I’ve become more and more intrigued with gaming theory lately, particularly how it applies to motivating people.

I don’t know all of the complex math and psychology behind gaming theory (yet), but as a very basic metaphor for motivation, I get it.

It’s never a great idea to be your employee’s psychotherapist (even if you are trained to do so), but as a leader, it is your job to get them engaged, come up with goals or ideas or objectives that help them and your company to move forward.

Giving folks an intriguing goal that requires both chance, effort, and rules is one of the best ways to do it.

Like with any game, some people are more comfortable with complex rules, others not.

Regardless, the end goals have to be pretty clear.

I find most employees don’t have a clue of what the goal of their company’s game is, but they take the rules as miserable constraints.

I have also worked in companies where everyone knew the goal and the rules, but game had long gone stale.

In all companies, the game needs to change every once in a while because it gets boring.

If you don’t, someone will always figure out how to cheat or dominate the other players just to keep themselves amused.