Games in a professional setting can bring in new mindsets or help tackle problems from a different perspective. Games within a product team are especially beneficial, as they both develop and capitalize on the psychological safety present.
A game is a structured form of play, usually undertaken for entertainment, fun, or educational purposes. Games can be physical (like sports), mental (like puzzles), or a combination of both (like board games or video games). They typically involve:
Rules: Clearly defined guidelines that dictate how the game is played and what players can or cannot do.
Objectives: Specific goals or outcomes that players aim to achieve.
Competition: Often includes competition between players or against the game itself.
Interactivity: Requires active participation from players, often involving decision-making and strategy.
Environment: A defined setting or context in which the game takes place.
Outcomes: Usually has a clear end condition or way to determine winners or losers.
In a professional setting, those elements are still present but morph a little. Using the work of academics like Johan Roos, Bart Victor, Michael Schrage, etc. who have written about the power of games in solving more challenging organizational problems, you might characterize a game as having:
Purposeful Design: The game is designed with specific objectives in mind, such as improving teamwork, fostering innovation, or addressing specific organizational challenges.
Rules and Structure: The game operates within a defined set of rules and a structured environment that guides participants' actions and interactions.
Simulated Reality: The game creates a simulated environment that mirrors real-world challenges and scenarios, allowing participants to experiment and learn in a controlled setting.
Engagement and Interaction: The game encourages active participation, collaboration, and interaction among players, promoting a deeper understanding of complex issues.
Reflection and Learning: The game provides opportunities for reflection and learning, enabling participants to draw insights and apply them to their professional roles.
We play games all the time at work. Pretending is a game. Pretending to have more rules or structure than you normally do creates a game. “Run-throughs” of a presentation are literally pretending the event is happening, but it isn’t. Similarly, time-boxing is pretending there is a deadline when there isn’t.
Games allow different scenarios to be tested - whether in a true simulated reality game or just in a tabletop exercise. We also ask ourselves questions that prompt this kind of thinking: “How would we build this if budget wasn’t a factor?”; “If we could go after any market, where would we go?”; “If you were in charge here, what decision would you make?”
And of course a game allows a structured analysis or post-mortem that might not be available or would be too complex in the real work. The learnings through a game can be just as valuable as the real-world scenario. Many strategy games and simulations we use today have their origin in the military sphere. The defense sector uses strategy games and simulations to train hundreds of thousands of their troops.
By incorporating these elements, games in a professional setting can serve as effective tools for solving challenging organizational problems, fostering innovation, and enhancing overall performance.
STAND-UP EXERCISE
How can your product team incorporate play into their processes and solutioning? Start by auditing what you see at work - where are games already taking place? Then brainstorm how to expand that and apply it to your product team.
