We are constantly asked by HR or Marketing or the Accounts team to do tasks that are outside of our key day to day tasks i.e. doing our jobs. It can actually be quite annoying that when you barely have time for lunch, someone is asking you to do something, which in your view, is non-business critical.

This is where the word “fun” can be exceptionally strong.  In every sales pitch or training session I've ever run I use the word fun.  Fun is a nice word and everyone responds to it in a positive way because everyone likes fun! (Except for the “Fun-Police”)

I am in the lucky position where I get to work with some of the biggest law, accountancy, PR and consultancy firms in the world – and within those firms some of their most senior people.  I work with them to get these senior and often busiest people doing something that has traditionally taken second fiddle – writing blogs, insights and market commentary.  Most of them know they should be doing this, they have tried to do it in the past but nearly every time have failed spectacularly.

So we gamified it, we make it a competition and we essentially have made it fun.  I couldn’t count the number of times we have had a group of corporate lawyers who listen to us with stern faces throughout a session until we get to the competition.  At that point, ears pick up, smiles are put on faces and when we announce there will be a trophy for the winner – the battle lines are drawn and there is gentle hysteria.  The reaction every single time never fails to astonish me.  We are able to get the right behaviours with every firm we work with.  All for the price of a bottle of Champagne and a £14 trophy, we can get the senior leaders at some of the largest professional firms in the world doing something they have failed to do for years.  That is very powerful indeed.

What can you not get people to do in your company at the moment?  What could you gamify to drive the right behaviours and spend only £50 to drive those behaviours?  It’s worth a think and a try.  If you get even a tenth of the results I see every week then you will be very happy indeed.

Always keep that word “fun” top of mind.  If you can make it fun, then people will react in a positive way.