psychology and satisfy their yearn for validation, improving their productivity and morale which in-turn affects positively your business.

Games are fun and interactive training games are great at sub-consciously educating complex topics. Game-based elearning is steadily entering the corporate world. It has emerged as a popular tool for leadership training and building. Leadership isn’t all about bookish learning, it’s also about how one constantly adapts to the various challenges, on the fly. Game-based elearning really helps one to not just dip their feet in the water, but really explore the nuances of each challenge. This equips leaders to be better prepared when it happens in real life. Besides, individuals are prone to higher performance when they are having fun.

At Indusgeeks, we create high fidelity learning/training simulations specific to your needs and work with you to ensure that the outcome of your program is higher. Our solutions are available on desktop, mobile, tablet and browser-based, making it accessible anywhere and everywhere. #MakeanImpact