When work feels like play, productivity soars. In this episode, we dive into how to "gamify" your chiropractic office systems to make work more enjoyable, boost team morale, and drive better outcomes — all brought to you by Five Star Management, the trusted coaching company behind high-performing chiropractic teams.
What if your team actually wanted to hit their numbers, show up early, and go the extra mile?
That’s not a dream — it’s the power of gamifying work.
In this episode, you'll learn:
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Welcome to the Deep Dive brought to you today by Five Star Management, a chiropractic consulting company. Great to be diving in. We're about to unpack some, I think, really fascinating insights today. Yeah. On a topic that might just transform your practice. Okay. We're diving deep into the world of gamification, specifically from a recent Zoom call led by Dr.
Noel Lloyd. That's right. And think about it, you know, turning the daily grind. Especially in a busy practice. Yeah. The routine. Exactly. Turning that into something genuinely exciting, motivating for the whole team. So our mission here is, well, our mission in this deep dive is really to pull out the most important nuggets from what Dr.
Lloyd presented. Okay. Helping you, the listener, understand how these sort of game-like elements can really revolutionize how your practice operates. Moving beyond just fun, moving way beyond just fun. Yeah. To actually drive real results. Okay. Let's unpack this then. Hmm. We all know work, I mean, no matter how rewarding it is can sometimes feel well tedious, a bit samey.
Exactly tedious. But what happens when that T DM really sets in for a team, especially like you said in a bustling chiropractic office where energy is just so key. Well, what's fascinating and maybe a bit scary is how quickly engagement can just sag performance morale. It all starts to dip and the symptoms are pretty clear, aren't they?
Like what? That feeling of, oh, it's the same old, same old, you know, boredom starts creeping in instead of focus, instead of being focused, attentive, excited, even. And this isn't just like a few bad moods here and there. Yeah. It impacts everything. Quality of patient care, how the team works together, even how long people stick around.
Wow. That sense of stagnation, it actively drains productivity. It kills enthusiasm, so, okay. If that's the core problem is creeping tedium, that just SAPs energy. Mm-hmm. Where does gamification fit? How does that help a chiropractor build a high performing team? Right. That's the important question, isn't it?
How do we inject that missing energy? Yeah. And Dr Noel Lloyd introduces gamification as this really powerful, uh, strategic answer. Strategic, not just fun. Exactly. He defines it as adding game-like elements to activities that aren't normally games. Okay. To make them more engaging, motivating, and fun. But like we said, it's more than just fun.
It taps into these deep psychological drivers. How so? Well think back to when you were a kid, right? Games you played hide and seek four square Red Rover. Oh yeah. Red Rover. The energy. Exactly. Remember that sheer energy, the focus. Yeah. That, you know, intrinsic motivation just to play, to win, to participate.
Totally. The goal here is to bring those exact same feelings into your work team. Interesting. Imagine driving to the office. Seeing your team members', cars park there and genuinely feeling like, okay, I'm about to go play a game with friends. That's a big shift. It's a huge shift in mindset, really. And that alone can significantly boost morale.
It can fundamentally transform the whole atmosphere and ultimately the productivity of your practice. Moving work from mature to a challenge, something that's intrinsically rewarding. Okay. It sounds incredibly promising, the idea of transforming work like that. Yeah. How do we make sure it's not just, you know, a flash in the pan?
A momentary distraction? Yeah. Or a fad. How do we ensure it actually hits the mark for practitioners and their teams? Mm-hmm. What makes gamification stick? That's the key, making it stick. The core objective is to strategically keyword, strategically mix these game-like elements, okay. To keep energy, morale, interest, and production consistently high.
So it's measurable, it is. But the measurement isn't just about raw numbers, though. Those definitely tend to improve. It's also about the tangible signs. Like what? Like team interest, genuine excitement, active participation. And ultimately whether people truly feel what they're doing is engaging and rewarding.
Makes sense. And Dr. Lloyd outlined some key sort of thought frames to consider if you want this to work, oh good. What are they? You need to ask, what are our games gonna be? What are the prizes? How do we actually run the games? How do we score them? Right? And crucially, what results have we seen? Track it.
So it's a whole framework. It is. These questions are vital for any chiropractor looking to integrate gamification effectively. It ensures it's a tool for sustainable growth. You see, not just a one-off party creating feedback loops. Exactly. Reinforcing those positive behaviors you wanna see. Okay. So before we dive into some of the, uh, the really cool examples mm-hmm.
It's often helpful to know what not to do. Oh, absolutely. The pitfalls. What are some common gamification mistakes that Dr. Noel Lloyd highlighted? Things that can just derail the whole thing, even with the best intentions? Yeah. This is where it gets really interesting because honestly, a lot of well-meaning attempts go wrong right here.
Okay. Like what? Okay. One major pitfall. Offering prizes nobody actually cares about. Oh boy. Seriously, as one participant on the call jokingly put it, nobody cares about your dumb prize. And they even joked that the winner might have to like mow Dr. Lloyd's lawn or something. Right. Not exactly motivated.
Not at all. If the prize isn't genuinely interesting or you know deeply valued by your specific team, motivation just plummets The effort feels pointless, totally pointless, and it can actually demotivate people. It breeds cynicism, not excitement. So it's not about spending a lot of money necessarily. Not at all.
It's about understanding what truly resonates. Is it time off? Is it public recognition? Is it a small, personalized reward? You gotta know your team. Okay, I can see why that's crucial. That feels pretty fundamental. What else trips people up when they try to roll this out? Unclear rules. That's another massive one.
Ah, if your team doesn't understand the rules, how can they play effectively? How can they play with any enthusiasm? Right? You need to know how to win. You need to know how to play. Dr. Lloyd used a great analogy, actually. He talked about 7-year-old boys. Wow, okay. How they can spend the first hour of any game just setting the rules.
True. They need to be absolutely clear. They need to make logical sense right from the start. And consistent, oh, here's the kicker. You absolutely cannot change the rules as you go. Cannot. Why not? Because as one participant shared, it just feels like, what the heck? When rules suddenly change mid-game. Yeah.
That's frustrate Or worse, it feels like someone's being a jerk or like they're, you know, carrying around the carrot on a stick that nobody can ever actually reach. Oh, the moving goalpost. Exactly. And this isn't just about fairness. Though it is unfair, it's about psychological safety. Hmm. When rules are arbitrary or they keep changing, it just erodes trust.
People disengage. It turns a potential motivator into a source of anxiety, not a fun challenge. It undermines the whole team. Feel completely turns the whole game into a joke basically. So clear consistent rules. Absolutely key for integrity, for engagement. Mm. What other big no-nos did Dr. Lloyd caution against?
Things that could sabotage these efforts. Definitely setting goals that are just way too high or goals that seem unachievable, like, well, if a practice did say $800,000 in revenue last year, and the goal for this new gamified challenge is suddenly. $2 million next year. Yikes. Yeah. People see that immediately and they just, they disengage The finish line feels like it's on another planet.
So goals need to be challenging. Yes. But crucially, they have to feel achievable. Right? And here's a tip for a brand new team, or if it's your first time trying this, make the first game easily winnable. Build confidence. Exactly. Build confidence. Show them success is possible. Create that positive association right away.
Okay. What else? Also, games that drag on too long. People lose interest. They forget the goal Entirely. Needs a deadline. Needs a clear cutoff date. Mm, a definitive end. That maintains focus, keeps the excitement up and gives that satisfying sense of completion. Otherwise it just fizzles. It just fizzles out.
Yeah. Momentum dies. Yeah. Okay. And I'm thinking for any team game, you've gotta get everyone involved. Right? You can't have people on the sidelines. Exactly right. Not getting everybody involved is a huge mistake. Why is that so critical? Well, Dr. Lloyd shared an example, like a basketball team where a kid never got played because the coach was just too focused on winning above all else.
Hmm. For a team game within your practice, everyone needs to participate. Mm-hmm. They need to feel truly part of it, share in the success, feel that ownership. It's about shared purpose. It really is not individual glory. And then finally, a lack of consistent follow through. Ah. The execution. Yeah. When things get busy in the practice and they always do right.
Oh, it's so easy to lose interest in managing the game, checking scores, celebrating the little milestones. It falls by the wayside. It does. You absolutely need someone to champion the game. Someone who keeps it going through the whole process. Like a referee. Almost like an umpire. A referee. Yeah. Someone keep things fair, keep it on track, keep it visible.
What happens if you don't have that? Well, one chiropractor told a story. That's kinda awful, actually, about a doctor who promised a big ski trip to Montana if the team hit a goal. Okay, sounds great. Yeah. But then apparently when the team got too close to hitting the goal on the tracker. He used whiteout to erase their progress.
No. Yes. The staff literally called him the guy carrying around the carrot on a stick. Oh, that's terrible. Talk about destroying trust. Completely destroys trust. That kind of behavior, that lack of integrity in the follow through, it turns gamification into a massive joke, a morale killer. Wow. Okay. That's a really powerful roadmap for what to avoid, basically, how not to turn a good idea bad.
Pretty much, yeah. Safeguarding against the pitfalls. So now for the exciting part, what are some of the best, most practical, gamification ideas that came out of Dr. Lloyd's session? Ideas that you, our listener, can genuinely take back to your own chiropractic practice? Yes, let's get to the good stuff. The zoom call was actually full of brilliant, really actionable examples.
Great. One really popular idea shared involved a Lego communication game. Legos. Okay, tell me more. How does that work? Right. So teams of two sit back to back. One person gets the instructions for building something with Legos. The other person gets the pile of Legos. They can't tell each other what they're actually building.
The person with the instructions has to just verbally walk the other person through the assembly step by step. Oh, I can see how that would be tricky. Super tricky. And it's timed. Whoever finishes first wins bragging rights, they become the Lego Ninja master, Lego Ninja Master. I love it. It's usually done for about 40 minutes, maybe once a month, and apparently it genuinely doesn't get old.
Why does it work so well? Well, first off, it's full of laughter and frustration. You know, parts end up in weird places. An eyeball on the butt as they said. Yes, exactly. Laughs. But beyond being fun and funny, it's a huge eye-opener about communication. How so? About how you think you're communicating clearly versus how clear you actually are.
It's a super playful way to build really essential workplace skills. That sounds fantastic. Yeah. A riot, but also really valuable for communication, which is vital in any practice. What about something maybe a bit bigger scale, something that brings the whole team together outside the office? Absolutely. A practice shared a really great example.
Their bowling game. Bowling, okay. Yeah. They rent out a bowling alley. Bonus points. It was owned by one of their patients base touch, and they include spouses families. They provide food, drinks the whole nine yards. Fun. How do they make it fair or encourage mixing? Good question. To make it fair and get people mingling, they pick teams totally randomly put all the names in a pinwheel, spin it, boom.
That's your team. Breaks down silos. Exactly. Ensures everyone interacts with different colleagues, people they might not work with directly every day. And the prize, what's the motivation? Uh, the prize was key. A half day off. Ooh, nice. Which they said was rated 20 out of 10, like a true golden ticket.
Especially they mentioned towards the end of summer when people could use a break. I bet. That's a prize people care about totally and get this, they even close the clinic 30 or 40 minutes early on that bowling day. Smart tackles that I don't wanna meet after hours problem directly addresses it. So the result, much stronger team engagement, a bit of healthy rivalry, and everyone gets really ramped up anticipating it each year.
Builds that comradery outside the clinic walls. Precisely. Okay. A half day off is definitely powerful. What about something that, um, more directly boosts core practice metrics, turning those everyday goals into a game? Yes. Good point. That brings us to a really clever summer challenge One office talked about, okay.
Summer challenge. What do they do? This office assigned points to specific measurable goals, things they wanted to improve, like like new patient calls. You got one point if the call was answered promptly and the patient actually showed up for their appointment, ties it to results exactly. Internal patient referrals got two points.
Even generating hot leads for outreach efforts points. Maybe two to four, depending on the quality. So it was quantifiable, very quantifiable. And they kept a highly visible score tally right there in the back office. Ah, visibility is key, which as they described, it totally amps everybody up. People could see where they stood, where the team stood.
Pay the result. Did it work? Apparently, yes. They noted their phones never go past one ring anymore. Wow. And the prize here was straightforward. Cash bonus, $400 for first place, $200 for second. Simple, effective, and the impact, a clear measurable increase in referrals in calls being answered properly, and just overall productivity.
It directly showed how gamification can strategically hit the practices bottom line by incentivizing those specific behaviors you want. You got it. So you can literally put points on practice growth. Yeah. That ties the game directly to real business outcomes. Very clever. Any other approaches maybe for driving specific behaviors or maybe supporting individual team members?
Yes, actually there was a simpler idea, but really effective, focused on supporting a new team member. They called it a new associate tracker. Okay. How did that work? So to support a new associate chiropractor and help them build the patient volume, the practice created this visual road tracker a visual.
Like on the whiteboard? Yeah, exactly. With clear milestones marked on it. Like seeing 10 patients, 15 patients, 25 patients a day or week, whatever the target was. Okay. And the associate literally moves a little toy car along this road daily, visually marking their progress, fun and motivating for them.
Right. But here's the team part. If the associate met the daily or weekly goal. Yeah, the supporting staff front desk, the cas, they each got a small reward. 10 or $20. Ah, shared success. Shared success, yeah. And the clinic director would also pay for a celebratory lunch for everyone involved. That's brilliant.
It's all about direct support, making that new associates' growth. A collective team win. Yeah. Everyone's invested fosters that collective responsibility. I like that. Yeah. Positive reinforcement for a really key strategic goal. Getting that new associate successful quickly. Okay, so beyond these specific games with clear rules and prizes, what about just.
General approaches, you know, for team building fostering a consistently positive engaged culture. Did Dr. Lloyd's session touch on that? Oh yeah, absolutely. Many attendees highlighted the value of just doing regular staff outings. Like what kind of things? Well, one office mentioned they often do things like going to hockey games together or doing those tree to tree adventure courses.
Oh, fun. Or kayaking. Mm-hmm. And sometimes they could leverage free tickets they got through networking or even from patients resourceful . Totally. They also mentioned the value of hosting practice parties at different times of the year, not just the big Christmas party. Why is that important? Makes it easier for people to attend.
Sometimes spreads out the appreciation. Makes people feel special more often than just once a year. Good point. And the goal is just. Pure team building. Really? Yeah. Meeting spouses and families, fostering that genuinely good culture and just having time for relaxed, informal conversation. Getting to know each other outside the busy clinic day building connection.
Exactly. Dr. Lloyd himself actually reminisced about taking his own associates out for monthly sushi lunches or going to baseball games. Nice. And he even hosted this massive summer picnic one year at his beach house, like 64 staff and family members. Wow. That's an investment. It's an investment in people in human connection, in building that positive work environment where people want to stay.
Those sound like truly great ways to build those connections outside the office reinforces that whole idea of working with friends, not just colleagues. For sure. What about smaller things, more frequent rewards? Can those still make a difference for daily morale? Absolutely. Don't underestimate the small stuff.
Several practices mentioned having a productivity award. How does that work? Basically giving out things like Starbucks gift cards for being caught, being good. I like that phrase. Yeah. Publicly recognizing someone maybe in a team huddle right in front of the whole team for their hard work or initiative.
Showing appreciation, simple recognition, simple but powerful. Dr. Lloyd also mentioned just the idea of random Starbucks runs. You know, someone just shows up back at the office with everyone's favorite drink as a complete surprise. Ah, nice little pick me up. Exactly. A small, unexpected gesture of appreciation.
Even seemingly minor things like offering graphic tees and jeans as a prize instead of scrubs. Yeah. Allowing staff to wear more personal clothing instead of the standard black scrubs for a day or a week, apparently, that can be really highly valued. Give them a bit of personality, a little personality, a little autonomy during the workday.
It just goes to show that even small, thoughtful gestures, if they're applied consistently, can have a really big impact on morale and engagement. Practically speaking, practically speaking, let's be real. A new patient case in chiropractic might average what? $1,500, $2,500 easily. That one case can easily cover the cost of a lot of these incentives, gift cards, lunches, even a half day off spread across the team.
So the ROI is there. The ROI is definitely there. When you factor in the boost in productivity, the better teamwork, lower turnover. All of it. So if we kind of tie all these examples together, connect it back to the bigger picture. Yeah. What's the main takeaway? It's abundantly clear that gamification isn't just about having a bit of fun now and then it's a powerful, genuinely strategic tool for driving business results, for driving real business results in a chiropractic
practice. The absolute key takeaway from all these insights, I think, is to actively engage your team in the process. Ask them. Ask them. Mm-hmm. What do they value? What truly motivates them? What do they think is fair for rules and scoring? Get their buy-in from the start. Exactly. And you don't have to start huge.
You can begin with a small game, something simple, maybe easily winnable like we talked about. Build momentum. Build momentum, build confidence, and then gradually progress to bigger, maybe more ambitious games as your team gets into it. And the most successful ones are the most successful initiatives seem to be the ones that really build on genuine enthusiasm, get absolutely everyone involved and are consistently championed.
They transform those routine tasks into exciting shared challenges. So this deep dive really highlights that by thoughtfully injecting these game-like elements, Uhhuh chiropractic practices can cultivate high motivation, high engagement, lots of fun. Definitely fun, and ultimately consistently high productivity.
Yeah, it's about strategically making work feel. More like play, fostering a vibrant, successful, and really cohesive environment. Yeah. Which leads to better patient care too, I imagine. Has to, right? Mm-hmm. A happy, engaged team. That energy is contagious. So this really raises an important question for you, the listener, doesn't it?
What's that? Considering everything we've just discussed? Yeah. All these ideas. What small actionable game could you start with? Maybe even this week? Yeah. Spark a little joy, boost morale, and ignite some productivity in your practice. Something to think about. A starting point ex. Okay. That wraps up another really fascinating deep dive into the source material.
We hope this whole exploration of gamification has given you some tangible ideas. Yeah. Things you can actually use to bring more energy and engagement into your world. This Deep Dive was brought to you by Five Star Management. That's right. And if you're a chiropractor listening and you're looking to boost your practice, maybe take things to the next level.
Yeah. You can actually book a free call with Dr. George Birnbach. He's brilliant. Just find the link for that right there on the show notes. It's a free call link in the show notes. Got it. Yeah. Yep. And hey, for even more transformative strategies, you should mark your calendars. We've got a live two day event happening in Chicago.
Oh yeah july 26th and 27th the link to register for that event is also right there in the show notes. Definitely check that out if you can make it to Chicago. We look forward to diving deep with you again very soon.