Eve Online Screenshot (From About.com)
Did you know that there is a management school that has millions of students who are on a daily basis participating in courses specialized in extremely fast decision making, high risk management and working in flexible temporary organizations? And what is the best the school provides the students multiple lifes!
Yes, the future executives are trained in massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) environments according to Harvard Business Review’s article Leadership Online Labs by Byron Reeves, Thomas W. Malone, Tony O’Driscoll (May 2008).
After reading the article, I’m much more relaxed as my younger nephew is not just playing brainless games in his room. When he and his online colleagues start their professional career, they will be equipped with skills for fast decision making, nonmonetary incentives and temporary leadership. And according to the article the games really improve management skills:
IBM surveyed 135 of its employees who had led business teams and had also been a leader or member of a guild in a multi-player online game. [...] For most part they found games surprisingly relevant to their day-to-day work. [...] Nearly half said that game playing had already improved their real-world leadership capabilities, particularly for managing teams whose members didn’t fall under their formal authority.
Though the article states that “temporary leadership is alien to most business organizations”, I’d say that it is almost a prerequisite for successful organizations. And, in my experience it is already quite common in Scandinavian business environment. Temporary leadership supports corporate resource fluidity that is one element of strategic agility. In this light MMORPG players will be warmly welcomed members in a agile matrix organizations.
