31 Oct Dungeons & Dragons Holds Collaborative Leadership Lessons
The first time I played Dungeons & Dragons, I was in sixth grade.
My science teacher held an after-school class where a group of us got together and went on adventures. I still remember how my imagination switched on. We were sitting in a classroom, but suddenly there was a whole world to explore—and we could help decide what happened next.
That is a pretty wonderful thing to give a kid.
Looking back, I think my teacher was giving us an early lesson in collaboration, too. We had to listen, contribute, solve problems, and figure things out together.
Of course, we thought we were just playing.
Years later, during my time as chairperson of the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee, or CSAC, I had the chance to work with the team on creating the Dungeons & Dragons stamps for the U.S. Postal Service. The stamps celebrated the game’s 50th anniversary. It was a special connection between my professional life and something that had opened up my imagination all those years earlier.
D&D has kept showing up in my life.
Many of my friends in the advertising agency world have played. My good friend Adam Rubin would play with the colleagues on his team, using the game to bring everyone together and give their imaginations room to work.
During the pandemic, I also played online with my brother and family. At a time when getting together was difficult, we could still share an adventure.
It is a wonderful game. And the older I get, the more I appreciate what happens around that table.
Everyone brings something. Everyone helps the story move forward.
There is a leadership lesson in that.
In a recent Inc. interview with Dan Schawbel, Designit CEO Keri Dawson explained how her experience running D&D campaigns influences her leadership. A Dungeon Master builds the world, establishes boundaries, and presents challenges. The players then make choices that can send the adventure in unexpected directions. Dawson applies a similar approach at work: clarify the outcome and the guardrails, then give capable people room to find the way forward.
Think about how often we hire smart, imaginative people and then fill their days with instructions.
We ask them to take ownership, but require approval for every decision. We ask for fresh thinking, but become uncomfortable when an idea takes us somewhere unfamiliar.
Eventually, people learn to wait.
A good leader can change that by making a few things clear: Here is what we are trying to accomplish. Here is why it matters. Here are the commitments we must honor. Here is what you have the authority to decide.
Then comes the part that can feel surprisingly difficult: letting the team contribute something you did not already have in mind.
My sixth-grade teacher gave us that opportunity. Adam gave his colleagues that opportunity. Around the game table, imagination had somewhere to go.
What would happen if we created more of that space at work?
For those of you who have followed our work at Cult Branding, this connects with a familiar idea:
Culture + Customer Love = Cult Brand.
Culture takes shape in everyday interactions. Can people ask questions? Can they offer a different approach? Do they understand the customer well enough—and have enough authority—to make a thoughtful decision?
Those conditions influence what customers experience.
An employee who understands the brand’s promise and feels trusted to fulfill it has a better chance of creating a moment worth remembering. A customer who feels heard has a reason to stay involved.
People begin to see their own contribution in the story.
That brings me to Joseph Campbell and a line I love:
“The big question is whether you are going to be able to say a hearty yes to your adventure.”
I hear an invitation in that question. There is still something to discover. There are abilities we have not used yet, people we can learn from, and possibilities we cannot see from where we are standing.
For leaders, saying yes also carries responsibility. People need resources, support, and clear boundaries. They need to know you will listen when the journey gets difficult.
But they also need a reason to feel excited about where you are going together.
So here is a question for your next team meeting:
If this next chapter of our business were an adventure, what would make it worth joining—and what could each of us bring to it?
You might hear something that never makes it into the usual status update.
Are you going to say yes to the adventure?
And have you given your team an adventure they are ready to say yes to?
No dragon required. Although I suspect your team can name a few.