Ross Smith

In many industries, the unemployment rate is at an all-time high. The demographics of the workforce are changing. Education, industry experience, and globalization alter the landscape. Employees today are more talented than ever. The pervasiveness of the internet, the quality of education, and the freedom with which information flows can’t help but contribute to the quality of the workforce. Yet, business processes have not adjusted to web 2.0, social media, and the skills of the Facebook generation. As those worlds collide, organizational trust can be the foundation that supports a brighter future. How do organizations tap in to Gen Y talent? How does a new-hire 20 year old influence the thinking of Baby Boomer management? The answer is quite different in high trust organizations. What are some tangible steps that any manager can take to build trust in their organization?

With widespread access to broadband, social networks and multiple connected devices and tools on a daily basis, people are increasingly engaging in a fully connected and often gaming-centered digital world. This digitally-savvy population is also entering the workforce in larger numbers than ever — inciting vast changes in the workplace and re-defining our very understanding of how work “works”. Gaming and applied game elements, in particular, can make a dramatic impact on the quality of productivity, management, and even team-work itself. Whether you’re talking about making key personnel decisions, motivating employees, setting objectives or facilitating collaboration – these new ways of working will continue to shape the 21st century. Join Microsoft’s Ross Smith as he describes his experience and vision around how “productivity games” can help shape our working lives.

Have you ever wondered how to get your team more passionate about software testing? Ross Smith creatively employs the use of competitive games to increase employee engagement, participation, and productivity. Utilizing games will get your testers and developers working more enthusiastically together to improve software quality and to address testing problems that cannot be solved cost-effectively using traditional business processes.

Through a simple step by step approach, Ross will explain how to deliver testing projects on time and within budget by employing gaming techniques. By knowing what behavior you should reward, to setting up healthy competitive environments, you will walk away with a new “game” plan for motivating your team. This session will give an understanding of the concept and importance of creating “leader boards” and will give you the direction you will need to design a game, create a game design checklist, and the key factors to successfully implementing the use of games as a defect prevention technique to improve quality.

Culture is an ambiguous term. Everyone aspires to improve the culture – the culture they work in, the culture they live in, and the culture in which they feel safe to create and innovate. A survey of innovative organizations results in a short list of key characteristics – a freedom to fail, a high degree of autonomy, an emphasis on experimentation and collaboration. How does one go about creating a culture like this –particularly if you’re not the CEO – and what are the small steps, the tangible actions that anyone can take to enforce the notion that “our team is creative.”

Shifts in global, societal, technological, economic and socio-political trends will shape the future of work. The culmination of these distinct trends across multiple facets of societal and technological advancement will lead to an increased use of game mechanics in the workplace of the future. Over the last several years, several Microsoft teams have deployed “productivity games” to improve software engineering processes through the application of game mechanics. Augmenting a business process with game mechanics has led to significant productivity improvements. These lessons support the notion that games can – and will – be an important component of the workplace of the future.

Gamification of business processes is a hot topic these days, with gamification often seen as a remedy for any business problem. The challenge, however, is that while game mechanics can show a temporary boost in engagement, a poorly designed game or incorrectly applied game mechanic will not sustain the engagement or effort needed.

Are you a woman wondering how to incorporate more men in the quest for gender equity at work? Or are you a man who’s wondering how you can help make a difference for gender diversity in the workplace? Of course, the concern over saying or doing the wrong thing can strike fear in the heart of many who are interested in getting involved. To help address these concerns, we wanted to offer some tips and resources for avoiding pitfalls and for making sure these efforts are successful.