What If It's All Just A Game?
“That's it, man. Game over, man. Game over!” - Hudson, as played by Bill Paxton, Aliens
In addition to all this coaching stuff that I do, I am also a professional board game designer. Yes, that really is a job that people do. I’ve been doing it now for about seven years and have a few published games under my belt. The stories that games tell and the impact they have on people are one of my biggest inspirations in life.
Games have this unique ability to bring people together for a short time to pursue a common goal. This can include complete strangers from all different walks of life. At their core, games simply provide two things: a structured set of rules and a goal. Yet they also provide something far more important — and that is a space where people can come together as equals on a level playing field. This helps to increase communication by giving the players something in common, i.e. a shared experience. I’ve seen many strong friendships and relationships born out of these shared experiences. I myself have experienced this as well. Many of my closest friends were found or solidified over board games.
So how can leaders use games to help in our work lives? Great question, I am so glad you asked…
As you very well may have expected, I have used games quite extensively in my leadership positions. I have considered it pivotal to both my success as a leader and the growth of a strong team. Here are the top three ways that I used games and how I believe it helped the team overall.
Games as Icebreakers: At the start of many of our team meetings, I would have us play some sort of game. Usually the game involved us working in separate teams. By mixing and matching the teams each week, I was able to help build camaraderie among different members of the team who may not normally interface with one another.
I also had the team play some games of my own devising that helped the team share fun details about themselves, which created a lot of conversation and aided the group in getting to know one another better.
Games as a Competition: This bit was done a little more subtly as I never told the team that they were actively playing a game. Instead, I created a framework for getting things done and then sat back as the team inadvertently turned it into a friendly competition. Tricky, eh?
We had a lot of tasks that needed to be completed by many members of the team, and they were struggling to focus on getting some items completed around a specific project. So I created a physical board filled with tasks on sticky notes. The team members worked together to figure out who each item should be assigned to based on skill set.
From there they started working the tasks and taking down their sticky notes as they were completed. As a result, other team members didn’t want to be the only one with sticky notes left on that board. So what happened? They shifted their focus to those priorities and got them done in record time.
There was no prize, no victory to claim… just making it a public exercise had the team turning it into a friendly competition where they prodded one another along. It ended up being a win for all included.
Games as a Common Goal: For the holidays, I created a large cooperative game for my team to play together with the promise that in the end they would “win” their holiday gift. As an aside, I am not a Scrooge; they game was designed to be won. The point of these games were to make the team work together using each of their own talents and skills to solve puzzles and riddles. My hope was that it would bring them together and help them all have a better understanding of one other’s abilities. In the end, I believe it did just that.
For this game, a couple of times of week, I would drop off a packet of information and then watch the team work to solve the game. One key note was that most of the games revolved around the team members as people. My favorite set of puzzles that they had to solve were twenty different clues that led them to the name of each person on the team and several others in the office that they worked with on a daily basis. I enjoyed seeing their eyes light up when one of them would say, “Hey that one is me!” and then explain to the team how they figured it out.
As you can see, playing games and also gamifying tasks helped my team succeed in their roles, and I hope it’s something you will consider using in your workspace. If you aren’t sure how to get started in doing that, feel free to send me a message at Jason@yourturncoach.com and I’ll help to talk you through it.
But wait, there’s more! You can also gamify tasks in your everyday life to make them feel less arduous. I tend to do this with all sorts of tasks in my life and work. Sometimes it can be as simple as seeing how quickly you can complete a task. Other times it’s breaking a task down into smaller parts and then tracking your progress as you go so it feels like you are winning a game as you go.
Finally, I’ll reward myself when I complete a batch of tasks that were on my checklist for the day. Giving yourself even a small prize or pat on the back for getting things done can really help to change your mindset especially on tasks that don’t normally feel rewarding.
Now get out there and play some games!
-Jason