Leading organizations are beginning to implement appropriate game mechanics (e.g. expertise levels, mastery, performance feedback) to engage learners.  The goal is to address employees’ intrinsic motivations for learning, personal growth and collaboration.  This trend is accelerating and highlights the need for evolving the skills of learning professionals.  In The Gamification of Learning and Instruction, Bloomsburg State University professor Karl Kapp writes (p.22):

Learning professionals must understand the growing trend of applying game-based sensibilities to the development of instruction through creating time-based activities, leveling up of learning experiences, storytelling, avatars, and other techniques…Time and attention of learners is limited, and learning professionals must focus on providing an engaging and goal-oriented solution to the training and teaching dilemma.

The systemic application of game mechanics evokes strategic implications for organizations’ everyday workflows.  In a May 8, 2013 Chief Learning Officer article “Five Reasons You Can’t Ignore Gamification,” analyst Whitney Cook suggests that gamification improves knowledge retention, provides clear performance feedback, encourages social connections, and helps boost innovation.  This list is rather ambitious and implies smart investments in both supporting technologies and cultural change.  Still one can discern the underlying principle of designing game mechanics into learning and collaborative experiences from the start.  As learning experience design (LXD) teams increasingly employ the intrinsic motivations of game mechanics, leadership will demand implementations that clearly evaluate changes in learner engagement and indirectly link learning with performance outcomes.