Tedded - Business Book Review

In the past month, I’ve written the topics of choice and communication and how can we excel. I’m going to move onto another topic that is equally important; collaboration.

Unless you can collaborate or cooperate with other people in the organisation, you will not be able to put all your strengths to work (I wrote about strengths and career finding here). It is obvious that a company or an organisation requires a great variety of competencies. Everyone needs others.

Online Collaboration

In this twenty-first century, collaboration has evolved more into “virtual” collaboration. People do have teleconference, instant messaging. The virtual communities have erupted, we have facebook and twitter and Second Life, etc

These virtual communities are just the new form of communication and interaction. On the other hand, collaboration is different. The result of collaboration is synergistic. The whole is larger than the sum of its parts. On the Internet, there are places where people (mostly young) are pushing the power to collaborate through the limits; online game.

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People of older generations (especially Baby Boomers) often view online games as childish and a waste of time. The questons have to be asked;

Q: When was the last time you work with new people from different cultures?

A baby boomer might respond: Well, I went to the corporate meeting in Shanghai last week! Lots of people there.

Q: How often do you make snap and quick decision without sufficient information?

A baby boomer: We are in RE-CES-SION! I have to make quick decision, of course.

Q: How often do you change teams and have different colleagues?

A baby boomer: I was promoted to be the head of this division two years ago, why?

Q: In your team, do you swap a role of leadership? Let your subordinate be your boss once in a while?

A baby boomer: Are you insane? Why should I?

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What online games offers the kids of this generation is the opportunity.

The opportunity to engage in a high intensity collaboration with the global teams 24/7 (unless the server is down).

However, the benefit of online games do not always go unnoticed. There is a nice article about it in Havard Business Review (May, 2008); “Leadership’s Online Labs“. The point of the article is that online games are training kids of this generation to be leaders in the business (real) world in the future. Although there are major factors that make online games imperfect analog to real-world business such as stake (which is much lower) and identity (which is through avatars, characters), there are also interesting findings that make online game a sneak preview of tomorrow’s business.

Back to collboration. The pinnacle, the peak, the defining moment of the online game comes when even a maximum ability of a single person cannot either complete a quest, or defeat a boss, or beat the other team. The high intensity virtual collaboration begins.

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What can we learn from collaboration in online games?

Think of a meeting that you participated recently, how long did it last? How many people were there? How many people should have been there? How many shouldn’t? How many people were looking only at his BlackBerry? How many people took a quick nap?

Online game, on the other hand, requires an ultra-effective team to complete a top quest or to defeat the big boss.

1. Who must be in the team?

And equally important, who must not. In the real business setting, there are times when the meeting is filled with people who offer little or no contribution. We compromise. In the online game, it is unacceptable. There are two main reasons 1) an extra person makes the team less agile 2) the reward shared to each member will be less. When a party in the game needs a priest (who can heal other team members), there must be one. When the priest is already there, another priest is unacceptable.

In a real world, when forming a team or inviting people to join whether to tackle a recession or just for a weekly meeting, a higher discipline to select participants is needed. Always ask yourself when you are invited whether you should be present or should not. And also ask yourself when you invite someone.

2. What should you be doing?

In an online game, checking the job or class of the character is not enough. The team leader needs to check other critical factors. Team members need to have the required level and skill. Moreover, sometimes, people check items and posessions. Everything counts. Everyone must know what other people are up to and what will they be doing during the mission.

In business, team members must know what is expected from them and what they can expect from others. Failure to understand the contribution that should be made often led to ineffectiveness, ignorance, or worse, disruption.

3. How to synchronise?

This is the most important part because this is where execution takes place. The briefing before the mission tells the members who to listen to. Leadership is based on experience and skill. However, in online games, leadership is a task, not an identity. And leadership is temporary. People take turn to lead the team if other team members agree. Many times, leadership changes hand during the mission or the quest when a particular spot in the quest is better led by another member rather than the initial leader.

In business, leadership is a title and decision making is made by the person highest on the corporate rank. Collaboration will not be effective without the new leadership. Empowerment is necessary, respect to individuals is necessary, confidence in other team members is necessary, and shared responsibility is necessary.

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To make collaboration ultra-effective, a lesson from online game is worth thinking. Prior to the actual work, we need to make sure who must collaborate. Who must be there and who must not. We need to make sure everyone understand the contribution he/she has to make. And finally, team leader is not a title but a task and it can change when necessary.