How To Become A Great Manager By Killing Zombies

I got an email yesterday from my old pal and colleague Eric Riess, a talented coach and someone I am obliged to say nice things about because he was witness (accomplice?) to many incidents from my youth that I do not wish to gain wide circulation.

Eric remembered a post from my blog wherein I wrote about the multi-player online game World Of Warcraft. Here is his email:

Mark,
in light of your recent mention of how far online gaming has crept into popular culture. I thought you'd be interested to know that it has now become an on-line training tool for leadership, at least according to these three 'experts' from Harvard Business Review.

Abstract:
"Multi-player online role-playing games are sprawling cyber-communities that offer a sneak preview of tomorrow's business environment. Players who lead teams in these online worlds hone the skills that they will need as business leaders in the future. Games also provide an environment that makes being an effective leader easier and that today's businesses might try to replicate selectively in their own organizations. Those are the principal findings by Reeves, of Stanford University; Malone, of MIT's Sloan School; and O'Driscoll, of North Carolina State. As part of an analysis conducted by Seriosity, a company that develops game-inspired enterprise software, the authors studied people who headed up teams in online games.

They also sought the insights of gamers who have led real-world business teams at IBM. The authors identified three distinctive characteristics of leadership in online games that, as workplaces and the overall business climate become more dynamic and game-like, will be essential for tomorrow's leaders: speed, risk taking, and acceptance of leadership roles as temporary. The most important finding, say the authors, is that getting the leadership environment right can be as important as choosing the right leader. They point out two aspects of game environments that companies might consider adopting: One, non-monetary incentives built into a game economy strongly motivate individuals to accomplish group aims. Two, hyper-transparency of information about, for example, team members' capabilities and teams' real-time performance makes it simpler to match people with tasks and to empower individuals to manage themselves."

Personally I don't want the managers of tomorrow learning how to deal with the real world by using on-line games. I find it troubling on so many levels. I was gonna write you a long diatribe but I kept getting so mad I just gave up.

Eric

Not sure I agree entirely with my old friend. My son has made me aware of some of the complexities of World of Warcraft, among other online games, and I think the notion that the games could be a kind of laboratory of leadership has some merit. Sort of like flight simulators can be good training for flying aircraft. Obviously, you wouldn't want leaders who had never had human interaction or experience, but as an added tool, I think, why not?

That being said, I'm not sure I want my managers to have derived their management style from their experience killing orcs and zombies.

Addendum: My son Max makes the following comments on this post:

"Leadership skills come from running 40-man raids, Dad, not from killing orcs and zombies.
And anyway, orcs and zombies are on my team — why would I have to kill them?"

 

 

 

Comments

[max]

i have proof of my claims!
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/races/index.html
i play for horde.

the aforementioned son