Data point of the week
People are notoriously bad at following through on their personal (and professional) goals. Author Jon Acuff wrote the book Finish specifically to address this issue. He outlines seven strategies that dramatically increase follow through and help people reach the finish line.

Strategy #4 is “Make it Fun if You Want it Done.” He reports that picking an enjoyable goal increases performance success by 46%.

One way to make goals fun is to gamify them.

Reflection
There are a lot of things that I want to do (at least theoretically), but don’t like to do. You can probably relate. It’s hard to get motivated to do something that is distinctly NOT FUN.

Take working out for example. I want to be fit, and to maintain strength and prevent injuries, but UGH. It hurts! So, I employed the make-it-fun strategy and invited a couple friends to sign up for personal training with me. Don’t get me wrong, I still don’t like working out, but the laughter and conversation make the time pass quickly and prevent me from quitting.

Gamifying something makes it fun, engaging and motivating. There are specific components of games that reinforce behavior and hook our interest, such as:

1. Set a goal, target, or clearly defined end point (most games don’t go on indefinitely). This is essentially the point of the game or how you “win.”

2. Mark progress, such as a scoreboard, progress bar, stickers or Xs on the calendar, etc. We get very invested when we see progress.

3. Offer variable rewards.

You can see this in action with Wordle, which has hooked tons of people and inspired multiple spinoffs.

1. It has a clear goal: guess the word in as few tries as possible, with a limit of 6.

2. It marks progress by recording your previous guesses and showing you getting closer to the answer.

3. It offers the intrinsic reward of guessing correctly and the possibility of improving your record, and the optional extrinsic reward of sharing your results with friends to win their admiration or commiseration. The reward is variable (the satisfaction of guessing the word in 3 tries, or the disappointment of 5).

Connection Skill & Action Step: Gamify Connection
How can you make a game out of connecting more? Some ideas include:

1. Create a mini connection challenge for yourself by setting a target and creating a scoreboard to track your progress. For example:

   • Can you give one compliment—or share one thing you appreciate about someone—every day for 30 days? (These can be delivered verbally, over text, email, etc.)

2. Host a gamified connection event. For example:

   • Speed-friending. Get a group of people together and pair them up. Provide an interesting question prompt and set a timer for 3-minutes. At the end of the 3 minutes, switch to a new partner and new question. 

3. Organize some rotating fun. Do this with a group of friends. If there are five people in the group, choose five different dates that you’ll get together, and assign one person to each date to choose and coordinate a fun activity.

Questions. Please share your responses in the comments.
Do you have an example of something you’ve made fun to get it done? How did it work out?

What ideas do you have to gamify connection—in your personal life or at work?