Here’s one of the fundamental conundrums of leadership: How do you find the right balance between managing day-to-day operations on the one hand, and future threats and opportunities on the other? The outcome: almost invariably, the important (but often not day-to-day urgent) issues of the future taking a back seat to the urgent (but often not important) day-to-day issues.
Dominique Buyse, a former Boston Consulting Group strategy consultant, and now CEO of Venture Spirit, was so convinced of the importance of this dilemma that he and his partner, Stefan Triest, developed a company devoted to solving it. I recently spoke with Buyse about the pitfalls of managing innovation in a corporate environment – and how gamification can help companies do more, better.
Marc E. Babej: In a nutshell, why do so many companies find it so difficult to look beyond the tip of their nose?
Dominique Buyse: We work with executives in both entrepreneurial firms and large multinationals. They often have great teams and organizations – but the very structure of these organizations limits them. For the simple reason that organizations are primarily built to manage the “core business” – not things like building global scale, novel forms of processes or ways of working. In other words, the very nature of organizational structures is such that it leaves little if any space for some things that are very important, but not directly related to what is considered the core business.
Babej: If these organizations are aware that their future success requires them to think beyond their core business, why don’t they expand the scope of their attention?
Buyse: Very often, it’s not for lack of trying. Some organizations are well aware of these issues, but blocked in terms of approaching them. For example, you don’t have to explain to a German automobile manufacturer how Tesla could impact their business. Rather, the question is: how can they activate the knowledge of their thousands of employees, who are geared up to working the traditional way, to address new opportunities and threats. Much of the answer to that lies in gamification.
Babej: Explain…
Buyse: “We create a parallel virtual organization and team structure that cuts across all of the traditional silos and barriers. We then put this parallel structure to work on two online gamification tools, called The Venture Game and The Inspiration Game.
Babej: How would you define gamification?
Buyse: In essence, it’s the use of game elements and techniques to solve real business challenges. Game elements can be competition, ranks or role-playing. A risk-free environment can also be important – having the opportunity to try something again when the first time you didn’t succeed.
Let me give you an example: In The Venture Game people get to play in virtual startup interaction. They create startups, have virtual venture capital money, and try to become the next Google or Apple in this environment. Being able to pursue innovation or problem solving in an environment that has been specifically designed to foster this, makes it a lot easier to come up with innovative solutions. Players try to solve for threats and opportunities related to their company – but in a context that is separate from the organizational structure in which they operate in their day-to-day working lives. Without this “baggage,” gamification makes it fun for the participants to think and interact with each other, around the issues they encounter in their real business lives.
Babej: How important is interaction to success in a game?
Buyse: It’s crucial. One immediate effect of the game is that it enables participants to interact with colleagues they work well with – and would never have met in the actual organization.
The fun aspect, which is so important, is possible because the rules of the game are fundamentally different from the rules of the organization: For example, people are anonymous in the game – this means they evaluate each other based on contribution, not on titles or rank in the regular organization.
Babej: How important is anonymity to the success of a game?
Buyse: It’s crucial, because it allows junior people to evaluate and critique ideas of senior people without fear. And reversely it allows senior people to get unvarnished feedback they usually don’t get in a hierarchical organizational environment. Anonymity is the secret ingredient to tapping all of the brains and creativity within the organization without the constraints of hierarchy or politics. Gender, nationality or minority status effectively don’t exist in the world of the game. Some people who are usually shy in the actual organizations prove to be some of the most vocal and prized contributors in the games.
Babej: And the rankings in the game are strictly based on contribution?
Buyse: Exactly. The games show people that their contribution matters, and is valued. For many participants, the game is also an important experience because it asks them to contribute to issues, questions and solutions of strategic issues that are usually the domain of a chosen few at the top. It’s under such conditions that new ideas are born and sharpened.
Babej: What’s the impact of your games in organizations?
Buyse: We work mostly with large multinationals such as Bosch, GlaxoSmithKline, Procter & Gamble, Siemens and Thales. Systematically, we reach 25% of addressed target audience employees – who voluntarily spend time in addition to their regular working hours – on participating in the games. The selected ideas typically are worth tens of millions of Dollars to the organizations.
