Seven Reasons Managers Should Play Chess

Last weekend, my sons left their college and headed for Asheville, NC for the Land of the Sky Chess Tournament.  My wife and I joined them there, where my son, Zachary, competed for a piece of the advertised $20,000 purse.

During the weekend, I watched hundreds of players play hundreds of games and surprised myself at the management lessons that chess and chess tournaments can teach.

• Never underestimate your competition – Throughout the tournament, adults often played against children as young as eight years old.  Even more surprising was the children often won.  Other times, a higher rated player played against a lower ranked person and lost.  For various reasons, the confidence of an easy win gave way to a what-the-heck-is-going-on feeling.  Who, or what, is your competition?  What is your assessment of them?  Is your assessment accurate?  What are they currently developing?  What don’t you know about them?  What do you need to know?  How and where can you find the information you need?

• Do your homework – You will find many players studying chess books, DVD’s of openings, and recorded games of masters and grand masters.  You will see players checking out the pairing sheets to see who their competition will likely be in future games and will then watch them as they play.  Do they play aggressively?  Do they take risks?  How do you do your homework?  Do you continuously upgrade your knowlege-base?  Do you ensure that your employees have adequate staff development?  Do you study your own organization to spot strengths and weaknesses?

• Develop your assets – Many players lost with most of their pieces still on their original squares, or cramped in a small area of the chessboard.  They lost because they failed to develop or deploy their pieces for maximum effect.  What are the assets in your organization that are available for use?  Think about personnel as well as physical resources.  Are you currently using them to their fullest extent?  What could you employ in a better way?

• There are times when you should not give up – Some players, who are in a losing position, will hang on, waiting for a mistake that their opponent will make on which they can capitalize.  When it comes, they will have positioned themselves to exploit the mistake to their advantage.  There will be projects that offer such large payoffs that continuously pursuing them is the proper course, especially when there are indications that success is possible.  How can you position yourself to capitalize on opportunities when they present themselves?
• There are times when you have to cut your losses – Resignations and draws abound in the tournament room.  Sometimes you just have to cut yourself loose from bad projects, campaigns, and initiatives and concentrate on your next, or at least a different, project where the chance of success is more probable.  What project or initiative is dragging your team down?  Can you cut yourself loose from it?  Is there a better project that can better use your assets?

• Luck has nothing to do with winning – Chess has no luck involved.  The players calculate every move several moves in the future.  Yes, we can capitalize on others’ mistakes, but luck has nothing to do with winning or being successful.  There are no unknown cards, no rolls of the dice, or spin of a wheel.  Luck has no place in your business or organization either.  I say make your own luck.  You can position yourself so you can exploit the competition’s mistakes.  One can prepare one’s assets so they are in a prime position when opportunity rears its head.
• You can learn from your losses just like your wins – After a chess game, it is common for the players to replay it to review their mistakes.  Opponents, friends, and other players offer their take on the positions after the game.  They will focus on the main points of the match and explore other possibilities other than the choices the player made.  After projects, do you do a project postmortem to learn from your mistakes?  Does your team critique their performance as well as their results?

Chess players, what else have you learned from your experiences in playing chess?

Comments

[jody]

So how'd your son do?

[Patrick]

Chess is also about looking at the information. The board's there, it's right there in front of you. Your opponent isn't making any hidden moves and you can see how his position develops. The information is all there, it's just the motives and thoughts of your opponent which end up hidden. So, look at what you can see, and never assume you fully understand what your opponent is thinking.

[Don]

Don't waste bandwidth on the easy stuff.

In chess, the first moves of a specific opening are memorized and automatic. You seldom want to waste mental energy or clock time when following a book opening. In life, automate or delegate the easy stuff so you can concentrate on the tough stuff.

[Bert Webb]

Don-- You're right on the money. Many of the openings have been memorized and, up to a point, are a matter of making the standard, time-tested moves that have shown themselves to be solid. We could do the same thing with checklists and delegation.

Patrick -- I saw a lot of that last weekend. In fact, give three players the same position and they will go three different directions with it...and all do well.

Jody -- To the best of my recollection, he came in third place. Out of the money, I'm afraid. But he still had a good time.

[Jeremy]

Hey dad, I really liked this chess article.