5 Ways Board Gaming Can Make You Better At Work

Work. That mundane reality that creeps up on us at the end of every week, darkening our rather pleasant weekends with the dismal notion of the early morning commute, traffic, endless-back-and-forth meetings, hours spent writing volumes of documentation and reports and the 40 hour week of repetitive existence. And, almost always, the constant drive to prove yourself, to excel, to perform...to ensure that the sanctity of your prosaic job-title remains securely within the bonds of 'the company'.

Given the subject matter and most of the content of this blog, you may have already guessed that I am an avid gamer, both of the video console and more so of the cardboard variety. What's not at all obvious from this blog is that I have been working within the ITS sector for over 12 years, predominantly within open source development and fairly recently shifted towards a systems architecture role. Without divulging too much details, I've experienced a lot of flavors of industry from startups, media, digital agency, retail, e-commerce, online,  and telecommunications and seen the transformations within workplaces as companies transitioned from the iron-curtained corporate models towards the more vibey, Google-styled 'tech hubs' that dominate the Internet of Things today.

The methodologies themselves have changed radically within the past 2 decades and even the way software get designed and developed has completely shifted. Gone are the old Waterfall models as Agile dominates the landscape, allowing for more effective team collaboration, transparency, throughput and cross-stream interactions between various business units. I recently did a presentation covering gamification within the workplace and how positive reinforcement through gaming mechanics can lead to effective problem solving and drive desired behaviors.

What's that you say? You do serious work and how can work and play mix?

Well, if you support that notion then you fall into the trap of polarizing work by assuming that the opposite of 'play' of 'enjoyment' is 'work' when, in fact, the opposite of play is depression [quoted: Jane McGonigal].

And, despite the digital age and the implementation of newer methodologies within business units and corporate companies, there has been a substantial increase in depression over the last decade or so. In fact, in a lot of cases, technology and digital had inadvertently prompted a spike in depression with cyber-bullying and trolling on social-media platforms a huge risk factor for influencing depression and even thoughts of self-harm and suicide. There is also the feeling of being overwhelmed and the constant drive and need to prove yourself and 'fit-in' with the techies and geek-dominated social spheres of today. Failure carries with it a deep and intense resentment, based almost wholly on fear - a decades-old paradigm that still carries weight today.

According to statistics, a greater volume of younger employees within various age groups are prone to depression at some or other stage of their careers. Stress is one of the primary culprits for heart-related concerns and also carries with it the added weight of anxiety, worry, hopelessness and self-exile.

But work-related stress, like most things in life, can be managed and work should be fun. Yes, there will be times when it feels like an endless trudge but so is dungeon crawling and as long as you keep that end goal in sight, delving into the deep dark labyrinths of the unknown on a daily basis doesn't seem all that bad. Yes, there will be unwanted surprises like a dismal roll of 1 on a D20 but at least it gives you something to remember and laugh about at the water cooler. Likewise, there will be welcome surprises like a critical roll when you least expect it leading to an unexpected perk or, better yet, a promotion. The correlations between board gaming and work are endless.

I'm not proposing a one-fits-all solution but here are some of the ways in which gaming (and board gaming) can make you enjoy work better:

1. Help You Make Strategic Choices
Choice-driven gameplay has been the standard of most RPGs since inception and often the outcome of a player's choices will affect the latter decision-making and game state. Yes, I could go charging into the Lich's lair right now with my paltry armor class and probably get annihilated or I could delve into a few side-missions first, gaining sufficient XP to level up my character so that when I eventually bump heads against said Lich, it will be more evenly matched. The same concept can be applied within the workplace of course: Take time to up-skill yourself in the expected areas of work before diving into the deep end. Within your gaming session you will definitely be presented with lots of choices and quite often, these choices may have similar weightings and won't always be easy to resolve. Weigh up your pros and cons and do a basic 2 minute Impact Analysis on which path would suit you best.

2. Enforce Effective Communication & Collaboration
As you approach the Dark Fountain you hear a sudden rustling behind you. "Quickly!" exclaims Aramir, your Eleven Ranger and party leader, "Light up a torch! Does anyone have a torch? Anyone?" In the shadows, your torch-bearing dragon-born Warrior sinks into the shadows with a whimper as the rustling turns to evil snarls. You can't be a part of a co-op gaming experience and NOT engage with your fellow team members. It's completely pointless and will have you booted off the team faster that a drunken Bard with a harp that bursts into boisterous boy-band pop songs. Yes, us geeks, techies and nerdy-folks all veer on the side of  being astutely introverted but that is kind of the reason why Dungeons and Dragons was formed: to enable us to 'actually talk to people'. With Agile and Scrum methodologies now a standard way of working at most tech companies, communicating and collaborating with fellow co-workers is expected and co-operative gaming enforces that in a really positive manner. Provided you accept that everyone's internal velocity differs, that shy Half-Orc Fighter with a crush on your Human Barbarian will, before this campaign ends, have declared her undying love amid the hundreds of slain goblins atop the crimson peak.

3. Become A Key Team Player
Once we have overcome the shyness/ communication issues and your team starts to gel and really gel well, your gaming sessions and campaigns reach epic levels of awesomeness really fast. One only has to look at the success of shows such Critical Role to realize that, having trudged through dark and dangerous domain, facing unbelievably difficult odds and overcoming many objectives, the team becomes more that just a 'team'. It actually starts to feel like a family and your drive to work/ play with your fellow members becomes less of a laborious task and more of a pleasant engagement experience. You will want to be an effective member of the team and you will want to contribute. If your specialty is in lock-picking and thievery or  arcane spells and druidic rituals, you will want to Level Up and master these skills in order to benefit the team for the next campaign. Yes, honing your needlework skills may be a nice-to-have, but it's all about 'how can I benefit my team' and this effectively leads to productiveness.

4. Understand Prioritization
Storm the castle! But wait, you haven't secured the outer borders of your own castle yet. Doesn't matter, storm the castle! But we really need to secure...Art thou deaf man! I said STORM THE CASTLE! But Majesty! The outer...Listen Pablo, my good lad, if I have to say 'Storm the castle' one more time I am going to impale you from your nether-regions with this here lance ok?
Sigh, we've all been there. We stormed the castle and the enemy counter-attacked from the outer perimeters. Our castle fell, our lands surrounded and plundered...all because we did not understand priorities. Luckily all this cost us was our dignity but in the corporate engines, poor decision-making and bad prioritization can cost millions. Gaming allows us to take a step back without incurring losses and ask the "What have we learned from this exercise" question. You could preempt risks by doing proper analysis, impact assessments and damage mitigation. Also, you should have listened to Pablo. Always listen to Pablo.

5. Overcome Fear & Anxiety
We've all been caught between a rock and a hard place at some or other point in our gaming sessions. None more so than our hapless Barbarian, who found himself trapped between trying to move a gigantic boulder or braving his fear of water and swimming out from the Underdark.  Or our Elf Ranger who shrunk into a corner at the mere sight of rats and was forced to travel through a sewer shortcut under Waterdeep. Fear of the unknown is commonplace within the work environment and the feeling of doing a task that involves stepping outside of your comfort zone and seems contrary to your very nature may seem completely overwhelming. However, with the right approach and tools those very tasks may be overcome - all it requires is a bit of intuitive thinking. Our Barbarian chose not to swim and instead, using the spell book that our Wizard dropped in haste to escape the cave trap, managed to pull off a freezing spell and then slid across the river in a graceful representation of Barbarian Swan Lake. Our Elf Ranger picked up a pet hamster called Mr Squiggles and can now tolerate rats (but not swarms of them).