Gone are the days of “stick and palm” games we used to play with dad. Of course, the stick used to be with dad and the palm was ours… remember??? No more, we can get the next generation kids do what we think is good for them by force or by punishing them. Even if they do, we realise with time that this is not sustainable.
The challenge gets harder when the same generation completes their school and joins the industry, which is yet to adopt the video game approach of rewards. This leads to a good question, what makes video games so interesting? Is it the rewarding system? Is it just getting a new Level? Probably “Yes”.
During a discussion with one of my old boss, it was interesting to see how video games impacts the work culture and how can there be a symbiosis between the current rewarding (promotion) system and the instant video gaming rewarding system.
The discussion was so intense that it forced me to do something different and there was no one than my poor eight year old son “Ayaan” who was going to the part of my experiment without knowing what he is going to go through for next few months.
Ayaan is a tennis player and plays Under 10 South Zone (India) currently. He wants to be a tennis champion but he is lazy to work on supporting activities which are needed for building his stamina and strength. These activities includes jumping rope, stretching, etc. The fact was, he could not even jump rope for more than 5 – 6 times at a max.
I had my objective function defined and it was to maximise his jumping rope by using the video game reward system logic. I had constraints defined as well “No Stick and palm game”
Cutting the long story short, it was not easy at first to convince an eight years kid, that he can actually and should earn his wishes. But, the good news is I could sell the idea. We made a list of couple of things that he needs immediately – “A toy car, bicycle bottle holder, a bottle, an electronic back light for his bicycle etc.”
The rule of the game was he had to follow certain set of tasks for a certain number of days and jumping rope was just one of them. Once he completes that number of days, he is eligible to buy one of the items or in our terms, he has earned one of his wishes. Also, those items had a price tag and thus, the days could vary. We also worked on a discounting system he can use as well as an outcome based approach.
We of course worked together and changed the terms of work from time to time, which was one of the key to success and helped to keep him motivated. The outcome of the experiment was outstanding, he does around 2000 jumping ropes currently after a period of 8 months within 25 mins. He has gained a lot of strength and stamina making it possible for him to compete with kids older than him. The byproduct of the experiment is that, he started taking care of each and everything he earned himself. He started understanding the value of hard work and the items he bought with his hard work.
Thus, the experiment of merging the video gaming rewarding system in real life proved to be motivational and successful. If we can understand the motivational factor or goal of an employee, we can define a custom plan to keep him motivated. It is no more a mass production system as we move from Industrial Age to Knowledge Age and the future AI age.
Disclaimer: It is important to note that every child is different and I would not recommend following the same approach with your child without understanding their desire and dreams. The experiment was done keeping in mind Ayaan’s dream, his health condition, goals, etc.
And if you have read so far, I would like to thank you for reading my first article. Please feel free to share your views and observations.
Thank you
Manisankar Das
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