Office management, Azeroth-style
by Mike Schramm 
Feb 14th 2008 at 6:00PM
Josh had his leadership role in WoW pop into his mind during a job interview, and he channeled that into an interesting little article about how to convert WoW roles into the roles people play around the office. I think he's really got something here-- stay tuned for how you can buy a ticket to his "Management, Azeroth-style" seminar, which will teach you and your staff how to tackle even the hardest We've heard quite a few times before that WoW can help you on the job, but I don't know that I've ever seen the roles detailed so clearly. Josh says the Main Tank is the outside communications person for the project, and fends off managers and other departments to make sure members can get their jobs done. The Main Healer keeps motivation up rather than hit points, and make sure everyone stays on task and working. And the DPS are the meat of the project, doing the day-to-day damage to accomplish objectives. The idea works pretty darn well, actually-- at least until your project manager starts taunting the CEO and your senior producer stays up late one night and catches aggro. But definitely an interesting read if you've ever been given the task of running a team of people, in or out of game.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Blizzard, Raiding
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Josh Feb 14th 2008 6:46PM
Nothing like pulling up your RSS reader to see your hastily written entry posted as front page news. I'm flattered and happy that people are getting something out of this back-brained muse of mine. :)
kobold Feb 15th 2008 2:33AM
Yeah I felt a WoW experience when the project manager took a longer vacation and I had to deal with a somehow dificult client. Beeing a clothie dps class I had a hard time surviving, but I kept ice barrier up , some ice blocks, let some elementals here get aggro a little and when the tank got back he was able to taunt him back :). So now im back to pew pew.
Frank Feb 15th 2008 9:42AM
LOL, you can keep trying to tell yourself that playing WoW is a good thing, but lets be real here. It's a time sink! It does not make you better at your job.
bmiller Feb 15th 2008 11:50AM
People have different skill sets at work, that's why we have job descriptions.
I'm more of a techie than my coworkers, so when we get a new system, I'm the one usually grinding the learning curve and I train 1-2 others once things are set up. They help flesh out the details, get billing set up, that sort of thing.
What that corresponds to in a raid setting, I don't know.
Murph Feb 15th 2008 11:44AM
Yeah, I hate it when n00bs try and need on your profit share >.
Kidvid01 Feb 15th 2008 12:02PM
So I guess,
Arenas become Meetings.
(Therefore Resilience becomes "Ability to Stay Awake").
Pally bubbles become "Hold my calls".
Bubble-hearthing becomes Taking a "Sick" Day.
Mages become Water Coolers and Vending Machines.
"Please Send Tell" becomes "Please Send Fax".
Daily Quests become Daily Assignments.
AFK Breaks become Coffee Breaks.
Guilds become Departments.
Guild leaders become Managers.
Reagents and consumables become Office Supplies.
Auction Houses become The Office Supply Store.
Alts become Moonlighting.
Reputation becomes Brown-nosing.
But Engineering remains Engineering. Guess some things don't change. *shrug*