My family and I have a burgeoning love of board games. Since the first lockdown it has been one of our ‘go to’ activities to enjoy as a family and we have spent countless hours discovering and exploring different games. Fortunately this means we have moved past the mind-numbing monotony and simplicity of Junior Monopoly (and similar atrocities), where there isn’t a lot for the ‘adults’ in the room to get excited about. Unfortunately, it means we have also progressed to full blown Monopoly and all the outbursts of anger (my son), frustration (my wife) and smugness (me, obviously) that this regularly entails. Though it’s one of my son’s favourite games, I think it’s fair to say that it ranks just above ‘writing the weekly shopping list’ on my wife’s least favourite things to do rankings. We’ve played Monopoly a lot. We’ve played all of the games in our inventory a lot. So it was with more than a little excitement that we greeted the newest addition to our modest collection…‘Catan’.
‘Catan’ is a game I had previously heard of, but knew little about — but after a quick read of the box, it immediately grabbed me with its promise of strategy, trading and a quest for victory (co-operative games have their place, but the opportunity to grind opponents faces in the dirt…gracefully of course…has its appeal). This may sound like further Monopoly-type potential for frustration, family arguments and strops , but so far it’s been a joy!
For the uninitiated, the basic aim of the game is to acquire resources needed to build roads, settlements and accumulate points as quickly as possible to reach the winning target of 10. Resources can be acquired via the roll of dice or via trade with your fellow players. The game is therefore a combination of strategy, luck and negotiation.
What’s that? — Strategy? Planning? Resource management? Negotiation? “Why didn’t they name this game Project Management Island” I hear you all ask!
I could, and indeed started to, write a long meandering description of how each aspect of the game related to aspects of project management, before realising that I didn’t need to actively discourage people to read this blog, and interest in such a post could be described as somewhat niche.
There are however, three things that I want to highlight, which can definitely be related to a professional setting…
Strategy is the same wherever you encounter it
When I say ‘strategy’, what I’m referring to is — Considering all of the variables and deciding on a path that will give you the best chance to succeed. As many of you will have seen, whether it be at home, at work or on the news — having a well thought out strategy based on all of the relevant information does not guarantee success. It does however give you much better odds of success. However, bad luck can still strike, and situations can change (say, a pandemic?). Previously overlooked or irrelevant factors can suddenly become critical and leave you with a decision to make. Do you modify or even abandon your original strategy that you’ve already committed time, effort and money to? Or do you continue to keep faith with it and trust/hope that the odds will turn in your favour and it will come good in the end? This can be a tough decision, but cutting your losses rather than throwing metaphorical (and sometimes literal) good money after bad shows courage and a certain humility to admit that something is no longer working. In Catan — how long can you wait for those 8s and 6s to hit, even when logic and probability says they are two of the most common numbers to roll with two six-sided dice? In a project (and Catan) — should you pivot and refocus your resources on an alterative plan whilst there is a still a chance of success? The right decision isn’t always obvious, but while in a board game the consequences are limited to mild humiliation at being outsmarted by a child, in a work setting the stakes can likely feel a lot higher. Yes, you need to be committed to a clear strategy, but you can’t be blind to its failings when the evidence starts to mount.
Breaking tension with (attempted) humour
Playing board games is obviously meant to be fun, but there can be a certain level of tension associated with them too. And just like in a work setting, my default method for breaking tension is to attempt to find the fun and lighten things up a bit. Catan doesn’t disappoint in this regard and has provided me with greater than normal opportunity to find the fun — which for me, obviously means bad puns and modifying the words of popular songs. Whether it be singing “We built this city on grain and ore” every time I build a city, or the modifying the Busta Ryhmes classic(??) to “Gimme Some Ore”. Plus, of course, repeatedly asking who around the table ‘has wood’ never gets old, for me at least. [The game makers clearly cottoned on to this potential and called the resource ‘lumber’ rather than ‘wood’. But where’s the fun in ‘lumber’? ]
Again, the stakes are a lot lower at home with your family or friends. If a bad joke falls flat, who cares? But at work, you obviously have to be more careful with the type of humour you use, and breaking in to song on a WebEx call is probably not on the agenda for most people (myself included). But that doesn’t mean that the opportunity for levity should be ignored. I personally think that it is an underused tactic for building trust, breaking tension and unlocking creativity (and in the excellent book ‘Humour, Seriously’ — there is now evidence to back this up).
Ambiguous communication is never good
As in many parts of life, you can’t underestimate the power of clear communication. Here is an example of a typical negotiation early on as we continued to get used to the gameplay of Catan:
Player 1: “Would you like to trade wool for some lumber?”
Player 2: “You want some wool?”
Player 1: “No, I want some lumber”
Player 2: “I’m confused.”
Player 1: “I will give you wool, if you give me lumber.”
Player 2: “ I don’t have any wool.”
Player 1: “Ok…do you have any lumber?”
Player 2: “No.”
Player 1: “Then why are you asking for clarification if you have neither?!”
I don’t know about you, but the above certainly sounds similar to some interactions I’ve had in a work setting. A dialogue that opens with a poorly worded or ambiguous question, followed by rounds of subsequent (necessary but avoidable) clarification, resulting in a waste of time and a healthy serving of frustration. Maybe you get lucky and this is all face to face or on the phone/video call, meaning that the confusion can be cleared up in seconds. But if this is via email, that back and forth could take the best part of half a day and result in multiple bouts of task switching, added stress and yet more frustration. Firing off that rushed, poorly worded question by email now doesn’t seem so smart, especially when it can be interpreted more than one way by the receiver.
We’ve now resorted to agreeing a clearer way of kicking off trade negotiations in Catan, and it’s a method that I think can apply to work communication too.
- Start by clearly stating, up front, what you want/need.
- Follow this up by spelling out what will happen if the first part happens.
For example:
Player 1: “I want some lumber. If you give me lumber, I will give you wool.”
Player 2: “No.”
Player 1: “I hate you.”
See! Much shorter. Ok, you may want to modify how you close out your communication at work, but hopefully the principle is clear.
In Conclusion…
Having covered how the skills needed in Catan and project management are so similar, you would expect that an experienced PM such as I would be guaranteed dominant victory after dominant victory . Yet, I am not ashamed to say that so far I’ve won only once and been beaten by my wife twice and my 7 year old son once. Clearly, they have been reading the blog and I’ve taught them everything I know (this was quicker than I’d like to admit). Really , every victory for them is a victory for me…right?
Catan is rather excellent and is available at all good (and evil) games shops, and as it has been around for 27 years, you might find the odd version in your local charity shop if you are lucky!
That’s all I’ve got. Next week, I’ll explore the socioeconomics and workplace culture parallels found in Connect4….or maybe not.
