I stopped in at a Jack in the Box today and noticed no employees at the register.  Customers were ordering through a kiosk.  This beautiful touch-screen marvel spoke in English and Spanish and upsold you at every turn– would you like bacon on that?  How about upgrading to a large?  Just a little more for seasoned fries! 

A couple hours ago, I had a similar experience checking in at the airport– except I had to swipe my credit card first and then they asked if I wanted to upgrade to first class.  Same thing at the supermarket, where they eliminate clerks (who aren’t going to reliably and aggressively upsell every customer in that cheery voice), but also will tell you that there’s an unexpected item in the bagging area.

  If you’re at least in your 30s or have watched older cartoons, you might remember the Jetsons.  They had a touch screen display where the family could order dinner items, too. To make the analogy complete, Jack in the Box would merely have to automate the back of the store, too– to have a factory method as efficient as Toyota making Camrys with robotic precision.

Trouble is, as great as this utopia sounds (if you’re a fan of Deming or other efficiency gurus), in practice, it’s not so simple. The fellow ordering above tried to order a value meal no less than 4 times– not being able to navigate the menus and submenus and finally giving up.  It’s not easy for everyone, even with picture menus.  Sometimes you just need a human involved.

But in the long run, I believe that social game dynamics will simplify a complex process, whether it’s buying a hamburger, checking in at an airport, getting your annual physical at the hospital, or configuring your local search campaigns. Games and points will make complex processes easier, especially those that don’t appear to have video game dynamics at first thought.

Watch the gaming models permeate nonprofit fundraising, factory methods– or maybe even serious stuff such as CPR training.  Do you remember when McDonalds first implemented those timers next to each cash register, so that everyone could plainly see how many seconds the average order was per cashier?  You’ve taken a mundane, hourly job and turned it into a video game because now there’s a score.  No other process improvements or bonuses for better service– there’s just an added element of measurement. And that’s enough.  Imagine adding a timer next to airport check-in counters. Think it would work?

Any system or set of processes is really nothing more than a video game– as it contains a series of rules with rewards and punishment, with accompanying stimulation. A Las Vegas slot machine is nothing more than a malfunctioning ATM.  That blue collar timecard punch clock is the most boring video game ever— as it doesn’t blink, make satisfying sounds, or dump coins into the collection tray in exchange for good work.  

Is there something in your business or your life that can be made more pleasurable or efficient by re-evaluating it from the lens of game dynamics?

How about making a resolution to not make any more resolutions? Seriously, when you example instances of when people fail versus succeed, a few key traits stand out. I’ll explain at the end of the article– but first… I read a study where patients were told by their doctors that if they didn’t stop smoking or change their diets that they had months to live. The doctors explain what their patients would experience with heart disease, lung cancer, and other complications over the remaining months if they didn’t drastically change. You know what happened?

In the majority of cases, people didn’t change. You would think that would be a wake-up call, if any. But a factual recitation about how smoking causes lung cancer is something we, as intelligent human beings, all know. Yet folks smoke anyway. Or they overeat at meals, overspend their credit line, choose bad boyfriends, and make a host of irrational decisions. Why do they fail here, even when literally threatened with a life and death situation?

They make a public commitment, they involve friends in achieving their goals, they have specific goals in different timeframes, they connect emotionally with their goals, and they have a feedback loop. Incidentally, aren’t those the same characteristics that make videos games highly addictive? Aren’t those the same dynamics that cause folks to spend hours on Facebook or (insert your favorite social media site here), coming back day after day? Imagine if you could harness that same level of dedication and enthusiasm in your job, your diet, or any other goal you want to achieve?

How about for the low, low price of $1,995? No, how about just $599 if you act in the next 30 minutes? Operators are standing by now. How about actually for free with no strings and no free set of Ginzu knives? The answer is sparkpeople.com. Sparkpeople.com is a community for folks who want to achieve their fitness and life balance goals. And with great fitness comes success in all other aspects of your life. This site hits upon all the game dynamics mentioned above. Chris Downie, who founded sparkpeople.com originally as a weight loss site, had the community of enthusiasts to prove it.

Instead of the traditional monthly attrition rate of 35% that you see in most programs, he’s less than 1/10th that rate. I had the pleasure of meeting Chris several times, as he explained these motivation principles to me– and it’s amazing how many people he’s been able to help because of this. Look out Tony Robbins, here comes Chris Downie! And what a humble fellow he is. He walk the talk with his own lifestyle. It reminds me of the obese CEO of a famous athletic shoe company or the CEO of a major search engine that didn’t even have a computer their first year. If you want to spark your lifestyle into success into the new year, tap into SparkPeople.com to make losing weight and getting fit as fun and addictive as Facebook.