It's always a challenge to get other people to do what you want them to do. You can turn to the old carrot-or-stick approach, or you could also try using games.

It's a tactic that draws on the basics of human psychology, and now everyone from your employer to the makers of your smartphone are putting it into practice.

Adam Penenberg, author of "Play at Work: How Games Inspire Breakthrough Thinking" talks about the spread of games in our society, from those little sandwich punch cards to the touch screens at the gas station.