Total Engagement: Using Games and Virtual Worlds to Change the Way People Work and Businesses Compete

The authors, a Stanford University professor on media and games along with a physician, inventor and biotech entrepreneur, seek to present a more scholarly argument for applying games to the work environment. They provide a long list of 40 work functions where games can be applicable, along with examples of games for each. For someone new to the field, as opposed to game “experts,” this book provides a lively read for arguing how games can be applied to work environments.

Aside from some suggested tactics in the last chapter, this book seems to come short in making the argument of how games will boost productivity and real examples therein. The authors start with examples of 28 year-olds who play games 25 hours per week and argue that if games were used in the workplace they would be more engaged. However, one cannot help but wonder about the inherent productivity of a person who plays computer games for 25 hours per week and whether games in the workplace are the solution to attracting productive staff. Their suggested tactics in the last chapter include building a conceptual map linking games to work, (2) study what others are doing with games at work, and (3) experiment with bite-sized use cases that address real pain points. Thus, implementation and its effects are left up to experimentation. They also note one analyst predicting that by 2011 80% of information workers will have an avatar at home or work, which would seem to overestimate the advance of this movement.  For a more detailed and recent book on game theory and applications/tactics, we recommend Game On (see Senteo review).

Every week, millions of people including many of your employees spend hours playing multi-player online games with a level of engagement they don t bring to work. These aren’t just adolescent video games – we’re talking rich narrative quests with 3-D environments, cool avatars, and compelling goals and rewards. Imagine the value if you could transfer key ingredients of game design and the gamer excitement and focus that come with it to the office. What if your employees could solve customer problems, design new software, or configure better shipping routes working inside a game environment at work?

This isn’t just possible, say Byron Reeves and J. Leighton Read; it’s inevitable. As global competition intensifies and employee productivity and engagement become more critical, the user experience provided by game technology offers a tantalizing solution for business. This is far more than a quaint metaphor for business and its way beyond training tools. Implemented in the workplace, elements of games can solve a host of business problems with morale, communication, and alignment all while honing skills like data analysis, teamwork, recruitment, leadership, and more.

Based on extensive hands-on research, case studies, and the authors’ entrepreneurial ventures, Total Engagement convincingly outlines how games will transform work, from repetitive call-center jobs to high-level teams who must collaborate with members dispersed around the globe

Authoritative and provocative, Total Engagement shows you how to become a player to reckon with as the gaming revolution transforms the workplace.

The book is aimed at anyone interested in the evolution and design of work, and how game psychology and technology can be applied to business. It is more intended for an introduction to the subject, rather than a detailed or technical representation. It could be relevant for those engaged in recruitment, hiring, training, retention, leadership, teams, evaluation, collaboration and innovation.