How video games can increase creative ideas and productivity

I know what you are thinking, just how does giving my employees the right to play video games help increase their productivity? Well to answer your question let me give you a little back-story. Last week I had a doctor visit and while waiting to see the doctor I pulled out my phone and started to play the video game, “Angry Birds” by Rovio Mobile. For those of you who don’t know the game the game is a strategy based physics game that entails utilizing birds you shoot out of a sling shot to blow up pigs…. I know, I know, pigs? Yes little green pigs, which are usually hidden behind walls or objects to increase the difficulty of you actually completing the level on your first try. Depending on the level you are usually given a variety of different birds that poses different characteristics when in flight to help you accomplish the level such as exploding, multiplying, bombing ect.

Now if we apply that principal to starting up a new business we find that just as in the video game we are not always able to conquer our business model on the first pass but through trial and error we are able to tweak and adjust our operation to improve the flow of the business. As I sat there playing the game I realized that the more I was able to study my objective and understand my goals the quicker I was able to complete it and move on to the next level. One area I have always looked at when working with businesses is the flow process. How quickly does the data move from one end of the business to the other and what are steps in between? Most established businesses that I have walked into carry the “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it” mentality that inhibits them to think of ways to streamline a process or procedure to aid the business. Allowing your business to get stuck in this proverbial bubble can in the end affect your bottom line. Usually once you show a company how the data can be processed and presented faster in a way that is understandable that mentality quickly changes.

Allow the creative juices to flow:

Business is organic and always changing and sometimes it takes something as trivial as my example of “Angry Birds” to get those creative juices flowing and allow your business to experiment with change. Now I’m not saying that you rewrite how your business operates but on a smaller scale look at ways in which you can allow that data that you currently poses to streamline a process or two. Start to understand your objectives and goals and look at ways that you can accomplish them in fewer steps allowing you to achieve the proverbial three star ranking! So the next time you find your employee playing a video game on his lunch break, don’t discourage their actions as you never know if it may lead to a great idea that can help your business move in the right direction.