by Jakob Hutter
Since the early days of ‘Pong’ and ‘Space Invaders’, the realm of pixels has more than just provided entertainment. Where every action has consequences and challenges lurk at every corner, a journey to explore and conquer provides powerful tools for developing critical skills – one that goes beyond the virtual universe. Video games can be a goldmine for training leadership skills that resonate in both the gaming universe and the real world, and can make us more effective, adaptable, and resilient leaders in our organization.
Integrating video games into leadership training has proven effective for leadership learning by providing an interactive learning experience. These digital environments like the post-apocalyptic worlds of ‘Fallout’ and ‘Borderlands’, puzzle- platformers like ‘Tetris’ and ‘Portal’, action games like ‘World of Warcraft’ and ‘Call of Duty’, and strategy games like ‘Civilization’ and ‘Warhammer’ immerse players in stories and environments where skills must be developed and learned. While this is no replacement for leadership development in-person, especially in military exercises and operations,video games can still serve as a valuable component that complements real-world training.
Just as the Army emphasizes communication, strategic planning, adaptability, team building, and sound decision-making as skills necessary for successful leaders, complex video games require gamers to exhibit these skills for success in their games. Cultivating these skills in video games has great potential for Army leadership training.
Communication
Game developers aim to enhance the gamers’ experience through multiplayer features, whether through local co-op or virtual competitions around the world. Most games preference what’s called a voice chat model, allowing players to talk to each other in real time during their gameplay so as to provide feedback, discuss ideas, and share enemy locations. Across all of the multiplayer games, communication is seen as a major gameplay component because of how critical it often is for players to share their ideas and strategy to defeat their enemies and complete the mission.
For example, in Tom Clancy’s ‘Rainbow Six Siege’, you choose your Counter-Terrorist Operator as your team of five engages in team-based counter-terrorism scenarios. Being able to talk to your team to strategize, share information, and communicate your actions as you move closer to your objective enhances teamwork and helps your team be able to adapt to the situation more effectively.
Whether in video games or real life, effective communication is essential to earn trust, boost morale and engagement, and eliminate misunderstanding. Poor communication can lead to delays or failures, stress, and low morale. Communication is a critical part in every unit training and is practiced constantly, and practicing it in video games could provide an additional way to refine the skill.
Strategy
Video games both provide scenarios to test strategy, and speed up the timeline so the effects of the strategy can be realized. One great example is in ‘Fire Emblem: Three Houses. This turn-based, tactical role-playing, strategy game engages players to command a group of military academy students, with their own abilities (i.e. sword prowess, reason, faith) and classes (i.e. Commoner, Noble, Fighter). Players must take into consideration the terrain, their and their opponent’s strengths and weaknesses, and the skills of their characters. In addition to the actual combat, players must consider how they want to influence their character’s relationships with each other, as it can impact the trajectory of the rich and complex narrative. Making tough decisions, managing resources, and coordinating teams toward an overall objective are key components to having an effective strategy, and these components are equally critical when considering real-world military operations.
Video games provide a risk-free platform in which players can iteratively experiment with different strategies. This method could be used as a train-up for leaders preparing for non-virtual training environments, allowing them to practice and take risks in a low-cost environment that still gives them feedback. The Army provides two Combat Training Center (CTC) rotations for units to conduct this type of training: National Training Center (NTC) in California and Joint Readiness Training Center (JRTC) in Louisiana. These training centers offer leaders the chance to face near-peer opponents, simulating real-world challenges. With realistic virtual training beforehand, informed by data collected from CTC rotations, the physical rotation could provide that much more training value for a unit. Video games, mirroring the structure of real-world military training centers, provide a virtual area for leaders to confront near-peer opponents, offering valuable feedback on personal and organizational capabilities. Informed by performance from CTC rotations, gaming enhances individuals’ mission execution skills, amplifying the overall training value when combined with subsequent physical rotations for a unit.
Adaptability
Research demonstrates that certain games, like ‘Fallout’ and Bioshock,’ can improve mental flexibility, meaning that players gain skills in switching between tasks and adapting to changes. These games offer a post-apocalyptic landscape for the player to make quick decisions, manage resources effectively, and motivate virtual companions, mirroring real-world challenges.
The recent conflicts between Russia and Ukraine or Israel and Hamas have shown the world that adaptability is necessary to win, and also survive the changing environment. New technologies (i.e. cyberattacks, drones, and social media) are being used to influence decisions both militarily and politically. Leaders who accept adaptive leadership as a practice will be crucial to address hybrid threats that continue to be innovative and globally connected.
Those who have served in the military are accustomed to changing environments and therefore overcoming obstacles in a resilient way. They’re trained for dynamic situations, where adjusting to the new circumstances quickly and effectively is imperative to navigating complex situations. Enhancing these skills through video games would be an engaging way to make our leaders more resilient and dynamic.
Team Building
Team building can be a time-consuming and stressful process, but it is essential to the team’s success. In his book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, author Patrick Lencioni describes the five behavior models to understand how each unique individual forms a cohesive and productive team: trust, conflict, commitment, accountability, and results. Teams that incorporate these five behaviors achieve greater results. A virtual environment to train team building allows for stressing of different parts of that model, enabling groups to learn how to work through differences to still achieve results.
Games like ‘Overwatch, ‘League of Legends’ and ‘Battlefield’ provide players with a role with unique strengths and limitations. No player alone can achieve the goal, and so players must work together and complement each other’s skills; players are forced to work through differences to succeed.
Video games also provide a low-risk environment to clearly show what happens when trust breaks down in a team. The character Leeroy Jenkins demonstrates the consequences of impulsive decisions and individualistic-actions. As the team discusses tactics outside a room full of enemies, Leeroy charges forward with his sword drawn and yelling his battle cry. The rest of the team, in disbelief, follows pursuit into the room, leading to chaos and defeat. Scenarios such as this can provide unique opportunities for teams to understand the individual personalities, strengths, and weaknesses of each individual member that may impact real-world teamwork challenges. Addressing these tendencies in a virtual setting can help teams work through such issues before they provide real-world impact.
Team building is the glue that binds the diverse talents together. Diverse teams are stronger teams, but it often requires tough team building to make that team cohesive. Leaders who grasp the team building principles will be able to better navigate challenges and lead their team effectively like a skilled gamer.
Decision-Making
Lastly, decision-making is inherent to the gameplay experience. The fast pace of many games requires players to keep track of their skills and abilities and make split-second decisions to defeat enemies and reach their next objective. Researchers from Georgia State University, using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) tools, scanned gamers’ and non-gamers’ brains to assess whether there were differences in their decision making processes. Results indicated that playing video games enhances several subprocesses to include sensation, perception, and action, all of which improve their decision-making skills. Strategic games like ‘Civilization’ and ‘Warhammer’ force players to make unique decisions that can affect the outcome of their game.
In the digital world, games present players the opportunity to make decisions to progress the story, altering the way other characters interact with your character to provide a more immersive and interactive environment. Games provide multiple endings and therefore the game’s narrative is highly influenced by the player’s decision-making over time. In addition, games like ‘Last of Us’ and ‘Tomb Raider’ provide time-sensitive decision opportunities, requiring players to act swiftly, adding pressure to the decision-making process.
Effective leaders are great at making decisions. They understand that their decisions affect people and are aware of the influence they may have based on their choices. It also highlights the leaders’ character and values, and can impact the culture of the organization through their example. In a military context, a systematic approach to decision-making takes place with Troop Leading Procedures (TLPs) and the Military Decision-Making Process (MDMP). By analyzing the situation, planning accordingly, and executing once the decision has been made, leaders and teams can effectively determine the best plan to execute. Training decision-making skills in video games doesn’t negate these processes, but instead would complement them, helping leaders improve their decisions made within each phase.
Endgame
The partnership between video games and the military has not always been embraced. Skeptics argue that playing video games develops physically unfit recruits, distracts from responsibilities and duties, and negatively affects discipline and focus. However, there are changes starting to occur, from recruiting military service members through the Army and Air Force esports teams competing playing ‘Halo: Infinite’ (with over a half-million people watching) to using digital environments for training weapons proficiency. Now, more than ever, in the age of budget cuts, rapidly changing environments, and increasingly complex warfare, creating cost-effective, low-stakes training environments through video games allows our military to maximize training opportunities without straining resources. The complexity of the modern battlefield demands adaptive and diverse training scenarios, and digital environments provide a dynamic platform for refining skills and abilities without logistical challenges of a traditional exercise.
In the ultimate boss battle, leadership skills from video games provide a compelling argument for military leaders to level up their capabilities and apply video games in a real-world military context. Video games provide more than just entertainment value: the parallels between strategic planning, communication, team building, decision-making, and adaptability highlight the benefits of integrating video games into professional development. By recognizing and harnessing the lessons from the digital world, military leaders can enhance their skills to effectively face the challenges of the modern battlefield.
CPT Jakob Hutter is a Kansas Army National Guard logistics officer currently serving as a Plans Officer for the 169th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion in Leavenworth, Kansas. In addition, he also serves as the Kansas FLIPL Program Manager. He has a Master of Science in Organizational Leadership and received his commission from Kansas State University in 2016. He is passionate about the science of Army logistics, the art of military leadership, and combining both to provide effective sustainment.
