Published on Wednesday, Jun 25, 2008
You are zealously organising a guild with the right mix and correct preparation – fighters, armour and weapons. All your energies are directed at employing the best tactics for defeating the enemy in the dungeon.
All this is happening in the virtual world. But playing the game at work? And the boss isn’t even complaining!
Yes! The corporate world has finally woken up to the parallels between gaming and management. After all, you are not just shooting up gangsters or slaying dragons – read between the lines and a common thread of competition, leadership, teamwork, communication, staying focussed, multi-tasking, beating challenges, repeating attempts and rising from failure definitely runs through.
Not only this, gaming has come a long way for sure, with employers not dismissing it as a frivolous pursuit anymore.
Corporate gaming has scaled a new realm with interactive simulation settings covering a diverse set of relevant and topical business issues. These scenarios closely imitate market and economic reality, making them indistinguishable from real life events.
This gives players (read: employees) a unique opportunity to directly step into the shoes of a decision-maker, launch a product, meet with clients, lead a company or even start a business. Not only do they display and test their skills, but can also hone them and learn new ones in realistic simulated business environments.
They can do everything from applying their knowledge and challenging their potential to learning to survive and helping themselves grow. In short, they get a chance to dummy run in cyberspace before performing in the real world.
All this is happening in the virtual world. But playing the game at work? And the boss isn’t even complaining!
Yes! The corporate world has finally woken up to the parallels between gaming and management. After all, you are not just shooting up gangsters or slaying dragons – read between the lines and a common thread of competition, leadership, teamwork, communication, staying focussed, multi-tasking, beating challenges, repeating attempts and rising from failure definitely runs through.
Not only this, gaming has come a long way for sure, with employers not dismissing it as a frivolous pursuit anymore.
Corporate gaming has scaled a new realm with interactive simulation settings covering a diverse set of relevant and topical business issues. These scenarios closely imitate market and economic reality, making them indistinguishable from real life events.
This gives players (read: employees) a unique opportunity to directly step into the shoes of a decision-maker, launch a product, meet with clients, lead a company or even start a business. Not only do they display and test their skills, but can also hone them and learn new ones in realistic simulated business environments.
They can do everything from applying their knowledge and challenging their potential to learning to survive and helping themselves grow. In short, they get a chance to dummy run in cyberspace before performing in the real world.
Business case
In playing computer simulated games on the Internet, corporate executives and managers are confronted with specifically-created business cases and have to respond to situational problems that call for operative and strategic decisions under predetermined rules of behaviour.
In playing computer simulated games on the Internet, corporate executives and managers are confronted with specifically-created business cases and have to respond to situational problems that call for operative and strategic decisions under predetermined rules of behaviour.
Players can also try their hand at various industry scenarios and business tasks to discover their true management style.
Games can incorporate business concepts and practices covering wide-ranging problems in capacity planning, manufacturing, distribution, attracting sales accounts, customer satisfaction, generating cash flow, improving productivity, financial performance and employee retention. Taking ground breaking management decisions demands knowledge of various factors like pricing, production, economics, financial cost, marketing, sales, accounting and human resources.
Not only do participants get a chance to make decisions that matter, but can also see the direct effect and implications of their decisions on themselves, others and the company’s future. They can test strategies; experiment innovative moves and make mistakes at no real-life cost.
The multi-disciplinary platform also reflects vital cross-functional linkages, thus exposing people to various functional relationships and responsibilities. This tests their understanding of complex business concepts and forces them to study decisions even while providing instant feedback.
The team-based approach necessitates a high degree of interaction among participants and inculcates peer group dynamics as they develop acceptable interpersonal behaviour while learning to cooperate with each other and work in teams.
By playing to win, people imbibe competitive behaviour even as they learn to dissect real world problems, take effective decisions, extend their imagination and develop into skilled managers.
As Tony O’Driscoll, an IBM learning strategist says, “Games make leaders from lemmings. Since leadership happens quickly and easily in online games, otherwise reserved players are more likely to try on leadership roles.”
Games can incorporate business concepts and practices covering wide-ranging problems in capacity planning, manufacturing, distribution, attracting sales accounts, customer satisfaction, generating cash flow, improving productivity, financial performance and employee retention. Taking ground breaking management decisions demands knowledge of various factors like pricing, production, economics, financial cost, marketing, sales, accounting and human resources.
Not only do participants get a chance to make decisions that matter, but can also see the direct effect and implications of their decisions on themselves, others and the company’s future. They can test strategies; experiment innovative moves and make mistakes at no real-life cost.
The multi-disciplinary platform also reflects vital cross-functional linkages, thus exposing people to various functional relationships and responsibilities. This tests their understanding of complex business concepts and forces them to study decisions even while providing instant feedback.
The team-based approach necessitates a high degree of interaction among participants and inculcates peer group dynamics as they develop acceptable interpersonal behaviour while learning to cooperate with each other and work in teams.
By playing to win, people imbibe competitive behaviour even as they learn to dissect real world problems, take effective decisions, extend their imagination and develop into skilled managers.
As Tony O’Driscoll, an IBM learning strategist says, “Games make leaders from lemmings. Since leadership happens quickly and easily in online games, otherwise reserved players are more likely to try on leadership roles.”
The business benefits
Corporate experimentation with simulated role-playing is rendering a unique value of experiential training. The games urge players to learn willingly under competitive conditions and prove more effective than conventional class teaching or case studies. Packed with excitement, it provides a fun way to learn even while enabling testing of participants’ knowledge, team-building capabilities and leadership skills.
The learning experience can be customised as in-house management training games or tackled in national/international competitions. Irrespective of the mode, its wide coverage and unique delivery in the virtual world encourages people to create best strategies for a company’s future and show what they think!
As Byron Reeves, a Stanford University communications professor and co-founder of Seriosity, Inc. that develops online games, says, “If you want to see what business leadership will look like in three to five years, look at what’s happening in online games!”
Corporate experimentation with simulated role-playing is rendering a unique value of experiential training. The games urge players to learn willingly under competitive conditions and prove more effective than conventional class teaching or case studies. Packed with excitement, it provides a fun way to learn even while enabling testing of participants’ knowledge, team-building capabilities and leadership skills.
The learning experience can be customised as in-house management training games or tackled in national/international competitions. Irrespective of the mode, its wide coverage and unique delivery in the virtual world encourages people to create best strategies for a company’s future and show what they think!
As Byron Reeves, a Stanford University communications professor and co-founder of Seriosity, Inc. that develops online games, says, “If you want to see what business leadership will look like in three to five years, look at what’s happening in online games!”
PAYAL CHANANIA
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