The One Game

Posted by Allen Baird, Partner on Nov 13, 2009 in training | 2 comments

Do you remember a short drama series in the 80s called The One Game? The plot centred on a battle of wits between an arrogant businessman and a eccentric games developer within a ‘reality game’ named after the title of the show.  I loved it and had a chance to watch it again recently.  Like all quality entertainment, it has aged very well.

It got me thinking about other attempts to use the ‘game’ motif to blend mundane reality with the extraordinary.  Here’s what came to mind.

The Game - A film in which “wealthy financier Nicholas Van Orton gets a strange birthday present from wayward brother Conrad: a live-action game that consumes his life.”

The True Game – A fantasy novel in which the world is like one, massive game of living chess.

The Most Dangerous Game of All – A short story about a hunt-loving aristocrat who goes after the deadliest game there is: another hunter.  For variations on this theme see films like Predator, The Running Man (forget the film, read the book), Hard Target, and The Condemned.

The Magus – A serious novel about a young man who who becomes “embroiled in psychological illusions of a master trickster that become increasingly dark and serious.”

Which takes us full circle.  And don’t even get me started on Wittgenstein’s language games!

I’ve been challenged on the helpfulness of the ‘reality versus game’ dichotomy we live by after re-reading Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.  Here’s what he says:

“The more a job inherently resembles a game – with variety, appropriate and flexible challenges, clear goals, and immediate feedback – the more enjoyable it will be regardless of the workers level of development… There is no question that a playfully light attitude is characteristic of creative individuals.”

I’m reminded of some other quotes found in Pink’s A Whole New Mind.

• “The opposite of play isn’t work.  It’s depression.”  Brian Sutton-Smith
• “Games are the most elevated form of imagination.”  Albert Einstein
• “Play will be to the 21st century what work was to the last 300 years of industrial society – our dominant way of knowing, doing and creative value.”  Pat Kane

There are so many implications in this for how we approach our work and shape our lifestyle.  Entrepreneurs must reflect on the implication of the ‘business as game’ model of ethics.  For me, it raises big questions about how I design my training courses.  When a newbie, my courses were information rich and substance heavy.  I tagged on exercises if there was time.  Now, I try to balance talking with doing, change the pace, and introduce as much variety as possible.

But perhaps even that isn’t enough.  Maybe the whole day should take the form on one, big game.  Heck,  who wants to limit training to the training room anyway?  Let’s take the game of learning out into everywhere!

Only one problem.

How?

Here are some aptly themed books to help you out:

If Life is a Game, These are the Rules: Ten Rules for Being Human

Games People Play: The Psychology of Human Relationships

The Game of Life and How to Play It

Image credit: Corey Leopold.