Playing games is good for business

Yes, it can be a good thing to play games at the office and with your customers … as long as you are playing Innovation Games.

Innovation Games, the brainchild of Silicon Valley-based Enthiosys, are fun, creative ways to collaborate to better understand your customers’ desires and your business needs.  Enthiosys is a software product strategy and management consulting firm and their offering includes twelve games:

• Prune the Product Tree
• Show and Tell
• Remember the Future
• Me and My Shadow
• Spider Web
• Give Them a Hot Tub
• Product Box
• The Apprentice
• Buy a Feature
• 20/20 Vision
• Speed Boat
• Start Your Day

Companies have utilized the games in multiple ways, including discovering new business opportunities, fine tuning marketing messages, driving strategy and product decisions, and creating more durable customer relationships.  There is also an ease-of-use element companies value–the games can be played in–person or online.  This depends only on the structure of your meetings and your goals.

AMA Plays Innovation Games
Recently, the Cincinnati AMA chapter engaged Enthiosys in a strategy session to help them improve membership retention and growth.  Members of the Board and other committees, including membership, gathered at the Schiff Family Conference Center on the campus of Xavier University to learn how game playing could make their objective achievable.

Don Gray of Enthiosys, led Prune the Product Tree and Spider Web to generate new ideas and approaches from the team.  With Prune the Product Tree, ideas were “branched” out on a tree based on what was believed to be the best and most doable ideas to those not likely, but worth holding on to.  In Spider Web, team members placed relevant contacts on a web giving a view of untapped organizations to target for members and sponsors.

Turning Play Into Actionable Results
Putting the games outcomes into action is next for the chapter, hopefully with an optimistic return.  Membership VP, Joe Obermeyer said, “The games gave the membership team the opportunity to develop new ideas that we can implement as we continue to look for ways to promote AMA membership as an ideal networking vehicle in this tough economy.”

According to Enthiosys, how you use Innovation Games is only limited by your imagination.  And they can point to numerous client success stories that support this assertion.

Bring Innovation Games to Your Company
You can explore the concept of bringing game playing to your office by visiting www.enthiosys.com or www.innovationgames.com.

If you have questions, contact Don at dgray@enthiosys.com and 937.558.7664.

Let your games begin!