What Can Video Games Teach Us About Work Motivation?

Key points

Video games can be “addicting” because we are motivated by small wins.

Managers and leaders can harness this motivational technique by providing feedback and support.

Setting and celebrating both short- and long-term goals fuels employee motivation and progress.

You probably know someone who happily spends many hours playing online video games. That same person may begrudgingly go to work and show little motivation to do their job. How can we become so “addicted” to games, but have little motivation at work?

Research on employee motivation by psychologists Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer discovered that the strongest source of motivation for many workers is the idea of "small wins"—making positive progress in their job. Making progress did more to enhance day-to-day work