The Name of the Game Is Work

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First, managers received a postcard from the Bahamas, signed by the CEO, inviting them to play. The postcards were sent to their home addresses so managers' family members might stumble across them too and encourage them to go for the prize—the winning team would be sent to the Bahamas for the annual strategy meeting, which would have usually been held in their home city. Back at work, managers led teams they regularly worked with at the office. They went on the Web for a virtual treasure hunt to famous landmarks that had a Philips connection (including the Pyramids at Giza, the Eiffel Tower, and Sydney Opera House—all of which are illuminated using Philips technology).

Far Cry from Solitaire

With each click, players were confronted with a multiple-choice question about how they could help Philips achieve its strategic objectives. One question: "Philips believes in fast growth through innovation. What percent of Philips products was introduced within the last two years?" (The answer was 49%.) There were about 250 questions in total over the month-long competition.

Naturally, some managers have to get accustomed to the idea of employees playing games for work. "The idea that you were playing a game instead of working didn't initially sit well with some management," says Cameron Batten, the employee communications manager, based in New York, who helped create and oversee the game. But they came around. Ninety-four percent of managers held discussion sessions with their teams over the four-week period and 58% of managers held discussion sessions more times than they were required. Philips will create a sequel game next year.

At Johnson & Johnson, the pharmaceutical research and development operation is using a virtual world to orient its new hires and an online game to train them. During the past three years, nearly 1,500 new employees have gone into their digital 3D world that looks a bit like Second Life except it's only for J&J employees. It's called 3DU (the "U" stands for university) and it's on this digital campus that new employees—at any level—get up to speed about the company's health benefits, diversity networks, and ethics policies.

Adventures in Pharmacology

The newest interface for 3DU that the company is currently prototyping resembles a combination of a MySpace profile page—listing details such as the employees' division—with a 3D browser where employees can move their avatars to meet one another or the president, Garry Neil. Neil's avatar—which has a prerecorded message—is photo-realistic so new employees will be able to recognize him in real life after having seen his avatar. The president also has a video message in which he introduces users to other board members and department heads. 3DU saves the company the cost of flying new hires from all over the world to one central location for orientation. Employees continue to use the space long after orientation to find one another if they need help on a project.

Last April, the Johnson & Johnson unit launched Mission Possible, a game to train nearly 1,500 employees on each other's roles in the drug development process and to get new employees coming from the business world or elsewhere up to speed on the industry. They were challenged to develop a new drug to treat schizophrenia, and throughout the quest they answered questions from characters such as Virgil Vigilance, the drug safety vigilante, and Regina Regulatory, the regulation enforcer.

After answering questions correctly, they got their passport stamped and moved through the game's levels. Many employees appreciated the entertaining format of the game, given the grave diseases they spend so much of their time researching, said Paul Bejgrowicz, an assistant director of e-learning at Johnson & Johnson PRD.

As serious games gain traction, business school professors are already planning courses that tap into the trend. "Online games seem to be a great place to develop and test different prototypes for structuring and managing 'real' organizations," says Robert Sutton, a professor of management and engineering who is looking into creating a course at Stanford University where students can test out alternative management styles in games such as World of Warcraft.

In these games, players can quickly change their management style if it doesn't work. "The lessons learned in these games become increasingly useful as companies become less command-and-control and more a series of distributed networks around the world," says Diego Rodriguez of design consultancy IDEO. He is also a consulting professor at Stanford University working with Sutton on the new course. "The future of work is here; it's just disguised as a game," says Rodriguez.

McConnon is a staff editor for BusinessWeek in New York.