April 20, 2006 4:00 AM PDT
In corporate 'Spy Game,' work equals play
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"The Spy Game" is the latest corporate team building exercise from the creators of "The Go Game," which hundreds of companies nationwide have used over the years to facilitate effective teamwork.
In "The Spy Game," teams of five to 10 co-workers set out to solve a mystery, like the disappearance of an executive, or some other corporate intrigue. The idea is to get team members to collaborate on projects and learn more about delegating and sharing responsibility.
"There's lots of problem solving that teams have to do," said Ian Fraser, a co-founder of The Go Game, the company behind "The Spy Game" and its long-running "Go Game" exercises. "They've got this goal, and it's time-sensitive, so it really mirrors work. At first glance, probably no one knows how to do it, so they have to delegate and figure out a plan."
"The Spy Game" is just one of a number of gamelike exercises companies can utilize in a bid to bring personnel closer together.
Pro Built
"They are business metaphors, so a good team building challenge will mirror the dynamics of what goes on in a particular company," said J.T. Taylor, president of TeamBuildingUSA.com, which has run such exercises for hundreds of companies including Proctor & Gamble, Blockbuster, AT&T, Qualcomm, Honeywell and Starbucks. "And as participants go about tackling the team building challenge, the same dynamics that go on in the workplace will show themselves in the team's performance during the activity."
"The Go Game," too, has an enviable list of corporate clients, including Adobe, Cisco Systems, Sun Microsystems, Electronic Arts and Microsoft.
In "The Spy Game," players are given a camera phone, a camera and a series of missions to complete within a specific area, usually a pedestrians-only complex such as a hotel or resort.
Players face three main types of missions, Fraser said. The first are what he called "sneak and snoop around" missions, which require players to find something stashed in a public place by one of the game's facilitators or to interpret a piece of public art work looking for a message related to the story line.
Another type are the "plant" missions, where players have to figure out a way to unearth the hidden actor in a public place.
And the last category are the so-called "creative" missions, which require participants to solve a task and create some form of video with their camera--like a review of a hot product in the year 2050--often in some way related to the client company's products or services.
Much of the structure of "The Spy Game" is similar to that of "The Go Game," but Fraser said tasks in the new game are more serious and usually revolve around a spy theme.
Players might have to re-enact a famous movie spy scene, film it and turn it in, or perhaps a getaway scene, Fraser said.
All in all, he explained, the company's clients look to it to provide them with ways to step outside the proverbial box, but in a way that's related to improving the work experience.
"They're going to be asked to do stuff they've never been asked to do before as a group," said Fraser. "Like being asked to go into a Starbucks and start asking everyone" if they support general revolution.
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Anyone caught by this Corporate game/trap should know first off that this is not about Succeeding. It's about Keeping your Job.
DO NOT be primarily responsible for Succeeding in these quests, especially if your Direct Boss or his boss or any of their Darlings are 'questing' with you.
Being the One who Leads one of those 'Royals' to the Solution would be a good thing. But you're not that clever. You could get a promotion if you were, but better leave that to the Accomplished Brown-nosers.
Now don't sit there like a lump. That's a sure way to get fired, probably within three weeks after the exercise. You know the guy with that destiny, the fellow that eats another donut while the rest of the lunch crowd is in an animated conversation.
Be involved to some good degree, keep moving, be seen to some degree by at least one of the 'Royals', preferably providing the solution to some minor aspect of the main problem.
You don't want to be a Show-Off. Never make a 'Royal' look bad or feel bad. Solving a puzzle Right Before a 'Royal' seems ready to get it -- that's worse than suicide.
Those folks are So sensitive to ego-jabbing. They are always imagining what chatter may be flying at the water fountain. Getting shown-up by the same underling too often will make them irritable or worse.
Mediocre is the way to go, with a side order of somewhat-competant.