When it comes to the traits we want in a leader, playfulness is rarely at the top of the list. But a growing body of evidence and an industry in ascension suggests that playing games can actually make us better leaders
When done right, gaming—whether behind a computer or in the physical world with cards or other props—can actually help leaders be more empathetic. It can help them better navigate their own futures and those of their organizations or communities.
Parag Mankeekar, director and co-founder of the RealLives Foundation, believes that games can be instrumental in one fundamental way: fostering empathy.
"Empathy turning into action is what leadership is all about," he said. "Empathetic leaders can give you solutions - they identify with a problem or challenge. They actively engage with it. This is enabled by empathy."
Cultivating empathetic leaders is not easy, but Parag hopes games like his digital, text-based game RealLives can help.
RealLives is a simulator that drops players into the life of a random human on Earth. The player could be assigned the life of an upper-middle-class family in Kazakhstan, a Syrian refugee, or a Chilean web developer; RealLives then asks them to make a series of decisions that those people would face as they navigate life.
RealLives challenges players to insert themselves into the lives of their characters in a way that few games can, drawing on the United Nations' sustainable development data to present players with an accurate look into the lives of their characters. It is this that builds empathy, Mankeekar explained, "It's difficult to empathize with someone unless you're faced with the choices they face, the events big and small that happen to them".
The idea that video games build empathy is not just an idea. A growing body of evidence suggests that games, including video games, can encourage empathy in scenarios ranging from conflict resolution in the Middle East to prejudice reduction or catalyzing empathy aimed at social impact. If inserted into the wider educational system, which Mankeekar argued currently struggles to teach empathy, games can be an important tool for educators seeking to encourage or nurture empathy.
This capacity to build empathy extends beyond traditional leadership roles. In intergenerational dialogue, empathy is crucial in navigating rapidly changing values; Mankeekar added, "Dialogue of any kind, intergenerational, inter-communal or otherwise, fails when people are unempathetic".
Beyond building empathy, when it comes to navigating global changes, games can also help us by broadening our perspectives and helping us to imagine routes forward.
Anyone who has ever sat down to make their personal or business five-year plan knows how hard it is to predict the future. It often feels like there are simply too many variables or too many unknowns to make a reasonable prediction.
For leaders responsible for an entity greater than themselves, whether they are CEOs, community leaders, or elected officials, the challenge of foresight is even greater. In an era defined by the unpredictable interplay of megatrends like climate change and demographic shifts, leadership that can manage this complex, multifaceted change is critically important.
Futurist Adam Sharpe, founder and CEO of Futurely and a youth participation consultant for UNICEF, said, "Gaming is something that we're actually quite good at, but we don't do enough. Games create rules around which complex subjects can suddenly be more accessible." Games shine when imagining or re-imagining the future, he added.
Adam is developing the People Power Foresight Game, in which groups of participants are convened and tasked with imagining a future that may not have occurred to them, responding to scenarios ranging from the creation of a fully functioning artificial womb to a collapse in global fertility rates or the dawn and expansion of viable nuclear fusion.
Participants are asked in a playful and disarming way to expand their thinking beyond traditional boundaries.
For leaders, embracing "futures thinking," the academic field and theories of why and how we consider the future, games like this are particularly valuable. "Leaders are responsible for vision in an organization, and playing games like this gives you that way of looking at the future and developing some kind of vision, even through periods of disruption", Adam explained.
Futures thinking, be it via a game like Adam's or another means, can help us deliver results, particularly when addressing large-scale challenges like climate change, intergenerational justice, healthcare, changing technology, and more.
Adam noted that "often, we end up stuck in present challenges - we need to extend our view in order to come together and make progress. But when we, as an intergenerational group across hierarchies, across classes, establish a common vision for the future together, the road is open to us to have a more productive, collaborative, open discussion."
This article was featured in our digital publication, which includes more coverage from the KFAS-Salzburg Global Leadership Initiative program on "Uncertain Futures and Connections Reimagined: Connecting Generations."
The KFAS-Salzburg Global Leadership Initiative is a multi-year program that annually brings together an international, intergenerational, and interdisciplinary network of Korean and global thought leaders to create new connections and tackle global challenges.
