Book excerpt: Research shows when people are engaged they are more productive. That's why gamification has caught on in the corporate world. The clever combination of fields such as game design, psychology, motivation theory, neurophysiology, and behaviorism has been shown to benefit stakeholders in surprisingly effective ways. Whether you run a community or need your employees and customer to share information and come up with innovative products, gamification gets members into a playful and creative mood. It engages them to go the extra mile. Idea submission systems combined with innovation scores and social events, spark more and better ideas. Professional communities with competency scores create strong motivations for their members to contribute more and faster, for the benefit of all stakeholders. This book highlights several dozen examples of how organizations like yours are using gamification for engaging internal and external communities, encouraging knowledge sharing, or crowdsourcing innovation with gamified systems. By the end of the book you will possess the tools necessary to begin or expand your own gamified community and innovation programs.