It’s a common problem for our Data Culture leaders: they invest time and energy creating wonderful training courses, champion schemes and data communities, but colleagues are busy with their day-jobs and take-up isn’t as strong as hoped. So how can we best persuade people to get involved – and importantly, keep going long enough for new behaviours to stick?
We explored this question from two related angles: Motivation and Recognition. Reflecting our global audience, we welcomed two members from either side of the Atlantic to talk about how they had approached it in their organisation. After each introduction, everyone moved into breakout rooms to test the ideas against their own experience before returning to compare conclusions.
- Tom Payne (Data Enablement Manager at Arqiva in the UK) shared examples of the gamification he’s used to make learning and community activity more engaging at his company.
- Anna Pennachi (Head of Data Academy at M&T Bank in the USA) described the three elements of public acknowledgement, merchandise and monetary rewards that she’s found beneficial in her work.
As ever, the most useful part was not finding a single formula that works everywhere. It was hearing how apparently simple ideas can become more complicated in practice: when a leaderboard motivates one person and embarrasses another; how leadership participation matters but peer influence matters just as much; when a cheap T-shirt can be more desirable than an expensive prize; and when recognition can accidentally discourage the very people you are trying to bring in.
Motivation
Tom described how he has embedded gamification into a range of data and AI initiatives to increase participation and create a more positive learning culture. The overarching goal is simple: move learning from something people feel they have to do, to something they want to do.
Both ongoing training programmes and shorter one-off events have successfully combined training with friendly competition, with colleagues earning points for attending sessions, completing quizzes and participating in challenges. Special offers are used to encourage useful behaviour, such as bonus points for early-bird registration. Leaderboards and prizes help maintain momentum, with the top 5 in the leaderboard winning Amazon vouchers at the end of the year.
Beyond individual events, gamification has also been used to support longer-term culture change. Their community of Data Enablement ambassadors uses a gamified leaderboard that celebrates their contribution to improving data culture with 4 levels of achievement. Annual ambassador awards celebrate individuals who have gone above and beyond to promote positive data behaviours, with prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place, as well as Learner of the Year. Communications announcing the winning ambassadors help to reinforce the importance of data culture across the organisation.
The key takeaway is that gamification is about more than prizes. When thoughtfully designed, it can increase participation, encourage continuous learning and help build a culture where data and AI skills are developed in an engaging, collaborative and memorable way:
- Make learning interactive, social and fun
- Reward participation, not just completion
- Use friendly competitions and leaderboards to sustain momentum
- Incorporate prizes with some monetary value
- Celebrate success publicly
Think about the practicalities
One breakout-room example was a useful reminder not to over-engineer things. One member had originally imagined a bespoke gamification system: participation data feeding a database, connected to a Tableau dashboard and leaderboard. Instead, the organisation encouraged him to use a new HR recognition platform that was already available.
His team now uses that system to log people who present, participate or otherwise contribute to community meetings. A Power Automate process then brings those into a Teams channel where the individual – and their manager – can be tagged. It wasn’t the custom solution originally envisaged, but it had two unexpected advantages: it made the data recognitions more visible to the wider organisation, and it generated extra publicity internally for the way the team were using the platform.
Bosses should get involved - but they’re not the only influencers
Another group discussed whether leaders need to take part in gamified activities themselves. The consensus was that visible participation matters because leaders signal what the organisation considers important. But nobody felt the CEO also had to be top of the leaderboard.
Besides, formal leaders are only one source of influence. Champion and ambassador networks can create the same ripple effect through an organisation. Indeed, people who are close to day-to-day work can often make an activity feel more relevant than something repeatedly pushed from a central data office or the leadership team.
A leaderboard is not automatically motivating
Competition can create energy, but several members had seen it fall flat or become unintentionally exclusive. If the same experienced enthusiasts always dominate, a leaderboard can start to look less like encouragement and more like naming and shaming. It can reinforce the gap between people already confident with data and the colleagues you most want to draw in.
One comparison that we liked was a Fitbit: personal activity data can be useful because it lets you see your own benchmark and improvement over time, but that doesn’t mean you would want to publish it on Facebook or LinkedIn. Gamification metrics can work in the same way. A personal score, streak or progress marker may still motivate without being turned into a public ranking.
Reward curiosity, not just attendance
Perhaps the hardest motivation question was how to encourage curiosity and mindset change rather than simply rewarding people for turning up. One breakout group came back to two familiar Data Culture themes: relevance and peers. People are more likely to be interested when a topic that connects clearly to their own work, and when their colleagues are already enthusiastic about it.
There was also a subtler point. People can often describe a problem, but they may not yet know enough to ask the next question. Curiosity depends partly on knowing what is possible. Helping people understand what they don’t know – and where they can go next – can be more valuable than awarding another point for completing a course.
Recognition
Anna’s starting point was simple: motivation fades if effort is invisible. Her Data Academy supports an organisation of around 22,000 people with a relatively small team, so recognition is not just a reward mechanism; it is also a way to make the Academy visible and help its programmes travel further through the organisation.
When the Data Academy first launched, Anna’s team went on roadshows to build support with leaders. They would leave meetings with a Data Academy vest, sweater or other piece of branded gear and a handwritten note from the Chief Data Officer thanking the leader for their support. That turned senior leaders into walking advertisements for the Academy, but it also kept the programme front of mind so that those leaders were more likely to notice and reinforce recognition within their own teams.
Anna grouped the Academy’s recognition activities into three broad categories:
- Public acknowledgement through internal blogs, graduation celebrations and annual awards.
- Branded merchandise such as stickers, water bottles, backpacks and apparel, awarded through challenges, milestones and participation.
- Monetary rewards usually gift cards, linked to competitions and gamified activities.
Public acknowledgement is especially useful because it can have a life beyond the moment. The Academy uses an internal blog with around 1,600 subscribers to celebrate graduations, awards and individual achievements by name. Those posts are shareable and can also become something employees refer back to when promotion or year-end conversations come around.
Their merchandise is tiered. Laptop stickers are inexpensive and easy to give away; tumblers, mugs and backpacks sit further up the scale; apparel is more selective. A first contribution to a monthly data viz challenge might earn a T-shirt; for five contributions, they get a water bottle. More significant achievements – or senior leaders the Academy wants to act as influencers – can justify the more expensive clothing. Scarcity is part of the point. If everybody gets the same item for almost anything, it quickly loses its meaning. When people see a sweater and start asking how they can get one, the merchandise is doing more than rewarding its owner: it is creating curiosity around the programme.
Monetary rewards are primarily gift cards (rather than bonuses or salary increases), that act as prizes in competitions or earnt through gamified activities. For example, an internal recognition program allows colleagues to send someone a Virtual High Five; points can be attached to that recognition, and points can be redeemed for gift cards.
The key takeaway was that learning programmes are more successful when recognition is treated as a core part of the experience rather than an afterthought. By combining executive sponsorship, public celebration, meaningful rewards and elements of gamification, organisations can create stronger engagement and a more sustainable culture of data and AI learning.
Consider your company culture
The breakout discussions considered how different types of recognition work with different personality types or underlying company cultures. One member’s organisation uses a ‘wall of celebration’ where nominated colleagues receive a monetary reward, which provides visibility without necessarily requiring a big public announcement. Some people may value a moment of public praise in front of colleagues, others might prefer a private message.
Avoid the recognition equivalent of a popularity contest
Recognition can demotivate for the same reason a leaderboard can. If early adopters and confident experts are repeatedly celebrated, somebody at the beginning of their data learning may look at them and think, “I’ll never be as good as that, so why start?” One group’s answer was to recognise different stages and different kinds of progress, rather than rewarding only the most advanced people.
Variety matters too. A mug, badge or shout-out is less meaningful if everybody gets one every week. Mixing up the format and cadence, and adapting it to local culture, can help avoid recognition fatigue. More frequent low-cost or no-cost recognition can sit alongside less frequent tangible rewards.
The best reward is not always the most expensive one
One breakout room included members from government, retail and financial services, which quickly exposed the difference between cost and value. In a publicly funded organisation, spending money on T-shirts or prizes can be difficult to justify when that money is competing with front-line services. In that context, meaningful recognition may be both more practical and more powerful than a cash-value reward.
Peer-to-peer recognition was seen as particularly useful because it can reinforce the behaviours the community wants to encourage without relying on a constant stream of prizes.
Make people smile (and feel proud)
The final discussion became a cheerful exchange of the best merchandise people had seen: T-shirts with amusing or nerdy slogans like ‘Love at first byte’ or ‘Data to the people’ would reliably start a conversation. Experiences were also popular: sporting events, concerts or a seat in a corporate box allow people to treat a loved one and stay long in the memory.
That led to a surprisingly useful test: would somebody be proud to use or wear the reward, and to display the logo on it? If the answer is yes, the item may be telling you something about culture and belonging as well as recognition. If the answer is no, adding another logo to another mug probably won’t fix the problem.
What did we take away?
- Gamification is a means, not the outcome. Points, badges and prizes can create energy, but attendance and leaderboard position do not prove that somebody has changed how they work.
- Make progress visible in more than one way. Public leaderboards suit some people; personal benchmarks, levels and private recognition may work better for others.
- Use leaders and peers differently. Leaders can signal importance and legitimise participation, while champions and colleagues make activity relevant and spread it through everyday networks.
- Recognise the behaviour you want to grow. Celebrate curiosity, helpfulness, improvement and contribution – not only expertise, visibility or being first.
- Value is not the same as price. A thoughtful shout-out, a manager being copied into a thank-you, or a scarce piece of merchandise may be more meaningful than a larger monetary reward.
- Keep experimenting. Culture, personality, maturity and organisational context all change what feels motivating. The best programmes mix approaches, watch how people respond and adjust.
Perhaps the strongest theme across both halves of the event was that motivation and recognition work best when they help people feel progress, relevance and belonging. The mechanics – points, prizes, badges, shout-outs, T-shirts – are secondary. What matters is whether they make it easier for people to start, to keep going, and eventually to change the way they think and behave around data.
And that is exactly why these conversations are useful. The presentation gives you an idea; the breakout room tells you where it breaks. By the end of 90 minutes we had not designed the perfect motivation scheme – but members had a much richer set of examples, warnings and questions to take back into their own organisations.
How are you encouraging people to get involved in data learning?
Check out Data Culture Club to share experiences and learn from others working on the same challenges.
Araminta Huitson
Data Culture Lead & Data Culture Club Founder
Contents
- Introduction
- Motivation
- Think about the practicalities
- Bosses are not the only influencers
- A leaderboard is not automatically motivating
- Reward curiosity, not just attendance
- Recognition
- Consider your company culture
- Avoid the popularity contest
- The best reward is not always expensive
- Make people smile (and feel proud)
- Takeaways
- Join the Data Culture Club
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