THE GAME OF WORK
“People will pay for the privilege of working harder than they will work when they are paid.” By: Steve Truett
T he theme at Homecoming this year was “The Game of Work.” Chuck Coonradt discovered years ago that people will work harder for free (if what they were doing was considered “fun”) than they would if what they were doing wasn’t fun, even if they were getting paid. This revelation was Coonradt’s inspiration for his book entitled, The Game of Work . ACCORDING TO COONRADT, THERE ARE FIVE ELEMENTS THAT SEPARATE “PLAY” FROM “WORK”: 1. Goals are more clearly defined Coonradt learned that if you apply these principles to the workplace, employees will not only enjoy their work more, but they will also be more productive. I recently had an experience that reinforced this concept for me. My 17-year-old daughter, Cambry, is a planner. I invited her to join me on a trip to Boston during her spring break this year, and she did most of the planning. Cambry had a list of things for us to do that included the Freedom Trail, the Boston Tea Party Museum, Fenway Park Tour, Harvard Campus Tour, Old Ironsides, and more. Many of these activities were outdoors. This would not have been a problem if the temperature had not plummeted the day we got there from the 70’s to the 20’s. To make matters worse, we woke up Saturday morning to a temperature of 12 degrees and a wind chill of -4 degrees. Cambry had really put a lot of work into our itinerary and I really wanted to be able to enjoy the sights with her, but I was not excited about braving the elements that Mother Nature 2. The scorekeeping is better 3. Feedback is more frequent 4. Higher degree of personal choice 5. Rules are not changed in the middle of the game
had provided that day. However, there was no possible way that Cambry was going to let freezing temperatures stop her from enjoying Boston. We bundled up and walked outside to Uber over to Fenway to start the day. To top things off, as we waited for Uber, it began to rain! As we went from place to place, walking miles in the freezing cold, with the wind brutal at times, I noticed something. My 17-year-old daughter that procrastinates cleaning her room, complains about treating the swimming pool, and dreads doing any of her other chores, never complained once about the wind, the cold or the rain. In fact, she was having a blast. I couldn’t help but think about The Game of Work , and how the principles applied here. • She had goals she wanted to accomplish • She was checking them off her list • She was doing it because she wanted to do it, not because she had to Without a doubt, if we were home and it was -4 wind chill and drizzling rain, I would have a hard time “motivating” her to do any chores! It is amazing the difference in our attitudes in the things that we consider work and those things we consider play; the things we want to do, compared to the things we have to do. At Homecoming, we discussed ways to bring the elements of “gamification” into your local Aire Serv . If done successfully, these elements can help make your Aire Serv franchise the Employer of Choice in your market. You can find the PowerPoint presentations and handouts from Homecoming in the library on FranConnect. Contact your Franchise Consultant to discuss how you can implement “The Game of Work” to have more “fun in the process” and improve your sales and profits.
AIRE STREAM ® | EDITION 1
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