The concept of ‘Video-Gaming’ has evolved significantly since I was a young lad – the classics like Space Invaders, Donkey Kong and Ping Pong all served their purpose and were bloody fun, but unfortunately for me became boring very quickly. Games came and went, and to be honest Action Games caught my eye quite often and just like most adolescent boys I was susceptible to those “cool” marketing campaigns targeted at us young ones! – But all the hype of every game dissipated soon after ripping open the bright plastic wrapping and playing for an hour, then…. Back to Square One!
Enter ‘Command and Conquer’ – one of the First Real-Time Strategy (RTS) war games which admittedly consumed my nights second to my Studies (most of the time) – I discovered later in life that I am a Planner and Strategist by nature, so in hindsight it is easy to see why I became captivated in the concept of the RTS genre. Endless hours of time bought and spent on Playing various RTS gaming titles over the years which fed and temporarily satisfied an underlying desire to ‘change the world’ for the better – well a virtualised world… Until moving into my first Leadership role where my willingness to inflict positive change on an AI driven warzone turned into reality!
The Reality is now a realisation – being empowered to inflict change is undoubtedly one of my foremost motivations for me loving my job at Excite IT as a considerable part of my role involves Management and strategic influence. I become easily enthralled, fascinated and borderline-addicted with games that make you think, present a challenge and are not repetitive and the expectation applied to my career is no different!
Games (not just video games) have a long history as teaching tools, stretching back to the precursors of chess in Egypt as much as 3,000 years ago. Considerably like the modern version of Chess that we all know, these ancient board games focused on the concepts of warfare, unit management, and calculating tolerable risk. They taught critical thinking skills, strategising, and thinking several moves ahead – all skills that have applications in everyday life. Perhaps that’s why some of the best and brightest minds in the computer, medical, business, and education fields (among others) continue to love chess so much today.
The modern Chess board was turned into a virtual battlefield with real time strategy(RTS) games like Command and Conquer and the virtualised warfare has evolved in modern day business today.
While RTS battles happen in real time as opposed to the turn-based moves in chess, the skills taught and honed through victory and defeat are the same. In fact, recent research proves what we Game fanatics have known all along is that ‘playing strategy games is good for the brain’. By playing difficult strategy games increases the speed of perceptual processing and improves cognitive flexibility. Increased perceptual processing means that Real-Time Strategy gamers can break down and process complex stimuli quicker – and, cognitive flexibility has been called “a cornerstone of human intelligence”
Yeah’ ok, So?
What does all of this have to do with Management in the IT industry? Lots! Developing a solid foundation of critical thinking skills, along with information management and multi-tasking skills, is very beneficial for people seeking a successful career in IT management where logical trains of thought, testing, and long term planning are required. In addition to developing raw skills like thinking on your feet and swiftly adjusting to new technologies – games like Chess and Command and Conquer teach players the importance of developing overall strategies, as opposed to “just seeing what works.” Developing smart resourcing tactics and ranking strategies is paramount in Strategic Management.
What ‘Gaming’ Taught Me about IT Strategic Management, People Management and Management in General
Get Your Troops in Order!!
Pick the right unit for the right task. Never overwhelm your units. Units are valuable – retreat and repair when need be.
In business terms: Different employees excel at different tasks. Some are more creative, some more analytical, some more technical. Don’t send your creative person to fix a technical problem and vice versa. Don’t overwhelm your best employees with too many tasks – they will burn out and the work will suffer. Pull them out of their work from time to time to give them a break. Give them an extra break after a task, take them to lunch, bring in coffee and breakfast, or go on a group social outing. Get them “repaired and refuelled.”
Know your People! As a manager it is your responsibility to know the skills and profile of each and every one of the members in your division.
Managing Information & Multi-Tasking
RTS games are an overwhelming display of all kinds of data, all of it relevant, but not all of it immediately useful – The Power of Data – do not underestimate it!
In the IT industry, unfortunately, our tools are much the same – The player’s task is to determine what’s important right then, and then moments later completely shift their attention in the middle of the battle. In good matches, this can happen dozens or hundreds of times, as successful players shift their focus between multiple skirmishes, their own base, and their resource collection. In the IT industry or any IT centric organisation in particular, they are required to manage multiple different tools, incoming work-loads and the availability of their People simultaneously – take a deep breath, think big and look at the picture holistically!
Learning to deftly multitask and switch your focus in RTS games is an overlooked skill that can be directly applied to your managing your workload every day.
Evolve or die! Every experience is a lesson!
After the game – win, lose or draw – review your strategy to identify (out-loud) what worked and what to tweak. Key lessons normally include not only new strategic aspects, but also insights about the sequence of moves to adopt when working on refining your strategy!
You may have successfully ran a project in accordance with projected requirements, and holistically the end product is what was originally desired. But it is always important to review each project milestone post project completion to determine how can you improve and introduce potential efficiencies.
Learning from your wins and losses – most important part of evolution, in particular the technology industry.
Resource management
Perhaps the earliest thing I realised that video games had taught me was resource management. Take Plants Vs. Zombies – You have X amount of Sun which is considered a form of currency and have to spend Sun to secure resources that generate more Sun for you to then invest in resources that can manage and help grow your business – this conceptually is not that much different with real money, real business and real life.
Smartly Invest in your People, Tools and anything that better your business.
You may lose the battle, but you can still Win the War!
Take heart during failures and realise you’re not down and out. Many games have seen clutch victories, with successful breakout victories after they hit their strides late in the game. In business, you may lose a tender, under-deliver a project or even lose a client. These things can usually be fixed! Analyse what went wrong, determine how you can fix it, and pull yourself up and get ready for the next challenge – because there will always be one.
Take a moment… think about your favourite Game – What is it actually teaching you and how you can apply these lessons to your current role, relationship or anything in your life.