Career Tips - Issue # 37 (Feb 2008)

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Games We Can Play

Cheerful kids running around, shouting, having fun and, yes, many of them resisting their parents against going back home. Well, that's what you're likely to see if you go to a playground. And if you visit an office? People moving around with stony faces, working without much enthusiasm and, yes, many wondering how soon they could go back home. Could some of the magnetic fun and excitement of the playground be brought into an office?

This question has intrigued me since I was forced to play with my 7-year-old daughter couple of days back. I was sitting in front of my computer on a quiet working day evening when she came and said: "Papa, why don't you play with me? I have nothing to do." The innocence and helplessness with which she requested left me with no choice but to say yes, but I added: "Only 15 minutes!" I could sense I was about to do something more out of sympathy and duty than out of real interest.

We started playing, basically bowling in the living room with ten plastic pins and a plastic ball. Both of us could hit the pins at will, and there was hardly any excitement in the game. Thinking that passing even 15 minutes could be a tall order, I suggested to her to use her right hand (she is a lefty) for throwing the ball, and I decided to use my left hand (being a right hander). This increased the difficulty in striking the pins, and it became slightly interesting. Encouraged by the move, I proposed we close our eyes and then play. She agreed reluctantly to this slightly crazy idea. Indeed, with eyes closed , we could no longer hit the pins so easily. And soon we were on an emotional roller-coaster--frustrated (when we missed the pins) and elated (when we did hit) in almost equal proportion. To my surprise I forgot the 15 minutes deadline.

Nothing great about this seemingly routine experience except it shows that to be optimally challenged can be entertaining. Sure enough, my bowling experience is in line with what game designers and researchers have long known. Chris Crawford, asserts in his book titled "The Art of Computer Game Design": "Conflict is an intrinsic element of all games." And he defines conflict as perusing a goal while some obstacles prevent you from achieving that goal.

A study titled "Why we play games" carried out by XEODesign, a company offering player experience research and design services for games and consumer creativity products, concluded that one of the key reasons people enjoy games is the experience of facing some challenge and solving problems that leads to the emotions of frustration and fiero (personal triumph over adversity).

Think of a game you like to play. If you dissect any game--cards, tennis, cricket, football, golf, badminton, billiards, chess, computer game--you'll find it involves some challenge like getting the ball into the goal while opponents prevent you or keeping the shuttlecock in the air against your opponent's dearest wish or arranging cards in a particular combination before other participants and so on. Even in the game of hide and seek, one has to struggle to search those who are bent upon hiding in obscure places.

Isn't it strange that while playing games we get hooked by the challenges involved and drive ourselves to conquer those challenges. We even pay for having such an experience. But at work, where we are paid, we either try to avoid challenges or get stressed out when caught by an inevitable challenge?

>>CAREER TIP: If you want to have interesting time at work, forget about the usual games people play at work, such as taking all the credit for good work while discrediting others, diverting difficult work to others, dominating relatively weak colleagues to out manoeuvre them in corporate race, being deliberately over pleasant to powerful figures in the company and so on. Instead, create your own original games, which means optimally challenging yourself to achieve some interesting, perhaps funny, goals.

Here are some examples:

- How about finding someone really stressed up and telling him/her a good joke and making sure that the person laughs? The end result should be a good laugh. If no laugh, try joke no. 2. Your limit to make that person laugh and relax is three jokes. Can you?

- How about being curious like a kid about anything that attracts your attention, asking three dumb questions and then finding the answers? It could be anything ranging from why stars shine to how semiconductors work to how the US presidential election system works. Total time for this challenge: 45 minutes

- You have always been critical of someone in the office because you see lots of flaws in that person. How about sitting down for 7 minutes (time limit) and coming up with at least one good quality or strength of that person and conveying the same to him/her today itself (yes, today)?

- You often feel like reading articles/journals related to your profession, but always keep them aside for the time when you'll have time. How about devoting just 30 minutes of uninterrupted time (yes, no interruptions) today for serious professional reading, then sharing that reading material (could be few pages or a Web link) with one of your colleagues, making sure he also reads it and, finally, both of you have a discussion on it for at least 15 minutes? Time limit: 2 days from your reading to final discussion.

- You have a colleague who is lower than you in terms of knowledge or qualification or position. How about interacting with this person for three consecutive days (min. 20 minutes each day), perhaps over lunch, and than asking yourself: What can I learn from this person? If you have an answer after three days, you'll meet this challenge and also realise that teachers are all around us, provided we look from the eyes of a student.

- How about challenging yourself to honestly compliment (with credible examples) at least three persons in your office for something good they have recently done? It can be good work, positive attitude, systematic way of working, etc. Time limit: 1 day.

- First thing in the morning, make a list of all the tasks you're supposed to do and then identify that one task that you want to avoid most. It could be something messy or involving a difficult person or something that you screwed up. How about spending the first 30 minutes of your day on this task without any distraction? If you can meet this challenge, you'll immediately bring down your stress level (and perhaps others' too).

Important thing about these little challenges is that these are your own challenges because you create them. No one will know what you're up to. If you meet the challenge, you'll feel great but if you can't, even then you'd have had some good time trying it. Nothing to lose, it's just a play (at work!).

These are just examples. If you can frame any situation in terms of (1) a clear goal and (2) some constraint/hurdle (time, your own hesitation, ego, etc.), and (3) not be too worried about success or failure, you can have interesting time. For example, you're stuck at the airport, and your flight is unexpectedly delayed by 4 hours. Now, there are two ways of tackling this situation: 1. Being at loss about what to do and feeling angry at airlines, airport staff, etc. 2. Challenging ourselves to have the most interesting time possible within those four hours. An adverse situation can be a headache if we look from the point of view of a victim or it can be an interesting challenge if we look from the point of view of a player. A victim bows helplessly in front of a problem and feels frustrated, but a player challenges himself to conquer the adversity and enjoys himself.

If you've read this newsletter this far and still wondering how a challenge can be fun, just take two small biscuits, two nuts or two grapes. Now place one of the two in your mouth and eat it. Next pop the second one in air (say, 2 feet up) and try to catch it with open mouth. Is it challenging--and funny too?

Atul Mathur

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***Copyright 2008 Atul Mathur***

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