Documentation for World of Workcraft site.
A MMORPG-flavoured exploration of management and leadership.
There is a lot we can learn about things like the managment of distributed organisations and Servant Leadership by studying the creation and evolution of communities in MMOs. These communities are brought together by mutual purpose - in-game achievements, and are entirely volunteer driven - no one is paying a salary! The lack of explicit command and control (financial incentives) leaves the opportunity for alternative leadership strategies.
Plus, it is a safe-to-fail environment to experiment in; nobody goes bankrupt if your organisation doesn't work!
The basic idea is that we come together to play cooperatively to succeed in in-game achievements - something World of Warcraft (WoW) is well known for. These are called 'raids', and require a team of 10-25 people working together, in separate but complimentary roles, to achieve game challenges that require coordination and cooperation. If this sounds quite like the organisation that you work in, then you're beginning to see the possibilities of using this 'simulator' as a crucible for experimentation. Sounds good? Join us!
Back in Wrath of the Lich King (a previous WoW expansion) I co-founded and was raid leader for a successful raiding guild on the Chamber of Aspects server. The guild was based around the central precept of being nice to one another, everyone being equals, and helping each other out. This sounds like common sense, but the reality is that most guilds are run by teenagers with toxic cronyism, inequitable work distribution, and all the rewards flowing to a privileged few. This, perhaps, should not be surprising when viewed in juxtaposition with the rest of our society.
My observation is: we can do better.
I like to say that all the important lessons of leadership and management I learned in World of Warcraft. Professionally I've been an engineering manager, product manager, and CTO. These days I'm a professional coach for software companies.
I'm interested in how a group can use self-reflection and continuous improvement to improve not their outputs, or workflow, but rather the system of work that they work in itself. I'm proposing using reflection and concensus-based decision making to drive progress as a group. If this sounds interesting, drop me a line.
We're a bunch of professionals, we treat each other with respect as a minimum. We're all here to learn, we all have different experiences and all have something to contribute. We have a Code of Conduct, though hope never to have to use it.
We meet on Wednesday evenings, 7-9 UK time (20:00-22:00 server time). We occasionally gather ad-hoc on other days, sometimes we'll do a weekend evening event, but these are optional and organised by the team. This is a fairly low commitment for a MMO guild, but then we're professional adults and have families/other responsibilities.
World of Warcraft The Burning Crusade (TBC) Classic: Pyrewood Village server, Alliance faction.
Cost: None, other than a World of Warcraft game subscription.
More game related details here.
Details of the project's previous progress can be found in the reports. New reports for WoW Classic will be here.