Discussion: Business Success and Gaming Skills
By
Adam_Alpha,
Posted on: 2007-07-03 11:59 in News, Events and Announcement Discussion
You know... come to think about it you can actually learn leadership skills in a game like CoH. Think about team management, you've put together your team, and all seems to go well until the first team wipe. Someone starts getting unruly so you talk to them, they're still mouthing off so you fire him. His friend starts acting up, you try talking to him with the same results so you fire him. You immediately find two replacements and continue on.
Supergroup management could equal corporate or statewide management. The reason I say statewide is you've got the DoT (Department of Transportation), or the TP rooms, the Healthcare department or med-bays, the workshops which could be loosely connected to R&D or even some trades. Then it really all boils down to micromanagement and leadership; who's going to edit the base, who's going to recruit, who are the leaders? All in all you have to wonder what the dev's thoughts really were when they had the idea of SG's and bases.
Find me ingame @Norlon
Winter ST
I think these people are going to be seriously disappointed.
They have made the first mistake of the internet. They have forgotten that behind the cute little elf chick is a fat middle aged man. While the skills may be the same the people aren't.
Having been in well organized guilds in EQ/WoW from my experience I can tell you they were all run by people who were:
a) Already aware they had leadership ability and certainly not kids. Most of the best leaders I ran into were older. What they were were oddly enough were usually people not interested in sitting at a desk LOL. Always cracked me up that people who could play a computer game for hours refused to work at a desk (and in many cases get a decent wage).
b) Obsession with game != competence at work. For many MORP gamers who raid constantly this is the result of their total focus on the game. Unless IBM is planning on springing for therapy or has some plan to turn them into workaholics from gameaholics I don't see how you can transfer the skills.
My personal experience has been that people who "herd cats" for a living don't like doing it in games, I know I don't. I'd rather have my eye's poked out than organize raids in my free time.
It is a fantasy setting a chance to do what you DON'T do in real life. If your not a leader in RL you can be one for a few hours a day on-line. If you have to lead in RL, you have the chance on-line to go be a loner and thumb your nose at everyone else for a change.
Maybe they can find some people who want to express their fantasy persona in RL but hopefully they are in the minority, because they would be unhappy people - afraid to be who they are.
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You can't please everyone, so lets concentrate on me.
I admire good leaders in CoX. Last night on test a player joined our team, which had been running well for awhile, talked our leader into switching to her AV mish, then dropped as soon as it was completed w/out a word. We've all seen behaviors that are selfish in this game. It's one reason I tend to avoid PUGs, same as other players I know. Stick w/ friends, I say.
I'm a founder and leader of a VG. We've been relatively successful at building a base w/in the constraints of the existing system. Steady growth. However, I don't think any of it translates to RL applications.
One leadership seminar I attended was run by someone who had to have been a grade school teacher. We were told to cooperate on an arts and crafts project. I had the idea of making a daisy chain out of construction paper. We made her so proud!! 
And it brought back such memories of a more innocent time, when kids were lil' angels and no one broke the rules or was mean to each other!! (Apologies for the facetiousness.) ("The Office" is not far off the mark.)
The part of this equation of leadership in games to RL skills leaves out human nature. I love this game or I wouldn't be playing it, but I would not look for future leaders of America, business or politics in a MMO. The behaviors I've seen have been disheartening. It's a good thing some of these people are contained in a virtual environment.
Some are outright mean, selfish, or rude. On the other hand, w/ some of the business scandals we've had in recent years, maybe these are exactly the type of people who end up in corporate executive/mangement positions. See Enron, Tyco, Woldcom, BP, Hollinger and a slew of others. The lil' base salvage thief of today is the big corporate crook of tomorrow.
One last analogy. A good friend said her mom used to complain about the amount of time she spent watching the various Law&Orders on TV. She told her mom that she was studying law and court room techniques. (She's very funny.) Would this fly in front of a judge? "Miss, you haven't passed the bar, but you've seen how many hours of Law&Order? Ok, please proceed."
As I said, I love this game, but let's not make more out of it than it is. It is entertainment.
In other news, Bill Gates has announced that Microsoft is going to leverage itself to buy out 4 other major software companies so that Bill can "multicorp".
This article isn't directly related to the topic, but it got me thinking. Looking at this discussion one way shows that gaming skills are helping people in business. Looking at it another way, the demographic of gamers is sliding into the range where the people are succeeding in their careers regardless. There's something to be said for the fact that in almost any job, people make use of a broad range of life skills that go beyond their job description. I think though that the source and application of those outside influences changes.
During and after World War II, american industry and business was very much shaped by the experiences that everyone gained in the war. Just as an example.
So to me this becomes a chicken and egg kind of question. Are businesses seeking out people with game skills, or are people with game skills just making use of them in they way they do business?
"Null is as much an argument "for removing the cottage rule" as the moon being round is for buying tennis shoes." -Memphis Bill
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As I said, I love this game, but let's not make more out of it than it is. It is entertainment.
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Well, and... amateur sports are "just entertainment", too - but you can learn teamwork, cooperation, sacrifice, etc etc etc.
This is not to suggest that "I'm learning leadership skills" is by any stretch the reason to play COH, or any game...
... but rather that some aspects of "leadership" really are learnable by many, if they want to take on that responsibility, and leading a team in an MMO such as COH can give you a taste of that.
For instance...
What do leaders do? (Okay, in the business world, this is sometimes managers, but leaving that alone for a moment).
1) Have a plan (or vision). Know what you want to do - is it missions? A Task Force? etc. A good leader will have a plan, even just "get people and run radio/police scanner missions".
2) Recruit appropriate staff. If you know you're going to need a blaster (or an accountant)... go find one. If only the search function in the real world was so easy...
3) Communicate! Many, many applications
A) Letting the new recruit know what you're doing in general.
B) Making teammates aware of problems that need solving ("more agro", say).
C) Keeping people on task (sometimes useful, sometimes not).
etc.
4) Make decisions. It often doesn't matter to most players what they do, as long as you pick fairly quickly. Asking "does anyone mind... " can't really hurt, but often, it's best just to pick something and move on.
5) Know your team. What are their strengths and weaknesses? (i.e. what powers do they have)?
6) Manage personalities. Sometimes you have to know when to let someone go (i.e. kick off the team, or fire them), or get people to work better together, either in terms of powers or coordination.
7) Listen! If someone has a suggestion, they may know more than you ("This room sucks, I'd say pull"). Or maybe someone wants to do a particular task - if no one else cares, do that.
Etc.
It sounded a bit odd to me too, to think of a game like this involving anything remotely to do with "leadership skills", but really, there are certain things that overlap.
It did occur to me doing an MBA Leadership class, that a lot of the things we were discussing that defined "leadership" ... were in there, albeit on a small scale.
Mind you - in Coh, it IS only entertainment when all is said and done.
But an amateur sports team is only for fun, too, in theory...
In the business world, the stakes are obviously much higher.
But really... getting a team together, communicating a vision, keeping people motivated and on task, and deciding what to do next...
... those are all leadership skills.
Different stakes (much, much lower than almost anything "real world" like in business)... but similar tasks on a micro level.
Currently: 50s (5), 40s (3), 30s (5)
Red and blue side, mostly Infinity, Virtue, and Freedom.
When I purchased my first PC the fastest way I learned how to use it was to play a game, then went on to online gaming where associating with other people taught me a great deal. I always felt that online gaming along with the interaction definately helped my professional career in many ways.
being in the service taught me how to take orders and how to lead. you can't hardly lead people if you can't take orders yourself.
playing this game has taught me teaming skills, as well as what i call the skill of "consession". sometimes i have to realize that othr people may have idea's that are as good or better than mine. you have to be able to give and take in order to work with some people.
unfourtunatly, this game doesn't teach respect or maturity.
Indeed! Great posts Eltanin.
From my very first summer jobs, it was obvious that the skills I learned, almost by accident, in my quest for entertainment have served me well. I used to joke that every dollar I ever made was because of computer games. Add an engineering degree to that and now I am a partner in a successful consulting firm.
Still, there is a definite stigma associated with MMO players and I certainly don't brag about it to co-workers or clients. It would be interesting to see how the other partners and I would react if a employee candidate brought it up during an interview.