The business culture of the future is becoming increasingly more virtual and distributed as it conforms to an increasingly global, yet inter-connected, world. In an effort to stay relevant, corporations are going to be forced to innovate and cultivate new leadership personnel and ideals from more diverse populations. Both articles, are collaborative reports produced by IBM, outlining the parallels between leaders in gaming communities and the corporate world. "Real Leaders: Online games put the future of business leadership on display" lays the groundwork for understanding the study and the parallels drawn therein, while "Leadership in a Distributed World: Lessons from online gaming" dives deep into the details. Using a model established at the MIT Sloan school of Management, IBM surveyed 214 of their own employees who were also active in online gaming communities. They focused primarily on four significant elements of leadership: Visioning, Sense-making, Relating, and Inventing. The results derived from this innovative research have interesting implications for the corporate leaders of the future. Many tried and true staples of management could be turned on their heads by emerging leaders with a background in online gaming.
All four elements of leadership as defined by the MIT model are prevalent in both gaming and corporate leaders, however the importance of each element varies between the two. For example, "Visioning" is described as outlining the potential outcomes for the organization in the future. Visioning ranked higher in importance within the corporate world because game worlds are predefined, reducing the need for leaders to set expectations for an organization's advancement and direction. Corporate leaders do not typically have that luxury. "Sense-making" refers to a leader's ability to understand the context of the environment in which they are operating. Leaders performing this task will be gathering, validating and implement disparate sources of information within their respective environments. They will be making decisions based on rapidly changing circumstances and course correcting on the fly. "Relating" speaks to a leader's ability to communicate and build relationships with individuals at all levels of the organization, as well as the ability to work with contacts externally. A leader must be able to collaborate, self evaluate, and provide feedback. "Inventing" is the ability of leaders to innovate and solve problems creatively to achieve their vision for the organization. Execution is key for an strong leader in both communities. Leaders must be able to drive the organization towards established goals and transform goals into results.
In the corporate world it seems it is generally accepted that leadership potential is a product of one's nature. You either have it or you don't. However, leadership culture in the world of online gaming is often times the opposite, and that leadership is often cultivated by the environment. In online gaming environments, leadership arises through the following: Project-oriented organizations, typically a Guild or a Clan, oriented towards achieving specific goals, such as "raiding" or player vs player combat. These "projects" are specifically tied to a transparent incentive system that awards, players for their time commitment and skill at executing the assigned tasks. Gaming environments typically include multiple layers of communication to provide leaders an inclusive medium for delegating tasks, receiving feedback, and making adjustment on the fly. Often times, gaming leaders must use third party VOIP programs, group chat, and personal messaging to succeed. In gaming, the incentives are transparent and known from the start which allows for very strict peer to peer review of player competencies and ruthless efficiency corrections. Gaming leaders typically have a short shelf life. They have to delicately balance keeping their people focused, happy, and engaged. If incentives are not achieved and goals are not met, subordinates typically oust a leader or move on immediately, as there is no real risk to an individual's security in doing so.
Corporate leaders face a bit of a larger challenge, specifically that of risk. Risk is tolerated and expected in gaming. Organizations in games that don't take risks simply cannot compete with those that do. Failure on the first few attempts is expected and accepted as it enables a shorter, more efficient, learning curve. Games have a reset button. Corporations simply cannot always be as risky. Real-world, financial, and legal consequences often times shape corporate managers into risk averse, cautious leaders. Shareholders and subordinates can only afford so much risk, as security and financial stability are imperative to an organizations success. Gamers at most, are set back a few days or weeks in progress, with no real-world consequences. Risk averse organizations can be held back from making real progress, when leaders stovepipe information and create bureaucracies to insulate the organization from risk. Corporations could stand to adopt some of the "put up or shut up," qualities of gaming culture. Accountability is king in gaming organizations, player skill, commitment, and efficacy are transparent and immediately vetted. Leaders are often swapped in and out depending tasks and schedule. In corporations this is often not the case, and ill fitted managers are assigned tasks beyond their capabilities, simply because they are
the manager. Not exactly a model for efficiency or success.
Effective leaders in both environments will be those who can expertly use all available data to make informed decisions and adjust course as necessary. Managing risk while simultaneously achieving established goals and incentivizing employees is equally necessary. Both online gaming and corporate environments are dynamic and fast paced. Visionary leaders who can handle the pressure will succeed. Personally I think the corporate world could afford to adopt some lessons from gaming. Take a little more risk, innovate, and avoid bureaucratic bloat - tall order. However, I don't think we'll be seeing people getting corporate leadership positions from having gaming experience on their resume as the article implies. Corporate culture is a slow moving beast and the risk is just too high with dollars on the line.
ImmersiveEducation.org
Sources:
(1)
IBM Gaming Report: Virtual Worlds, Real Leaders
(2)
IBM Report: Leadership in a distributed world - Lessons from online gaming
