Total Engagement: How Games and Virtual Worlds Are Changing the Way People Work and Businesses Compete (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781422146576)

Can the workplace be more productive by including avatars, three-dimensional environments, and participant-driven outcomes? This grounded and thought-provoking book by Byron Reeves and Leighton Read proves that it is not only possible, it is inevitable.

Implementing components of multiplayer computer games in the workplace will address a host of age-old problems. Games can not only stem boredom and decrease turnover, but also enhancee collaboration and encourage creative leadership. Games require extraordinary teamwork, elaborate data analysis and strategy, recruitment and retention of top players, and quick decision making. Recreating some elements of games - such as positioning tasks within stories, creating internal economies, and implementing participant-driven communication systems - can not only boost employee engagement but overall productivity.

Of course, the strong psychological power of games can have both positive and negative consequences for the workplace. That's why it's important to put them into practice correctly from the beginning - and Reeves and Read explain how by showing which good design principles are a powerful antidote to the addictive and stress-inducing potential of games.

Supported by specific case studies and years of research, Total Engagement will completely change the way you view both work and play.


Author: Byron Reeves, J. Leighton Read
ISBN-10: 142214657X
ISBN-13: 9781422146576
Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press
Language: English
Published: 11/02/2009
Pages: 288
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.11lbs
Size: 9.58h x 6.52w x 0.97d

Review Citation(s):
Booklist 11/01/2009 pg. 9
Choice 04/01/2010