Gamification is one of the most effective methods for making training entertaining and encouraging employees to learn. We explain what the Octalysis Framework is and how you can use it to make training courses more attractive and increase motivation to learn.
What Is the Octalysis Framework?
The Octalysis Framework by experience designer Yu-Kai Chou helps to use gamification elements in a targeted and effective way.
It is based on eight central driving forces that motivate people:
- Meaning: Give your employees the feeling of being part of something bigger. Example: Link training goals to the company vision and tell stories to make these goals tangible.
- Accomplishment: Provide regular, achievable goals and rewards. Example: Use a points system where points are awarded for completed courses leading to badges or certificates.
- Empowerment: Enable your employees to be creative and receive immediate feedback. Example: Use interactive learning platforms with creative tasks and immediate feedback.
- Ownership: Give your employees the feeling of owning or controlling something. Example: Let them set their own learning paths and goals.
- Social Pressure: Promote social exchange and cooperation. Example: Organize team challenges and ranking lists.
- Scarcity: Use the principle of scarcity to increase engagement. Example: Offer time-limited challenges or exclusive content.
- Unpredictability: Keep the learning content exciting and surprising. Example: Add unexpected quiz questions or surprise rewards.
- Avoidance: Motivate by avoiding negative consequences. Example: Set deadlines and consequences for modules that have not been completed.
White Hat vs. Black Hat Gamification
Yu-Kai Chou also divides the eight motivators into White-Hat Motivators (positive motivators) and Black-Hat Motivators (negative motivators).
The three gamification levers Meaning, Accomplishment and Empowerment through creativity and feedback are pull factors that make people act on their own initiative.
Scarcity, Unpredictability and Avoidance, on the other hand, are push factors – they urge people to act.
Learning environments that primarily address the white hat elements are sustainably successful. This is because they appeal to the intrinsic motivation of learners and can therefore increase learning activity in the long term. Black hat factors, on the other hand, focus on extrinsic motives that drive up learning activity, especially in the short term.
How Can I Use the Octalysis Framework in Personnel Development?
The Octalysis Framework can be used in a variety of ways to make in-company training more attractive for employees.
Follow these three steps:
1. Matching: Find out which motivators suit which employees!
You know your employees best: who is particularly curious, who can be motivated by rewards and who needs time pressure to complete their tasks? The Octalysis framework can serve as a map for you to locate your employees on – based on how they are best motivated.
2. Motivating: Involve the motivators in the learning experience!
Two example scenarios: Learning times after the introduction of an e-learning platform leave a lot to be desired? Perhaps rewards for the most diligent learners can change that! Are your employees listlessly going through their learning paths on their own? Divide them into learning groups and set them team tasks that they have to solve together!
3. Monitoring: Keep an eye on what effects the motivators have on learning behavior!
In step 2, you selected certain motivators to positively influence the learning behavior of your employees. Now is the time to take a look at whether and how the measures are having an effect. Which motivators are working? Where do you need to make adjustments if necessary? Start again at step 1 and test different approaches!
Conclusion: The Octalysis Framework as one Path to Entertaining Training
In order to use the Octalysis framework successfully, you need to know your employees as well as possible and/or have a certain amount of willingness to experiment (and also have the opportunity to test this out in your day-to-day work).
However, it is not the only way to increase motivation to learn. Other models such as the MDA framework or Richard Bartle's player types provide further approaches for making even supposedly dry training topics come alive.
And now: Let the games begin!
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Stefan Schulze
