# The Power of Befuddling Game Play By:: [[Brian Heath]] 2024-03-14 Games are played all the time in organizations. What's a game? A game is an activity with spoken or unspoken rules that results in winners and losers. Within organizations, examples of games include promotions, performance evaluations, project assignments, strategic reorganization, hiring, and the size of one's work network. They are so frequent that we've become numb to them. However, a weird thing happens when one becomes self-aware that work is a game. Something transforms within one's mind once one thinks about winners, losers, and rules at work, as one thinks about basketball. The first phase of this transformation is figuring out how to play the game better. Here, one tries to find the optimal playing strategy to win the game. Inevitably, this will result in one winning the game more frequently if one decides one has a chance to win. The second phase comes when one finds winning is no longer fun or the game is rigged. Here, one begins to question the rules of the game and whether the game is worth playing. One will quickly realize there is no coherent reason for the game to be played this way versus any other way and explore whether different rules produce better outcomes. Again, inevitably, one will find better rules to play the game. Thus, one enters the third phase: attempting to change the game. Here, one will talk to the game organizers, typically HR or some executives, to reason with them about changing the rules of the games for a better outcome. This will confuse everyone, but they will understand the syntax (e.g., words, grammar, etc.) of one's argument. It will all be disjointed because both groups will use the exact words but mean entirely different things. They may even say they agree, but their actions will show otherwise. This is the peak of frustration as one genuinely tries to improve beyond the status quo, but it looks like others are actively stabbing one in the back. This leads to the fourth phase. While all phases have forks in the road, phase four has the most divergent options to choose between. On the one hand, one can give up and play the game that much better. Conversely, one can redefine one's purpose and intentionality beyond the game. Here, one is fully aware of the game but chooses not to let it define how one plays. One becomes a living example of the alternative that befuddles most and intrigues others. This story has played out thousands of times in human history. It's how revolutions begin. #### Related Items [[Games]] [[Organization]] [[Status Quo]] [[Action]] [[Progress]] [[Revolution]] [[Rules]]