Today’s Gamer, Tomorrow’s Strategic Leader

An interesting article caught my eye through one of my news aggregators over at myadsl.co.za. From the article:

“Video games have become problem-solving exercises wrapped in the veneer of an exotic adventure.”

Certainly a first line that intrigues and piques one’s curiosity, let alone the affect the headline has on someone. Reading on:

“Video games have become problem-solving exercises wrapped in the veneer of an exotic adventure. In today's fast and rapidly-changing business environment, the strategic skills they teach are more important than ever.”

The article goes on to debate, through the perspective of the two authors of the book Got Game: How the Gamer Generation is Reshaping Business Forever. The authors state that instead of being like television where people are the bystander, gaming offers a suspension of disbelief and includes the gamer into the world of the game—they become a willing participant.

As such, the gamer must think strategically in interacting with their environment, propelled to win.

These skills, the article states, are indispensible to the business world. These traits are even more accentuated in multi-player online environments—the MMOGs like World of Warcraft—such that small team leaders need to leverage the abilities of their teammates in the execution of success.

This culminates in an important point:

“Games teach by trial and error. Consequently, gamers learn that failure is a necessary and unequivocal part of the path to success. This is a message that is often lost in the real world, because repetitions are few and far between and therefore the stakes are too high during each attempt. In games, repetition is high and immediate feedback is provided to the gamer. While failure in the real world is disheartening, in games it serves as an encouragement to try harder. This attitude towards failure eventually permeates life outside of the game. The result is that the gaming generation is willing to take more risks and be more entrepreneurial than previous generations.”

The kicker?

“80 percent of managers in the US under the age of 35 had significant video game experience and that gamers had a more positive outlook on life than non-gamers. Gamers tended to prefer multitasking to individual assignments, to stave off boredom.”

More Than Words

“What would you do if my heart was torn in two?
More than words to show you feel that your love for me is real
What would you say if I took those words away?
Then you couldn't make things new just by saying "I love you"”
—Extreme, “More Than Words”

General George S. Patton took command of the Third U.S. Army in March of 1944, just prior to the quickest and most successful military advance that history has ever known. To commemorate his acquisition of command of this fine organization he gave a couple of speeches. The most famous is the one directed at the privates and non-commissioned officers of the unit. A lesser-known version, however, was given to his headquarters staff. Before reading the short excerpt, please know that it contains mild coarse language:

“You are here to fight. This is an active theater of war. Ahead of you lies battle. That means just one thing. You can't afford to be a goddamned fool, because, in battle, fools mean dead men. It is inevitable for men to be killed and wounded in battle. But there is no reason why such losses should be increased because of the incompetence and carelessness of some stupid son-of-a-bitch. I don't tolerate such men on my staff.”

I’ve long equated the intricacies of combat with those of life. We each have our objectives and we need to employ strategy and tactics to reach those objectives. Modern management theory has taken cues from the practice of management and leadership in the most stressful environment that a person can undertake, in fact.

As an avid student of military history and effective leadership, I have studied a lot of Patton over the years. He understood many of the basic principles of effective leadership:

· Results should be the only measure of success

· The level of potential risk is directly proportional to the level of potential reward.

· Perseverance

Ideally you will have a method to determine the results of your actions and how successful your tactics and strategies have been. Use feedback to adjust your tactics and strategy.

Risk begets reward. There is rarely reward without sacrifice. Ideally you will be intelligent, artful, and graceful in your approach. As in picking locks, however, sometimes the best method is with a sledgehammer and explosives. Or, as I’m fond of saying—if all other methods don’t work, use the brute force approach.

Finally, perseverance: If at first you don’t succeed—try, try again. The man that invented rubber tires, the man that Goodyear Tire is named after, spent most of his life until he succeeded in his goal of creating the right rubber for the job of being part of a tire. The reward: Arguably the most recognizable name in the business of tires.

In the end it is only a function of “just how badly do you want success?”