Institute for Esports Leadership

Learn, Play, Lead

Leadership

IEL at Maryland Leadership Workshops

Last week I had the pleasure joining Maryland Leadership Workshops alumnus Jason Israel to present a workshop at MLW’s Advanced Leadership Seminar program using the game Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes (KTANE) as a tool for stress testing teamwork.

Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes
One player is trapped in a virtual room with a ticking time bomb they must defuse. The other players are the “Experts” who must give the instructions to defuse the bomb by deciphering the information found in the bomb defusal manual. But there’s a catch: the experts can’t see the bomb, so everyone will need to talk it out – fast!

With the help of half a dozen excellent volunteers, we ran our group of 22 participants through a crash course on leadership roles, delegation, and communication. The group split into four teams, and worked through several iterations with a focus on practicing specific leadership skills.

At the end of the day, we offered a final challenge: teams were given the opportunity to defuse a bomb in front of the other teams with an added twist: the defuser’s experts were sent to another room and could only communicate by walkie-talkie. Despite the high pressure scenario we concocted, and all the surprises up our sleeves, the teams performed admirably, and I have no doubt that given another hour of practice, they would have defeated our ultimate challenge.

Thanks to MLW for being great sports and even better hosts!

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KTANE is an ideal game for a setting like this because of its low threshold, cooperative goal, and short playtime.

  • The low threshold makes it easy to pick up and start playing with a minimum of instruction.
  • The cooperative goal involves a team of players, and teams must work together to be successful.
  • The short playtime means that teams get multiple attempts, and the opportunity to reflect, adapt, and try a new approach or different role within the single workshop.

The learning opportunities in a short workshop like this one are a great introduction to the ways that more complex esports can develop transferrable skills and present opportunities to practice leadership.

Halo can make you a Better Teammate at Work

Or: A Maturity Model for Halo Teams

I’ve played Halo for a long time: about 15 years, through various versions. For nearly as long, I’ve studied the parallels between teamwork in video games, and teamwork at work.

One of my favorite things about Halo is how a team of less skilled players (e.g. me) with better teamwork can overcome an uncoordinated group of highly skilled players. Over the years, I’ve developed a loose framework to describe that level of coordination, and recognize where to improve it. Several of the tactics we use in-game are also applicable to teams at work.

All other things being equal, it’s still better to work with a team of superstars, but many an all-star team has been hamstrung by poor teamwork. Whether your team is great depends less on the solo skills and more on how you work together.

Here’s how we level up our team:

Read the rest on Medium.