Exhaustion

As much as I have wanted to play around and experiment with games and management ideas, the last few weeks have beat me down. They have taken all my energy and offered very little in return. Games design requires more thought than I have available at the moment, and as much as I would like to change and innovate systems, I am forced to merely get by.

Hope does remain, however. This summer I supervised 6 people, last year and the year before I supervised 10-15, but starting this week my supervisory responsibilities have increased to about 100. The number isn't important except that it is 1. a bit overwhelming (at least for now) 2. segmented into three different groups and 3. something I have no experience with.

Instead of designing a game, then, I think it is more important to lay some groundwork. One group is key: the desk supervisors. They are among the most responsible student workers on campus, and pay they seem to pay attention to my advice because I used to do and excel at what they do now. I realize that without even meaning to I have been instilling in them the key principle to using games for management: choice.

The whole point of everything I want to do with games and management is to give people the incentive to choose what the supervisor wants them to choose. All I told the desk workers was this, "As a supervisor your powers are like nuclear weapons. You must always consider the fallout. You have the power to force somebody to work the hours you want, but at what cost?" They have bought into this principle wholeheartedly so far, which has cost them time and energy to try to get their schedules filled, but at the same time it has forced them so start asking the question, "well, if I can't force people to work, how can I get them to choose to work?" And to answer that question they will have to think creatively, and I will have to have solutions for them if they seek help from me.

Best of luck to us all.