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05.09.19 13 OPINION Agnessa Spanellis Agnessa Spanellis is Assistant professor in business management at Heriot-Watt University C oming up with a good creative idea is hard. We do not fully un- derstand how this process works, but there are certain techniques that have proved successful in fostering creativity, such as mind-mapping, brainstorming or creating conditions for free experimenta- tion. Many big companies (such as design agencies) embrace these practices in the way they work. e rapid acceleration of information technologies has led to a huge boom in the video game industry. Curious as to what exactly makes games so engaging, many are keen to test it out in non-gam- ing contexts. is process is called "gam- ification" (not to be confused with game theory). Playing games, literally, is a powerful way of facilitating creative thinking, be- cause it can lower the barriers of estab- lished behavioural norms and routines by offering new rules and sometimes even new realities. e idea was quickly picked up by business where bold predictions were made about the value of gamification when applied to business processes such as innovation management – overseeing the process of creating and transforming an idea into a marketable solution. But many companies are still sceptical about the concept of gamifica- tion or unsure how to make it work for their particular needs. Ideas management e purpose of ideas management is to engage people who already have ide- as and to streamline them through the "innovation funnel" – the process of searching for, selecting and implement- ing new ideas. Our research shows how gamification becomes a tool to create a space where people can share their ide- as with each other. A typical way this would work would be for an organisation to set up a plat- form such as a website on which to post and share ideas. Employees re- ceive points every week or month to "invest" in proposed ideas they like. Af- ter the best ideas are selected, the suc- cessful "investors" receive dividends in points, which can then be reinvested. e points don't have a monetary value, but people assign status value to them. Playing investor is both fun and serves a serious purpose. is can create informal competi- tion between employees for the status of their departments, with unintend- ed positive side effects. For instance, when employees browse through the platform, they start to understand bet- ter what is happening in the rest of the organisation. ey get to know oth- er people and this develops a sense of community. In large organisations, such initiatives can be very successful at the beginning, but ultimately cannot cope with the amount of ideas flowing through the funnel. At that point the initiative needs to develop into something else. But crucially, a gamified environment gives people permission to think and behave differently, and this is where the magic starts to happen. Ideas creation Another approach is to gamify that ac- tual process of ideas creation. is aims to influence cognitive processes – the mental processes that help us analyse, respond and react to any given situation – and involves something that looks more like an actual game. is makes it more difficult to implement because it requires the development of a more sophisticated concept. Here, simple in- vestment points will not do – and this is where creative ideas can be born and really flourish. Alternate reality games and live-ac- tion role play (LARP) are two examples of how this can work. In alternate reali- ty games, the players act as themselves, but the reality around them changes. Gamification expert Jane McGonigal showed how it can work in a game called World Without Oil, where participants were presented with a situation where the world gradually runs out of oil. Daily updates about prices, shortag- es and new oil strikes were provided to prompt participants to think about what it would mean for them. ey shared with others their insights about how their lives would change. ese were then clustered into "signals" of change. is collective thinking could then be used by different industries for long-term scenario planning. In live action role play – as the name suggest – the players adopt new roles, while the reality around them can change or stay the same. What matters is the interactions between the players and the insights they gain from being in a new role or from observing others. A new role liberates the player from conventional social norms and allows them to explore their characters and the reality. For instance, researchers from the University of California stud- ied smart social wearables (wearable devices that aim to enhance real-life interactions), through a LARP called Battlestar Galactica. e participants played the survivors of an alien attack on their home planet and had to adjust their communication with each other depending on the in- dicators of physical and mental health from the clothing they were "wearing". Analysing the results, the research- ers gained insights into how wearable technology can mediate human inter- actions. Gamification for the good Many companies are likely to imple- ment gamification for ideas manage- ment as a way of evolving and improv- ing their business processes. It's a more playful, engaging way to give every employee a voice and allow them to be innovators, even if it is not in their job title. But gamification should not be seen as a purely instrumental approach for the easier task of ideas management. Using it to foster creative thinking is more dif- ficult and resource-consuming, but it is also more rewarding, because it can help us to explore and imagine the fu- ture challenges and possibilities. And it is not an approach that should remain just in the realm of obvious cre- ative industries, like design. More tradi- tional industries can use this approach to re-imagine their future and open up their creative potential. For example, games could help the bottled water in- dustry consider what it should look like in light of pressing plastic waste issues. How does it adapt? Adopting gamifica- tion sparks the creativity that leads to invention and reinvention. How 'gamification' could revolutionise creative thinking in the workplace Gamification is a playful and engaging way to get employees to think differently and come up with ideas