Video Games

Video games are being introduced to the organizational landscape to aid learning and innovation. Note: this is not authored with a gamer's bias. I'm skeptical of any utility a gamer claims there is in a video game. Yet recent studies suggest that strategic leadership should use virtualization and gaming to engage their organizations. The rich immersive experience of virtual reality provides new opportunities for effective learning, working, and especially innovation.

Virtual Worlds @ IBM

IBM

In the early 90s, IBM's bureaucratic culture damaged its ability to innovate and they couldn't compete with the faster, more lightweight companies. They've since become a leading tech organization with a history of success in a fluid, volatile industry. In 2007, they were the subject of a very interesting case study on how learning and technology work together in an organization.

Virtual reality is defined as a computer-simulated environment that can stimulate physical presence in real or imaginary places. Over the past two decades, its use has gone from single/multiplayer living room entertainment to game collaboration over a network. The use of virtual reality in a collaborative context is seen as an extension of other information technologies such as video conferencing, social networks, and IM, but their intense and rich personal "immersive" experiences and visualization capacities potentially provide new opportunities for effective learning and working. (Dodgson, 1361)

Virtual worlds went viral in IBM through the creation of an internal community - the Virtual Universe Community (VUC). The VUC grew so organically that there is uncertainty within IBM on the exact date of its creation. (Dodgson, 1368 )

In 2008, the global financial crisis slapped spending constraints on everybody and IBM's annual meeting of its Academy of Technology was put on hold to reduce travel costs. The decision was therefore made to hold the meeting in a virtual world, which saved IBM an estimated $300,000. Using Second Life virtual world software, the Academy of Technology met in a virtual innovation studio on September 28, 2009.

Learning
An organizational feature that stimulates learning is the ability to self-organize. Learning thrives with the support of a group that has formed their own community of interest (Dodgson 1362 ). A virtual world's connection to play has important implications for learning. Also, it has a positive connotation on the correlation between social capital and creativity (Obukhova, 2205).

Virtual Balcony Meeting

One way virtual worlds encouraged this sort of collaboration at IBM was in the way they were being used to create interesting spaces for collaboration - a virtual lounge, a corporate boardroom, or avatars gathered around a bonfire. One participant said,

"We were passionate about the opportunities of cocreating content in virtual worlds and created a virtual campfire where we met to discuss the possibility of becoming a thought leader and developer."

Creativity in the environment was also seen in the groups' selections of avatars - CGI representations of end users.

Virtual Worlds & Unstructured Data
Big data is the memory of an organization. (Roberts, 22) Interestingly, tests in IBM showed that the collaboration in virtual worlds had the capacity to convey more human signals than conference calls. They provided experimental spaces where new people could join and allowed people to express themselves by hand gestures and passing objects to one another. One engineer suggested,

"Virtual meetings can be engineered to create serendipitous events." (Dodgson 1366)

Now, more than ever, deriving value from serendipitous data is critical in the business environment. HR has to use data to drive employee behaviors, making sure those behaviors are measured, monitored and shaped to achieve business goals. (Roberts 22)

With that, consider two things. First, with virtualization there is an inherent ability to compile an avalanche of data on the social cues of collaboration. Second, what would this data mean and how could a leadership team use it? And taking this a step further, what conclusions would management be able to draw when this is mined with unstructured data sources like social media or wikis?

Virtual Worlds & Innovation
Wikis are web applications that allow users to add, modify, or delete content in collaboration with others. Their accuracy is debatable, but that's the point. One of the advantages of a wiki is the number of stories that get told. To the theme of innovation, this is what organizational behavior calls an open idea-generation process. Companies are beginning to tap into distributed creativity and knowledge. And agreeably, one of the advantages of an open idea-generation process is the number of ideas that become available. (King and Lakhani 42)

IBM's InnovationJam, a massive internal idea query that engages tens of thousands of employees at a time, showcased its results in the virtual world. It was the first time a Fortune 500 CEO appeared in avatar form.

In the brainstorming area, members of the team were encouraged to type up any idea that they had, which formed a bubble that floated around in the virtual space. The next person could assess the idea and click on it if he or she likes it. This inflated the bubble, thus attracting more attention from other colleagues. (Dodgson 1367)

Take-Away Points

1. IBM created a virtual world strategy document in 2007 that recognized the importance of play, collaboration and learning. (Dodgson 1367)
2. One way virtual worlds encouraged collaboration at IBM was in the way they were being used to create interesting spaces for collaboration.
3. Data analysis that supports virtualization's effects on learning and innovation should be social, open through Wiki software, and automated. 

References

• Dodgson, Mark. Organizational Learning and the Technology of Foolishness: The Case of Virtual Worlds at IBM. Organization Science. 2013, 24:1358-1376.
• King, Andrew. Using Open Innovation to Identify the Best Ideas. MIT Sloan Management Review. 2013, 55: 41-48.
• Roberts, Bill. The Benefits of Big Data. HR Magazine. 2013, 58: 21-30.
• Obukhova, Elena. Do Job Seekers Benefit from Contacts? A Direct Test with Contemporaneous Searches. Management Science. 2013, 59: 2204-2216