Rogues, warriors and mages of the business world

In role-playing games (RPGs) there are typically three character ‘classes’ from which to choose: these are rogue, warrior, and mage. Each has a unique, and critical, function in a squad: rogues scout out dangers and locate elusive treasures; warriors are the self-appointed punching bags for opponents; and mages support their squad mates from a distance. Each is equally important, yet the experience of being one or the other is incredibly different.

In games such as Dragon Age and Mass Effect,[1] I have played characters of each class, and lead squads who emphasise various battle styles. Striking the right balance for each quest and skirmish has been one of the greatest challenges and sources of enjoyment. However, I have also come to see that many of the same principles apply to my working life.


The squad
In the office, as with RPGs, individual specialization, and collective diversity, is essential. A well-rounded team is like a game of collaborative rock-paper-scissors, each player specializing in their particular hand - each covering their teammates for any contingency. In real life, we must be able to perform all three manoeuvres - in the business world however specialization is standard practice: consultants and freelancers benefit from taking a roguish approach; most permanent employees are warriors; team leaders and department heads are mages. For those who do not take the concerns and qualities of other squad mates into consideration, professional life tends to be brutish and short: head-to-head battles can leave mages and managers sliced and diced; uninterrupted enemy spells can paralyse even the most dedicated warrior or salarymen; and rogues and freelancers can and will flee when the going gets tough.

Each player constantly needs to prove why their teammates should take an arrow for them. While middle management is structurally immune to overt challenges from their inferiors, the importance of proving their value by serving and supporting the rest of their team is probably the greatest.[2] Rogues can ‘accidentally’ forget to warn their mage teammate about the booby trap in their path, and warriors have been known to turn on their superiors in miniature coup d'état.[3] A helpful model for office team leader or manager would be a sea captain, who functions more as one-one-one coaches and mentors for the individual bridge officers.


Rogues

“Rogues are crafty combatants who succeed in battle by combining speed, subterfuge, and a wide range of abilities to bring their opponents down in unexpected ways, sometimes before the enemy even perceives danger.” – Dragon Age Wiki

Soon after I graduated from uni, I started out working as a professional rogue – pursuing solo projects, collecting ‘cigar butts’ of discarded or misplaced resources and assimilating them into my own work, and asking for forgiveness rather than permission. While such an approach certainly meant that I crossed many a less-travelled path, and discovered numerous elusive gems, I also proved to be very elusive myself when it came to actually helping in a pitched battle.


Warriors

“Warriors are the front-line fighters, the backbone of any party under assault.” – Dragon Age Wiki

I have spent most of my working life as a warrior: doing the bulk of the hands-on work, and being the whipping boy when things go wrong. There are mixed benefits with being at the front line and in the trenches – you feel like you’re the one actually ‘creating value’, but with shells constantly exploding overhead and no real power to stop or understand them, the general confusion of battle can quickly get old.


Mages

“More altruistic Mages can use their powers to help and heal, or summon benevolent spirits in times of need. Though they are ostracized to the point of persecution for it, Mages are key for everyday life ... They serve as its healers, scholars, scientists, and weapons of war.” – Dragon Age Wiki

That is why my most recent professional incarnation has been as a mage. I do not directly contribute to the war effort – instead I help my teammates do so, by documenting and rationalizing processes, setting up dynamic job-tracking spreadsheets, collating useful resources, and scheduling activities. As a mage, I leave it to others to take the force of the blows, while I buff up their efficiency, debuff their opponents, and focus on the big picture. I do not see such an approach as management – at least, not in the traditional sense – but rather as assisting others in better managing themselves.





Image by Ran Yaniv Hartstein

Endnotes 

[1] In ME, the equivalent of the rogue is the engineer, for warriors it is the soldier, while the ‘mage’ is a Jedi-styled Adept.

[2] In The Unconscious Civilization, for instance, John Saul discusses how corporations tend to get middle-management bloat, having rewarded all of their hard workers with promotions into positions where they actually don’t do real work, or aren’t allowed to. This is not necessarily the fault of such managers, but rather ‘up or out’ doctrines or the Peter Principle.

[3] “Rear-echelon misfits with anger management and substance issues who sulked after getting chewed out and decided to have their revenge” resulted in some 730 fragging incidents in the US military during the Vietnam War.