Mastery–feeling competent, and feeling your ability improve–is one of the most important human motivators, according to research. Read this article to find out how you can boost your Mastery at work.
Mastery motivates. Here’s how you can use it.
Gamify the Workplace
What Leaders Can Learn From Game Design, Part 4: Surprise!
Please think of the last time you were pleasantly surprised. What happened in your brain? Science suggests your brain released more dopamine and your brain’s reward centers became more active because you didn’t expect what happened. What does this have to do with ‘gamification’ and leadership?
What Leaders Can Learn From Game Design, Part 3: Mastery
(Note: This is part 3 in a series on Gamification: Embedding elements of game playing to the workplace to encourage engagement . If you missed the first two posts, read Part 1: Part 1 Autonomy and Part 2 Relatedness) “Arrrrgh…OK just one more time!” If you’ve ever muttered something like this playing a video game–as I read more…
What Leaders Can Learn From Game Design, Part 2: Relatedness
Self-determination Theory suggests that Autonomy, Relatedness, and Mastery are vital human motivators, whether we are talking about working in the office or playing a video game. Every brain in the world is different, but for most of us most of the time, we would rather play games with others than alone. As the title of a just-published study puts it, “Fun is more fun when others are involved”. Science confirms, time and again, that relatedness–connecting to others and feeling something in common–is a key internal motivator.
What Leaders Can Learn From Game Design, Part 1: Autonomy
I first thought that my game design background and using brain science to thrive at work had little to do with each other; wow was I wrong! It turns out, leaders have a lot to learn from game designers. When I left my career in game development to found Happy Brain Science so I could read more…
Launching products, penalty kicks, hope, and fear
First, I want to be direct: I am thrilled to announce that TODAY (March 16, 2016) Happy Brain Science is launching Choose Happiness @ Work, our card game that teaches the science of thriving. Please watch the video below of people playing the game and talking about it.
Why Games? Why are games great for learning?
“Why games? Why are games a good way to teach something?” I asked to kickoff the breakout session after my keynote at the International Game Developer’s Association (IGDA) Leadership Summit. I was honestly blown away at the amazing answers: “All games teach.” “Because play is how we naturally learn, it’s how we’ve always learned throughout human history, read more…
Meet Will: Leader of the PIGS
Enter Will Lewis, the Lead Community Organizer for the Portland Indie Game Squad (PIGSquad) and a co-director in Pixel Arts Game Education, reaching and teaching to so many game-interested minds in the Portland area. I’ve been working with Scott on his game-in-progress, codename: “Choose Happiness,” for the past few months, providing coaching and feedback on read more…
Game Development & Other Creativity Are Like Driving At Night
Writing is like driving at night. You can only see as far as the headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.–E. L. Doctorow It turns out that writing a game is also like driving at night (E. L. Doctorow’s analogy I like so much). You don’t know how it’s going to turn read more…
Why play at work? For fun and learning!
Do you ever play at work? Should you? If you are a regular reader of this blog or participated in a Happy Brain Science workshop, you know that I ground virtually everything I say in science. You also know that was a game designer for much of my professional career, and maybe you’ve heard me read more…