Use Gamification To Do Better Work In Good Cheer

Published over 3 years ago • 1 min read

Hello Reader,

If you think that play is something you only do separately after work, I’d like to share this quote with you from the French diplomat and historian François-René de Chateaubriand:

“A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between his work and his play; his labor and his leisure; his mind and his body; his education and his recreation. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence through whatever he is doing, and leaves others to determine whether he is working or playing. To himself, he always appears to be doing both.”

Ever since I ran away and joined the circus, I've always seen my work as a form of play. The harder the work, the harder I have to play to get through it. This mental trick - to gamify work - enables me to accomplish spectacular things.

We are facing a chronic play deprivation in the modern world.

Projects are left undone, because we are ‘too busy’ to do the work that matters. Superficial relationships with distant co-workers are low-trust with poor communication. All the recent transformations in work culture have led to higher stress, without a release of that stress through deep communication or energetic collaboration.

Playing games can guide us into getting more out of limited resources of time and energy. Deeper connections within a team drive better business performance, and intentional play is how we can gamify our work.

If you’d like to learn how gamifying your work can lead to better results, I invite you to read my latest white paper, Gamify Your Work:

This is the best AI Meeting Notetaker app (IMHO)

🧭 “The purpose of meetings is not to talk – the purpose of meetings is to arrive at ideas, solutions, plans, and decisions.” - Alexander Kjerulf Hello Reader, I have tried all the AI meeting notetakers over the past few years. Fireflies, Otter, Fathom, Monologue, and more have all had a turn in my systems. Traditionally, I give them a month or two, and get dissatisfied at some feature or annoying user friction - until six months ago. I found Granola. (Disclaimer: by clicking my affiliate...

1 day ago • 5 min read

The 6 Roles of an AI Working Group

⏩ "If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together." - African proverb Hello Reader, An AI Working Group ships projects. Tools are changing faster than humans can keep up. Most teams and organisations are throwing Copilot or Claude licenses to their crew, with a quick 'good luck!' and maybe an inscrutable warning about token counts. Making mistakes can be costly, when you rely on a paycheck. There isn't a structure for risk-taking or innovation with AI in corporate teams,...

8 days ago • 3 min read

The SAGE Framework turns a repeated task into an AI Agent

🏎️ “AI agents don’t have a speed limit, but the person managing them still does.” - Kieran Klaasen Hello Reader, The fastest way to build a disappointing AI agent is to begin with a vague, grand ambition. “Handle my marketing for me.” “Run all our customer service.” “Become my chief of staff.” Those are only aspirations, not workflows. An agent cannot reliably operate within a fog bank. A useful agent starts with clear goals: Turn this meeting transcript into decisions, owners, deadlines, and...

15 days ago • 4 min read