Rule of the people game

As in any game, the people game has rules that must be honored if you are to become any good at it.

Never figure out what you want your people to do and then try to create a game out of it. If it is to be seen as serious, the game has to come first, what your people do.

Never create a game for your people you are unwilling to play yourself. They will find you out and never let you forget it.

Make sure there are specific ways of winning the game without ending it. The game can never end because the end will take the life right out of your business. But unless there are victories in the process, your people will grow weary. Hence, the value of victories now and then. They keep people in the game and make the game appalling, even when it is not.

Change the game from time to time, the tactics not the strategy. The stagey is its ethic, the moral underpinning of your game’s logic. This must remain sacrosanct for it is the foundation of you and your people’s commitment to each other. But change is necessary. For any gem can become ordinary, no matter how exhilarating it may be at the beginning.

To know when change is called for, watch your people. Their results will tell you when the game’s all but over. The trick is to anticipate the end before anyone else does and to change it by executive action.  You will know if you have pulled it off by watching how everyone responds to the change. Not at first, however. You can expect some resistance at first. Your persistence will move them through their resistance into your new and more enlivening game.

Never expect the game to be self-sustaining. People need to be reminded of it constantly. At least once a week, crate a special meeting about the game. At least once a day, make some kind of issue about an exception to the way, the game has been played and make certain that everyone knows about it.

The game has to make sense. An illogical game will terminate before it ever gets going. The best games are built on universe sally truths. Everyone should be able to sets them if there are to be sufficiently attractive. A game with muddy beginnings will get you nowhere. Know the ground you stand on and then assemble your armament. Sooner or later you will need it. For a game that is not tested is not a game at all.

If you cannot think of a good game, steal one. Any one’s ideas are as good as your won. But once you steal somebody else’s game, learn it by heart. There is nothing worse than pretending to play a game.

The game needs to be fun from time to time. No game needs to be fun all the time. In fact, a game is often no fun at all. That is part of the thrill of playing a game well, learning how to deal with the no fun part so as to retain your dignity while falling on your face.