Foster your moderation skills by becoming a Dungeon Master
I am a software engineer and an advocate of agile development. Therefore (online) meetings are a big part of my daily business. During the Pandemic I joined a remote pen and paper group led by a good friend of mine. While I only take part in our escapes into imaginary worlds for the fun of it, I realised they are also a good replica of work meetings and a nice training ground for effectively participating or leading online meetings. Find out how in the following…
What is Pen and Paper?
In case you have not heard of Pen and Paper so far, here’s a quick rundown of it. There is one Game Master (GM), who controls the imaginary world by narrating to the players and by speaking as non-player characters to them. On the other side, there are the players, who roleplay as their in-game character, which they created beforehand. Besides going on a virtual adventure there is no goal in the game, however, the GM will often send the group on quests as part of his storytelling. The gameplay often involves rolling dice and adding the characters skill points to it to see if an action succeeds.
Similarities and differences
At first glance, discussing whether the tinkerer can disarm a trap over beers during Pen & Paper and discussing with colleagues how to split the next (Jira) task during a backlog refinement might not seem similar. However, some patterns in human-to-human interaction can be found in both:
- Time pressure: Work meetings are expensive for the company and at some point annoying for the participants. Our pen and paper evening is neither, but everyone is eager to find out what the GM has planned for us next. The result is the same: Everyone wants to be done discussing as quickly as possible and move on to the next task or tavern.
- Different Opinions: There is always that one Paladin who is eager to try out his new sword in battle while the others try to sneak around that encampment of bandits. Similarly, there is always that developer wanting to try out some new technology (like Quarkus) whilst others want to stick to the known frameworks.
- Need for quick reactions: Timing is key in any kind of conversation, but especially in online meetings where gestures and facial expressions are much less notable. Also being able to adapt the point you are trying to make to whatever was said last is a huge skill to have no matter the topic.
The need of moderation in meetings
Our pen and paper group is obviously led by the GM. However, he is not a moderator as in trying to lead us to the easiest way through his world. This leads to quite chaotic discussions when big decisions need to be made.
A lot of work-related meetings unfortunately lack a clear moderator role as well. Even if you are lucky to have a dedicated Scrum master on your team, he can probably not attend every meeting. Over my professional career I realized a high chance of unproductivity in unmoderated meetings. These exact moments are the chance for every developer to save everyone involved a lot of time and nerves by becoming an impromptu moderator. However, speaking up and starting to lead meetings is not an easy task to do let alone gather the courage to actually do it.
This is where Pen and Paper Roleplay games come in handy. It is a fun way to train your talking skills when participating as a player — especially if you designed yourself a quirky bard character or an articulate paladin. Or you step it up a notch and become the DM for either a session or even your own whole campaign. This gives you the training ground for improving your ability to lead discussions in your desired direction.
But be aware that being a DM is a ton of work and takes a lot of creativity, spontaneity, and at times energy while rewarding you with happy players and hopefully lots of fun.
Tl, dr
You should join a pen and paper group because it is fun and take the free moderation training with it.
This blogpost is published by Comsysto Reply GmbH
