The Game of Work?

 

On a Sunday evening my adult children often come over to the house and we play games. Sometimes it's a board game, sometimes it's a card game, but they all like playing games together. It doesn't matter how easy or complicated the game my be, they all have one thing in common—a set of rules.

The rules make it possible to measure progress, keep score and ultimately determines the winner. Have you ever wondered what would happen if in the middle of the game you suspended or changed the rules? Nobody would want to play.

How many times does that happen at work?

Over the course of my career, I have to admit that there have been many times (too many to count) when it's felt like the rules have changed in the middle of the game. Have you ever wondered why so many people love playing basketball, football or other sports? In sports (and other games) the players get a constant stream of feedback as to how they're doing. They see points on the scoreboard and can recognize just exactly what it's going to take to win the game. There is no ambiguity about what success is.

Shouldn't we be trying to foster that same kind of environment within project teams? I'm not suggesting that we ratchet up the competitive atmosphere, but we can incorporate those elements that make playing games and participating in sports enjoyable:

1. Establish the rules and don't change them mid-steam: I think everyone understands the value of sharing the desired outcome of a project with the team. I think this is a good first step. Once we've established what we want to accomplish, have a good idea of how we want to get there and a good handle of what success looks like, changing those criteria in the middle of the project is like changing the rules in the middle of the game.
2. Feedback is important: Just like the stats during a baseball game give the team the feedback they need to know exactly how their doing, project team members appreciate feedback about how they're doing, how the project is progressing and whether or not there's a need to step up performance. This is one reason why I'm such a big fan of a more social media-like approach to project communication and collaboration, feedback is a natural part of the equation. However, I'm also a fan of using a scorecard to measure performance. It's also easy for everyone on the team to understand and gives everyone instant visibility into how the team is doing. I use scorecards with my team and find it very helpful when managing to objectives. An up-to-date scorecard makes it possible for all of us to see how we are progressing at any time during the project.

Earlier this month I wrote about gamification and how it could impact how we manage projects. Although this isn't exactly the same topic, I think it speaks to some of the reasons why these techniques are effective.

Can we help our project teams be more successful at the game of work?