Sounds obvious, and it is. Working together as a team enables you to achieve so much more than each individual doing as they please. It’ll be hard though!

You’ll annoy each other, even hurt each other:
– the barbarian having two many pints of grog, won’t stop singing out of tune
– the wizard’s fireball spell doesn’t just hit the orc, but scalds the dwarf too

Sometimes you’ll be tempted to retaliate, teach them a lesson. Doing so won’t end well. It’ll escalate, before you know it you’re at blows. Everyone loses.

Be tolerant, and forgive minor discretions.

Sometimes a party member may become so disruptive, regularly, and no amount of reasoning improves their behaviour. When this happens, they need to be expelled, for the good of the wider party. Stop inviting the human behind the character to your games sessions!

Employee owned companies are the same. People working together towards a common goal.

You will annoy, disappoint, and upset each other from time to time. That’s life.

You’ll also find choices where option A benefits some staff, option B benefits others, and you can’t do both. A decision must be made where someone loses out. Again, that’s life.

It is worth stressing though that a company being employee owned doesn’t give individual employees any additional protections.

If someone is persistently a problem, and mediation can’t resolve it, they should be removed from the company.

Allowing disruptive staff to continue without consequences will hurt the business and destroy morale.

Just like any other business, it should be done sensitively, with HR/legal advice where appropriate.

Play to your strengths

The above are from Heroquest, wider variety of characters found elsewhere, but the basics involved:

Wizard

Master of magic, able to conjure up a variety of spells. Heal injured allies, burn the enemy.
Physically weak, and unable to wield many weapons or wear heavy armour.
You’d want to keep them at the back, providing key support whilst protected by others.

Dwarf

Sturdy and a dab hand with tools. Can hold their own in combat and pick locks with ease.
Short limbs limits their athletic ability.
Leads from the front, where their resilience (and armour) help them absorb the worst the enemy can throw at you.

Barbarian

Strongest of all the characters. Wields a huge sword with ease, killing the toughest foes!
Not the brightest, unlikely to solve any puzzles quickly.
“Hulk smash!” put them at the front, giving any enemies a good smack! Good at moving boulders that may block your path too.

Elf

Nimble and dexterous. Often a dab hand with a bow and arrow.
Slender frame can make them vulnerable to physical attacks.
Sits back in combat, peppering enemies with arrows. Their agility is second to none, leaping ravines/climbing walls with ease!

Each character has different statistics. The above are from the relatively simple “Heroquest” game. Other games give more stats on a wider variety of categories. Plus often as you gain experience, you’ll “level up”, and your stats increase.

Whilst in the real world we don’t come with numerical values for our abilities, we’re all good at some things, bad at others. We also often get most enjoyment from doing things we’re good at. It’s frustrating struggling at something you know others can do easily.

As in D&D, we can all improve our skills, via formal training and/or practical experience.

Work out what people’s strengths and weaknesses are. Find roles that let them play to their strengths. Build a team of people with complementary skills.

People should be given opportunities to learn things outside their obvious strengths. But as Albert Einstein said “If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it is stupid.”

When a task needs doing, look at your team. Who’s best placed to complete it? Consider not only strengths, but also their other responsibilities.

Employee owned companies also have a direct example of this, with their trustee board. This is virtually always made up of a combination of:

the director trustee brings knowledge of the finances and strategic plans
the employee trustee brings awareness of happiness levels in the team, and common grumbles
the independent trustee brings wisdom and experience from similar situations in other businesses

The best leader often isn’t the owner

Growing up many of us had one friend with more money than the rest of us…or perhaps just parents happier to spend more on toys. So they’d have the latest greatest games, and hopefully let us play them!

Problem was, sometimes they’d decide because they owned the game, they should lead on everything. The rest of us didn’t have much choice. If we refused to let them lead, they wouldn’t let us play. So they’d lead the group, often not very well, making bad decisions. This could lead to us failing challenges, and not enjoyable it.

Small business is much the same. Typically someone set the company up (or inherited it), and owns the shares. It’s their company. Sure, other people work for them, but the owner is in charge.

Don’t like what they say? Tough, you either suck it up, or you leave.

Employee Ownership solves this. All the staff collectively own the company. They have the power to choose who leads them/the business. Hopefully(!) they’ll choose the people with the best skills/personality to do so.

When to save, when to invest

So, you won the D&D battle, treasure of 50 gold coins, hurrah!

Your existing leather armour is falling apart. Chain mail costs 30 coins, whilst much stronger plate mail is 60 coins, just out of reach.

Should you get the chain mail now? It’ll help protect you from attacks in the next dungeon. Plus you could get the better armour later on.

Or should you stick with what you’ve got a bit longer, saving up for the best stuff? It’s a risk entering the next dungeon with your current, old and worn armour. You might not make it back alive!

Possibly there’s some other way you can get the extra 10 coins for plate mail now, without risking your life in another dungeon. Can you sell something? Or maybe borrow, repaying the debt later with interest.

Established employee owned companies have this dilemma too.

It could be:
– the size and seniority of your team
– the age/spec of computer equipment
– your marketing (is branding/website dated)

Sticking with the cheaper option that does the job, but perhaps not brilliantly, is great for short term finances. Lower expenditure now means bigger profits today. Staff in employee owned companies can enjoy those profits!

But sticking with ropey solutions long term is harmful. If your systems are poor, it may take you twice as long to do something as your competitor. The customer may have a worse experience and shop elsewhere next time. Long term this will hurt your profitability.

These are tricky decisions. Knowing when to opt for “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” vs “you have to speculate to accumulate” isn’t easy.

Solving problems

There’s something stopping you getting further in the mission. You need to figure out how to beat it.

Tough new monster

Maybe it’s a huge new monster, stronger and different to any you’ve faced before.

Rather than rushing in with swords at the ready, it often helps to step back and think.
– Does it have any weaknesses you can exploit?
– Consider what weapons you’ve got in your backpack
– Any spells your wizard hasn’t used in a while?
– Possibly someone you met earlier gave a clue?
– Maybe you can talk your way out of the fight, even gaining a new ally?

If you do fight, you probably want the barbarian and dwarf at the front.

Complex puzzle

There’s always puzzles. Solving them could be the key to progressing, avoiding traps, or unlocking extra treasure!
– Is it a riddle? Maybe you need to say the right word to complete a phrase.
– Perhaps there’s a repeating pattern, with one part that’s not quite right?
– Anything out of the ordinary that might be a clue? A brick that’s a different colour?

Probably your wizard and maybe elf/dwarf will be best placed to solve these.

Problems/opportunities will arise, often ones you’ve never come across before.
– a new competitor, inticing your customers away
– change in legislation, impacting how you operate
– new technology, changing what you can easily do
– economic climate getting worse/better

Some will need urgent action. Others give plenty of time to ponder.

You may need to think outside the box. Whilst you may not have had exactly this dilemma before, have you had any similar experiences (either personally, or that you’ve read) which you can draw on?

Do involve other people in your team. Everyone has different strengths, so it won’t always make sense to include everyone. But two heads are better than one.

Winning vs enjoying

In an ideal world you’ll have both. But sometimes one comes at the expense of the other. Plus they’re rarely binary things.

Sometimes you can win by cheating, or screwing over others. Is that enjoyable? It depends on your personality. Some will find it a hollow victory. Others take the attitude “it’s just a game” or “all’s fair in love and war”.

Sometimes you can lose, but still have a great time. You fought together in the pit until the bitter end. Building tight bonds with those around you. You had their back and they had yours.

Business is rarely the cut throat world portrayed in movies. Much of it revolves around building long term, healthy relationships. This of course includes colleagues, but also customers, suppliers, and even “competitors” who you may work nicely alongside.

Sometimes you can benefit from exploiting someone else’s weak situation. Do you take that option? Could you live with yourself if you did? Also in the long term it might backfire. There may come a time when you slip up, and they’re in the strong position, cutting you as little slack as you gave them!

Winning is also far from binary. Sure, finances can be readily measured, and more profit is universally better than less profit. But what do you have to give up to achieve it? Do you enjoy what you do? Do you have free time and mental capacity for other things, like friends/family and hobbies?

In employee owned companies these will be things to occasionally consider and discuss. Eg when should people work overtime to achieve a key goal, and when should they have extra time off to recouperate.

Summary

Dungeons and dragons is just a game. But there’s lots we can learn about succeeding with employee owned companies from playing it:

work together to achieve more
each individual play to their strengths
choose the best leader from those available
when to invest/spend and when to save
solving problems you’ve not seen before
focus on winning, enjoying, or ideally both!

If you loved D&D, you’ll love working for companies owned by Employee Ownership Trusts!

Want to find out more about the key people behind Go EO?

What Dungeons & Dragons taught us about Employee Ownership

Work together, until you can’t