1. IBM Global Business Services
IBM Institute for Business Value
Human Capital
Management
Leadership in
a distributed
world
Lessons from
online gaming
2. IBM Institute for Business Value
IBM Global Business Services, through the IBM Institute for Business Value,
develops fact-based strategic insights for senior business executives around critical
industry-specific and cross-industry issues. This executive brief is based on an
in-depth study by the Institute’s research team. It is part of an ongoing commitment
by IBM Global Business Services to provide analysis and viewpoints that help
companies realize business value. You may contact the authors or send an e-mail to
iibv@us.ibm.com for more information.
3. Leadership in a distributed world
Lessons from online gaming
By Michael DeMarco, Eric Lesser and Tony O’Driscoll
Globalization is placing new demands on today’s corporate leaders. As
organizations continue to expand and operate in a more virtual environment,
executives are being asked to provide guidance and direction to teams working
across time zones and distances. In addition, the competitive environment
is requiring leaders to make sense of increasingly disparate sources of
information and make decisions more rapidly. In this changing environment,
where can organizations turn to see the future of leadership? How can they
determine the skills and tools that leaders will need to be successful? We
believe that online gaming provides a window into the future of organizations
and the leadership capabilities necessary to guide enterprises to success.
Introduction Numbers aside, the similarities between the
Initially, seasoned executives might scoff at online, globe-spanning gaming world and
the notion of learning leadership lessons from the emerging picture of the globally inte-
the world of computer games. Yet, massively grated enterprise of the future are actually
multiplayer online role-playing games quite striking. As technological innovation
(MMORPGs), which bring together thousands enables companies to disaggregate and send
of simultaneous players in a fast-paced increasing amounts of work to employees
online environment, can provide an inter- and external partners around the world, orga-
esting portent for the future of organizations. nizations are conducting more work virtually.
MMORPGs represent a growing business that, Corporate leaders must both coordinate and
according to the TowerGroup, will reach 40 motivate individuals who are separated by
million people and generate over US$9 billion time zones and cultures. Collaboration – at an
in revenue by 2010.
1 individual and corporate level – has become
Leadership in a distributed world
4. a necessity. And in today’s dynamic business
environment, leaders must take more risks
and execute with greater speed – briskly
connecting talent and moving information
and knowledge around the globe to fulfill
organizational needs.
Obviously, the stakes are much higher in
business than in gaming, and we do not
mean to trivialize the operational challenges
of a global enterprise in any way. However,
we do believe the world of MMORPGs – and
the behavior of leaders who guide guilds of
globally-dispersed gamers – can offer fresh
insights into the development of new leader-
ship capabilities for global enterprises.
IBM Global Business Services
IBM Global Business Services
5. Leadership in a distributed world
Lessons from online gaming
The future of work and leadership: While studying the personal attributes of
Insight from MMORPGs online gaming leaders is useful, perhaps
In today’s increasingly global business envi- more important is the role the environment
ronment, companies are being forced to plays in their development. Many of the
conduct more work virtually. Besides being qualities of online game environments facili-
more distributed, the business world has tate leadership, and speed up the process of
become faster paced and intensely competi- developing leaders.
tive. For today’s corporate leaders, engaging
Recent research done by IBM, Byron Reeves
the hearts and minds of individuals who are
from Stanford University, Tom Malone from
located around the globe has proven difficult,
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
especially in emerging economies where
(MIT), and Seriosity, a company that Professor
plentiful job opportunities and rising wage
Reeves co-founded to develop products and
rates make it difficult to hold onto the best and
services based on the intersection of business
the brightest.
and gaming, highlights significant parallels
Though work and play With organizations struggling to find traction between online gaming and the future of
2
in this rapidly changing global environment, work. Both environments:
have historically been
where can they turn for guidance on building a • Bring together large numbers of participants
considered distinct
leadership toolkit for the future? in highly complex virtual environments
activities, the two are
Harkening back to the old adage about “all • Enable participants to self-organize, develop
becoming much more
work and no play,” it turns out that MMORPGs skills and take on changing roles
similar than executives
can offer a glimpse into the future of work. • Require constant risk taking, iterative
might suspect. In MMORPGs, leaders develop and operate improvement and the ability to accept failure
in environments that are highly distributed,
• Provide incentives that are clearly linked to
global, hyper-competitive and virtual – not
contribution and performance
unlike today’s business world. In these
sophisticated gaming environments, leaders • Make participants’ capabilities openly known
recruit, organize, motivate and direct large • Require collaboration and a leader who can
groups of players toward a common goal. influence collaborative approaches
They must make decisions quickly, often
• Provide sophisticated and varied communi-
based on incomplete information. With this
cation channels.
backdrop, it’s easy to see how some of the
qualities of gifted gaming leaders are very
similar to those needed in a corporate setting.
Leadership in a distributed world
6. Making the connection between Leadership behaviors
corporate and gaming leadership Academics and business thought leaders
Given the parallels between the gaming envi- have developed countless leadership models
ronment and the globally integrated enterprise over the ages to identify the key behav-
of the 21st century, we decided to explore the ioral attributes required for success. For our
similarities and differences in leadership across purposes, we sought a leadership model or
both domains. To do so, we tapped into an models that would enable us to better frame
extensive cohort of gamers who work for IBM. our comparison of leadership within the
For this study, we collected survey responses gaming and corporate worlds. Ultimately, we
from 214 professionals who participate in a used a hybrid of our internal IBM leadership
community of online gaming enthusiasts. (For model and a well-known leadership framework
study demographics, please see Appendix 1). developed by MIT Sloan faculty members
Because these respondents have experience Deborah Ancona, Wanda Orlikowski, Peter
3
in both the corporate and gaming worlds, we Senge and Tom Malone.
believe they are well-suited to evaluate leader-
ship behaviors in both environments. Using our model, we developed 19 survey
questions related to four pivotal leadership
We focused our research on three areas (see behaviors (see Figure 2 for a list of the 19
Figure 1): topics):
• Which leadership behaviors are most • Visioning – Setting a vision for what that
relevant in online and corporate settings? organization can be in the future
• Which tools and capabilities benefit leaders • Evaluating – Gathering information to
in both environments? determine strategic risks for the organization
• How relevant are the parallels between lead- • Collaborating – Leveraging the value of
ership in the online and corporate worlds? connections and relationships to overcome
organizational barriers and accomplish key
activities
• Executing – Getting the most out of followers
and achieving desired results.
FIGURE 1.
Areas of study focus.
• Visioning • Developing individuals
• Evaluating Behaviors • Providing incentives
• Collaborating • Evaluating progress
Game environment
• Executing • Enabling communication,
and tools collaboration and connection
Perception of relevance to business
Source: IBM Institute for Business Value.
IBM Global Business Services
7. FIGURE 2.
Leadership behaviors used in this study.
We determined the importance of each of the four leadership behaviors – visioning, evaluating, collaborating and executing
– by surveying our respondents about the 19 specific sub-behaviors shown below:
Visioning
1. Creates a compelling vision of new possibilities for the organization
2. Expresses confidence in own abilities, experience and judgment
3. Sets high expectations for what the organization can do
4. Assures long-term sustainability of effort through commitment to a common purpose/vision
Evaluating
5. Gathers, validates and integrates nontraditional sources of information
6. Makes rapid, data-driven decisions that address the immediate situation and considers the longer-term impact
7. Supports brokering of information and sharing of resources
8. Seeks opportunities to stretch his or her own abilities and experiment with new things
9. Learns from mistakes of self and others
Virtually all of the key
Collaborating
leadership behaviors 10. Creates and maintains strong personal relationships and contacts at multiple levels
11. Follows through on commitments and demonstrates consistency between words and actions
are exhibited in both 12. Rallies the hearts and minds of others around a common cause and creates a sense of commitment
gaming and corporate 13. Gives positive feedback on performance in the moment
14. Considers the implications of own actions on others and adjusts accordingly
environments, although
Executing
their perceived 15. Creates new work structures and approaches
16. Translates seemingly unattainable goals into manageable pieces
importance varies 17. Sets clear performance expectations and helps others understand the importance of the goal
somewhat. 18. Monitors, organizes and drives others relentlessly toward an established goal
19. Demonstrates resilience and emotional stamina when difficulties and problems occur, taking responsibility for the situation.
Source: IBM Institute for Business Value analysis; adapted from IBM internal leadership models as well as the work of Deborah Ancona in
“Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty,” MIT Leadership Center Research Brief, 2005.
From the survey, we identified a number of qualities demonstrated in corporate and
important results: gaming settings. However, as we show later
in the paper, there are some differences in
Overall, leadership behaviors appear the relative importance of behaviors in the
to be relevant in both gaming and corporate and gaming environments.
corporate environments. One behavior that appeared to be an outlier
It was apparent from our analysis that virtually focused on “monitoring, organizing and driving
all of the leadership behaviors were perceived others relentlessly toward an established goal.”
as valuable in both the corporate and gaming Individuals in the sample believed that this
settings. While the relative importance of behavior held relatively less importance in
each of the 19 behaviors was slightly lower for both the corporate and gaming worlds. This
gaming leadership, overall, these behaviors suggests that self-organizing and regulating
were still found to be highly relevant (see behaviors may be more appropriate in an
Figure 3). This reinforces previous research increasingly flexible and virtual environment.
conducted by IBM and Seriosity that high-
lights the similarities between the leadership
Leadership in a distributed world
8. FIGURE 3.
Relevance of leadership behaviors.
100
1
(Percent indicating relevant or highly relevant)
17 11 9
16
19 10
95 3 7
5 14 4
13
156 8 12
90
2
Corporate
85
80 Red Visioning
18
Blue Evaluating
Black Collaboration
75 Green Executing
0
0 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100
MMORPG
(Percent indicating relevant or highly relevant)
Note: The numbers here correspond to the behaviors listed in Figure 2.
Source: IBM Institute for Business Value.
Collaborative behaviors are vital to members.” Similarly, in corporate environments
where employees are becoming increasingly
leadership success within MMORPGs
distributed and virtual, the ability to foster
and will be increasingly so within collaboration will become an even more
corporate environments. critical leadership quality in the future.
While our respondents found collaborative
Visioning is more important to
behaviors to be important for both corporate
and gaming leaders, the relative importance
corporate environments because the
was greater for gaming leaders. In a virtual business playing field lacks the many
environment, where leaders do not have predefined dimensions that lend
face-to-face interaction with their followers, structure to games.
building personal leadership credibility takes
on a premium and requires finding new ways In our findings, we learned that behaviors
to win the hearts and minds of others. The associated with visioning were ranked higher
best gaming leaders build credibility by first in corporate environments than in gaming
creating strong personal relationships with environments. In fact, respondents identified
their followers. As one survey respondent said, “creating a compelling vision of new possibili-
“In games, it’s important to be able to find ties for an organization” as the single most
what motivates an individual and try to cater important behavior for corporate leaders.
to that need as best you can…your raw skills Because many game dimensions and desired
in a game are not as important as the ability outcomes are predefined, it’s understandable
to communicate, organize and activate guild that gaming leaders may place less emphasis
IBM Global Business Services
9. on painting a long-term picture of the future for into manageable pieces and by distributing
others. Even so, gamers rely on leaders to use feedback immediately upon the comple-
visioning behaviors for motivational purposes. tion of a particular objective. Because action
As one respondent stated, “It’s important to happens fast in games, rewards are also
have a vision to rally your team around, but the distributed rapidly, which serves to reinforce
vision must be concrete. Vague concepts don’t desired values and motivate toward longer-
rally teams for long.” term stretch goals that require resilience and
stamina on the parts of both the players and
Evaluating is an important skill for the leader.
both MMORPG and corporate leaders
One survey respondent commented on
who must gather information from execution within games by saying, “Strong
far-flung sources and quickly and leadership in MMORPGs involves having a
decisively chart a course for action. definite goal for the group, or guild, motivating
it toward that goal and breaking steps up
Respondents ranked In games, learning-by-doing is key. The so they are attainable.” Again, we see basic
best leaders collect and evaluate data, take leadership fundamentals on display, but in the
“creating a compelling
decisive action, judge the results of that context of fast-moving, virtual environments,
vision of new action then respond accordingly. Aligning the the fundamentals require more rapid leader-
possibilities” as the evaluation process with the dynamic business ship responses to effectively guide a team.
most critical behavior environment of the 21st century will not happen
overnight, as the survey respondent suggested
for corporate leaders. Implications
when saying, “Failure to achieve a goal on the
first try must be used as a learning experience Overall, we see that leadership behaviors are
and is not unusual in MMORPGs; reattempting universal, but the relative importance of those
with new knowledge is an important way of behaviors shifts in a virtual world. We learned that:
progressing in MMORPGs…In the corporate • Virtual leaders must focus on developing
environment…reattempting is hard.” trust among people who may never physically
interact.
Executing in games, and in more • “Visioning” will remain among the most
flexible corporations, is enabled by important behaviors for leaders of globally
aligning frequent feedback with both integrated enterprises to master while commu-
nicating to a global workforce engulfed in
short- and long-term incentives tied
constant change.
clearly to goals.
• Effective leaders will use readily available data
In games and at work, people will “play” where to make quick decisions and more frequent
they feel best treated and where rewards mid-stream corrections.
are consistent not only with their economic • Leaders focused on execution will motivate
needs but also with their values. Our research employees with on-the-spot feedback and
shows that the best gaming leaders motivate rewards that are aligned with strategic
accordingly by breaking desired outcomes imperatives.
Leadership in a distributed world
10. Leadership tools and capabilities tions for execution and drive toward the
To succeed, a leader must not only demon- agreed-upon goal. These communications
strate certain behaviors, but also apply tools take place over a variety of channels, such
and techniques to increase the impact of their as voice, e-mail and instant messaging. This
behaviors. As part of our study, we asked our allows leaders to reinforce critical messages
respondents about 24 capabilities typically and helps ensure that individuals in the field
found within online gaming environments and are providing input to leaders and coordinating
asked which were the most important in terms with others on an ongoing basis.
of enhancing leadership effectiveness in the
corporate environment (see Figure 4 for a Identify and develop the skills/abilities of your
complete list). character. In games, by identifying the skills/
abilities of players, leaders not only allocate
From the list of 24, six capabilities were ranked tasks in the short term, but also help players
highest by survey participants: determine their own skills and interests. From
Communicate in realtime on multiple channels. there, they show those players how they can
To win, leaders must communicate with team acquire the skills necessary to play other
members to gather data for evaluation, identify roles within the team over the medium to
the right people for the right task, offer instruc- long term.
FIGURE 4.
Leadership tools and capabilities.
We surveyed our respondents on the importance of 24 environmental areas and their applicability to corporate environments:
Developing individuals
1. Understand your guild’s place in the culture/lore of the game
2. Understand your guild’s position within the game (e.g., maps, ranking)
3. Choose how you represent yourself within the game (e.g., avatar)
4. Understand your character’s role within the guild
5. Identify and develop the skills/abilities of your character
6. Quantify and recognize status/capability/reputation (e.g., levels)
Providing incentives
7. Accumulate assets and earn status/experience/points
8. Determine value of participating in a raid/quest beforehand
9. Entice capable players to participate in a raid/quest
10. Use performance data to determine raid/quest contribution/merit
11. Immediately share winnings from a successful raid/quest
12. See what others earned for their participation in a raid/quest
Evaluating progress
13. View the rank/level/experience of characters you are playing with/against
14. View operational status and communication channels simultaneously
15. View game-play unfold from different perspectives
16. View capability data of guild members (rank, level, health, time on task, location in physical space) in realtime
17. View and track individual/guild progress and level/status relative to others
Enabling communication, collaboration and connection
18. Communicate in realtime on multiple channels
19. Switch between public and private communication channels (e.g., broadcast, narrowcast, microcast)
20. Communicate nonverbally through avatar appearance and actions
21. Integrate voice, visuals and text in communication
22. Discuss or construct objects in the 3-D space
23. Navigate instantly to the place where people you want to connect with are located
24. Quickly find capable players to participate in a raid/quest.
Source: IBM Institute for Business Value.
IBM Global Business Services
11. Navigate instantly to the place where people View operational status and communication
you want to connect with are located. In a channels simultaneously. Having the ability to
virtual world, instant navigation to common view operational status and communicate at
locations allows leaders to get “in front” of their the same time allows for the fluid handoff of
followers to take responsibility for their actions, responsibilities and enables faster decision
get to know the team, build trust and create making. Gaming leaders are also rapidly
the esprit de corp needed for victory. Having assessed and ultimately judged based on
a single meeting location gives each member their visioning, evaluating, collaborating and
of the team a virtual “place” where they know executing abilities, and less on their political
they can find others without having to waste acumen.
valuable time and energy.
Implications
As corporate leaders Accumulate assets and earn status, experi- The tools and capabilities that help gaming leaders
find themselves ence and points. In games, players can earn a excel can also inform the leadership strategies
variety of rewards that reflect their contribution
operating in more virtual of corporate leaders. Operating in a more virtual
to the game. Leaders use these incentives environment may require business leaders to:
environments, many of transparently to encourage behaviors and
• Take extra steps to overcome physical
the tools and capabilities collaboration and show “what’s in it” for
isolation, help employees see where their
used by game leaders players, thereby aligning individual and team
strengths lie, get them the right training and
goals. Short-term incentives provide instant
become more applicable. project opportunities and remind them of their
feedback that can help boost morale, energize
roles and importance to the team.
action and correct behavior.
• Provide frequent incentives to add some
Quickly locate capable players to participate tangibility for those working together virtually,
in raid/quest. Given the scattered and diverse offer status among electronically connected
locations of players in the virtual world, finding peers, and help them link their everyday
the right people with the right capabilities actions to corporate goals.
on short notice can make the difference in • Take action more quickly by leveraging
online games. This is particularly true given new realtime communication channels and
the voluntary nature of participation in such virtual communities to bring individuals to a
endeavors. In the corporate world – a similar central “location” and enable participants to
analogy holds true – finding available talent collaborate, evaluate and execute.
from around the world to work on new oppor-
tunities or fill existing gaps is often a task that
many organizations currently find significantly
challenging.
Leadership in a distributed world
12. Leading in gaming and corporate particular person even when you do not
environments: Is the analogy relevant? have formal authority over him. This is similar
One of the important issues we examined to…situations where we need to team with
was the extent to which our respondents colleagues within corporations.”
believed in the relevance of online gaming as • Three-quarters believe that the environ-
a metaphor for the future of leadership within mental factors within MMORPGs can be
organizations. While the level of buy-in varied, applied to enhance leadership effective-
the following results suggest that increasingly ness for the globally integrated enterprise.
virtual corporations and their leaders can Respondents indicated that any tool that
benefit from a better understanding of what enhances the ability of a gaming leader
drives successful leaders of MMORPGs: to better collaborate, vision, evaluate or
• More than one-third (39 percent) believe execute – whether that tool be an instant
that MMORPG leadership approaches can messaging capability or expressive avatar
be used to improve leadership effectiveness – ought to be applicable to the virtual
within the enterprise. These respondents business world. Said one respondent,
indicated that the skills and techniques of “Staying in touch with the members of the
the gaming leader can be documented team is crucial for success in the game. One
and transferred directly to the leadership of important factor is the ability to communi-
the virtual corporation. As one respondent cate via chat either in the game or using an
explained, “I believe that the interpersonal, instant messaging tool at work and recog-
leadership and management dynamics nizing the mood, intention and goals of the
of online games can be learned and person you are communicating with.”
developed in games, then mapped directly
to a virtualized business environment. This While many agreed that there were close
mapping does not necessarily require that connections between the online gaming and
the leadership or those being led have corporate environments, there were some
experience in online gaming, only that the noted dissenters. Some skeptics state that
skills and techniques learned in the game games are played only for fun and that the
context be used in the business context.” risks taken have no consequences. Consider
the respondent who said, “When gaming,
• Nearly half (49 percent) state that game- while you do want to win, there is no perceived
playing has improved their real-world real-life consequence when something goes
leadership capabilities. In the same way that terribly wrong…In the real world, any major
certain high school and college athletes or mistake at a job could cost you that job, or
class officers gain leadership experience even your career.”
that carries over into the corporate environ-
ment, these respondents see opportunities Still other participants saw plenty that could
within the workplace to apply techniques and should be adapted from games but
practiced and mastered within the gaming doubted the ability of corporations to do so
environment. According to one respondent, because of risk aversion, insufficient dedica-
“MMORPGS provide a test of how to work tion to people, and command-and-control
in teams and best utilize the potential of a cultures.
10 IBM Global Business Services
13. Said one respondent, “In games, leadership nizing knowledge and ideas, enabling group
is all about empowerment and risk-taking. meetings, brainstorming or simply “hanging
Although we’d like to think that parallels out.” Providing a central location helps indi-
business, I don’t think it does at normal viduals avoid the fragmentation of information
management levels.” Another remarked, “Team that often occurs in distributed organizations
leadership in corporations is not as concerned and creates a “center of gravity” that encour-
with inclusiveness and knowing who the ages individuals to participate and contribute.
person is.” A third skeptic added, “There is
next to no leadership in corporations….in 3. Spend more time on setting organizational
general, corporate culture drives true leaders context and communicating where the orga-
away. You see, corporations don’t want leaders. nization needs to go. To create a compelling
They want followers.” vision for the future with employees they are
unlikely to ever meet in person, leaders need
Lessons from the online gaming to provide context that enables people to
world: Recommendations for understand their roles within the team and
the organization. That sounds simple enough,
organizations
but when employees are spread around the
Based on our study, we highlight six recom-
globe, come from many cultures and speak
mendations for leaders looking to increase
many languages, it takes some planning
their effectiveness in a distributed world:
and effort to make everyone feel valued and
1. Apply virtual communication tools and facili- part of the team. Emerging communication
Corporate leaders can use
tation techniques to more effectively connect channels such as podcasts and blogs can
a range of communication people from around the world. Collaborating in help communicate key messages across
tools to stay connected a global, virtual environment requires the ability distributed environments and engage newer
with employees in virtual for individuals to connect with one another. generations of employees in the strategy of
environments. Technologies such as instant messaging, the organization.
virtual white boarding and videoconferencing
can enable realtime interaction, while e-mail 4. Improve the visibility of both formal and
and discussion forums can help individuals informal skills. In a global business environ-
connect while their counterparts are offline. ment, decisions need to be made fast. The
However, the tools themselves are only one leader who has data at the ready to enable
part of the effort. To communicate effectively the right people to staff the right projects
in a virtual environment, skilled leaders must will likely get the best results. While iden-
know how to mediate conflict, draw individuals tifying individuals using a formal process
into the discussion and actively engage appro- is important, having information on more
priate parties in the topic at hand. personal factors – interests, hobbies, culture
and the like – can improve project team
2. Use collaborative spaces to gather chemistry and help ensure the right blend of
knowledge, express ideas and concerns skills and personalities.
and share passions. Another key to collabo-
ration among distributed employees is the
creation of centralized spaces for orga-
11 Leadership in a distributed world
14. 5. Use dashboards linked to collaborative Conclusion
tools to capture key realtime information Online gaming provides us with what we
about people, activities and outcomes. The believe is a unique look into the future of
dynamic global business leader needs to tomorrow’s organization. To succeed in a more
be able to constantly gather, integrate and global, faster-paced business environment,
broker information in realtime to quickly take organizations will need to consider both the
risks, experiment, stretch the organization behaviors they are going to need their future
and evaluate results. Dashboards that pull leaders to demonstrate, and the tools and
data from the right sources at the right time to techniques leaders will need to master. This
enable these decisions are increasingly critical has a range of implications for organizations,
to leaders operating in virtual environments. from the design of leadership development
programs to the prioritization of future IT
6. Provide more frequent guidance and link budgets. By leveraging the lessons from online
performance to recognition. A key lesson gaming environments, companies can gain a
learned from the online gaming world is the better understanding of the ways in which the
importance of rapid feedback and a close next generation of leaders will need to operate
linkage between performance and incen- in the future.
tives. In a virtual world, where people may not
regularly engage with their direct manager, it is The journey toward globalization won’t always
very important that employees receive regular be easy. But we believe, by implementing
input on their performance, including areas of these recommendations, the game of global
strength and needed improvement. Further, business will be more fun, leaders will gain an
recognition vehicles should be put into place edge over their competitors, and the odds of
so that individuals can more easily see how seeing the “game over” message flash on the
their actions contribute to the organization. screen will be reduced.
For each of these recommendations, Figure Related publications
5 shows the related improvement actions For more information on the IBM Global
leaders can take, the technologies or inno- Innovation Outlook, please visit:
vations leaders can apply and the benefits
ibm.com/gio
leaders can expect from properly executed
implementations.
12 IBM Global Business Services
15. FIGURE 5.
Actions, tools and anticipated impact.
Leadership
Recommendation development actions Tools Organizational impact
Apply virtual • Learn about the features, • Instant messaging • Improved employee morale due to enhanced
communication tools and capabilities and appropriate • Video conferencing communication and vision-sharing from
facilitation techniques to use of different virtual • Blogs leadership
more effectively connect communication channels • Voice over Internet • Faster decision making through an enhanced
people from around the • Incorporate virtual Protocol (VoIP) ability to communicate with experts in
world communication tools into day- • E-mail realtime
to-day work activities • Better recruitment success with young,
“wired” professionals (and gamers)
Use collaborative spaces to • Develop a level of comfort in • Collaborative spaces • Improved project management and
gather knowledge, express using collaborative spaces and • Wikis knowledge management through
ideas and concerns and tools • Online communities centralization and organization of explicit
share passions • Identify and champion the • Blogs knowledge
use of informal communities • Virtual worlds (e.g., • Increased teamwork and efficiency through
of strategic value to the Second Life) use of online spaces for specific projects,
organization meetings or brainstorming sessions
• Incorporate the use of • Increased visibility and flow of innovative
collaborative spaces into major ideas from all areas of the organization
work efforts • Increased ability to evaluate and gauge
employee contribution
• Higher morale and retention through the
development of online communities
Spend more time on setting • Create, tailor and communicate • Video conferencing • Increased awareness of vision among
organizational context and a corporate vision and strategy • Multiuser interactive diverse global employee base
communicating where the that resonates with a diverse events (live and stored) • Improved morale and retention as
organization needs to go set of employees • Large-scale collaborative employees understand where they fit within
• Develop program to events their company and where the company fits
systematically communicate • Intranet sites within the business environment
vision globally • Blogs • Increased sense of ownership and desire
• Develop feedback mechanism • Wikis to contribute to vision from engaged
to evaluate program • E-mail employees
effectiveness
Improve the visibility of • Enable employees to develop • Personal employee spaces • Increased speed and effectiveness in staffing
both formal and informal personal spaces that increase • Expertise locators teams and projects
skills transparency of employee • Skills management • Increased retention and motivation of
skills, interests and availability systems top employees through true results- and
• Use expertise locators and • Tagging Web sites of expertise-driven staffing
skill management systems to common interest - • Greater ability to provide feedback on skill
staff teams based on skills and folksonomies levels
availability
Use dashboards linked • Identify business drivers and • Automated dashboards • Improved speed and accuracy of worldwide
to collaborative tools metrics that impact decision with realtime data feeds decision making through effective gathering
to capture key realtime making from: and sharing of data
information about people, • Develop dashboards that reflect − Expertise locators • Increased visibility of trends and
activities and outcomes key metrics − Skill management systems opportunities
− Employee portals • Improved forecasting and planning
− Knowledge databases capabilities based on most-recent and most-
− External and internal data valuable global data available
and news feeds • Improved risk-taking capacity through better
data management
Provide more frequent • Look for opportunities to • Communication channels • Increased alignment between worldwide
guidance and link provide more frequent feedback that can be used to employee behavior and leadership goals
performance to recognition on employee performance promote new incentive • Appreciation and reinforcement of leadership
• Develop capabilities to systems that provides clear expectations and
recognize individuals “on the • Personal portals and responds rapidly when expectations are met
spot” and highlight desired organizational intranets through financial compensation, awards or
behaviors/results that display achievements promotions
• Communicate and share • Increased retention and morale because
recognition among team employees feel valued by leadership
members
Source: IBM Institute for Business Value.
13 Leadership in a distributed world
16. About the authors Tony O’Driscoll leads Performance
Michael DeMarco is a Senior Consultant Architecture Analysis and Design for IBM
with the IBM Institute for Business Value Learning. He has in-depth knowledge and
and focuses his efforts on Human Capital extensive experience in optimizing and
Management. He has 11 years of consulting managing organizational performance, and
experience in a range of areas including he has consulted with business leaders
human capital, financial management and around the world on how to create sustained
performance measurement. He has authored competitive advantage in an increasingly
two books. Michael is based in Lancaster, networked and knowledge-enabled global
Pennsylvania and can be contacted at economy. Dr. O’Driscoll is also an adjunct
michael.l.demarco@us.ibm.com. faculty member at North Carolina State
University’s Colleges of Management and
Eric Lesser is an Associate Partner with Education. He currently serves as a Research
over 15 years of research and consulting Fellow for the American Society of Training
experience in the area of human capital and Development (ASTD) and as a member
management. He is currently responsible for of the Editorial Board for Human Resources
research and thought leadership on human Development Quarterly (HRDQ). Tony can be
capital issues at the IBM Institute for Business contacted at odriscol@us.ibm.com.
Value. He is the co-editor of several books and
has published articles in a variety of journals
including the Sloan Management Review,
Academy of Management Executive, and the
International Human Resources Information
Management Journal. Eric can be contacted
at elesser@us.ibm.com.
14 IBM Global Business Services
17. Appendix 1 – About our study FIGURE 6.
For our study, we collected 214 survey Survey respondent demographics.
responses from IBM professionals. Out of the
entire sample, 137 respondents have been Age
a member of at least one guild or MMORPG 1%: 18-22 years
team. Among those MMORPG participants: 10%: 23-28 years
21%: 29-35 years
• 66 respondents have led at least one guild
68%: 35 years +
or MMORPG team; of those:
- 61 have led more than one business
project team
- 45 have led five or more business project
teams Corporate experience
• 71 respondents have been led as a member 6%: 0-3 years
of a guild or MMORPG team; of those: 6%: 3-6 years
8%: 6-8 years
- 58 have led more than one business
project team 28%: 9-15 years
20%: 15-20 years
- 42 have led five or more business project
32%: 20 years +
teams.
Source: IBM Institute for Business Value.
15 Leadership in a distributed world
18. References
1
Nelsestuen, Rodney. “Online Social Worlds
as Emerging Markets: A Dose of (Virtual)
Reality.” TowerGroup. July 2006.
2
“Virtual Worlds, Real Leaders: Online Games
Put the Future of Business Leadership on
Display.” IBM Global Innovation Outlook 2.0
Report. June 2007 .
3
Ancona, Deborah, Thomas W. Malone,
Wanda J. Orlikowski, Peter M. Senge. “In
Praise of the Incomplete Leader.” Harvard
Business Review. February 2007 .
16 IBM Global Business Services
