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Want to Be a Better Leader? Try Being a Dungeon Master
Stuffed full of game references and starring a clutch of good-looking actors, the new Dungeons & Dragons movie has been making both studio execs and D&D superfans happy. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves beat box office expectations and has racked up surprisingly good reviews both from critics and gamers. It even has a 93 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.
All of which suggests, you might want to check it out if you like role-playing games, silly comedies, or Regé-Jean Page. But why am I talking about a popcorn flick featuring rogues and sorcerers going on an elaborate and unlikely quest when I am a business and productivity writer?
Because, according to at least one business leader — and a handful of psychologists — nerdy fun isn’t the only reason to check out the new D&D movie. As unlikely as it sounds, Dungeons & Dragons just might make you a better manager, they argue.
Leading quests isn’t that different from leading teams.
For a firsthand account of the link between leading professional teams and guiding players as a Dungeon Master, I point you to a recent Medium post by engineering manager John Hartley. In it, he recounts a recent D&D campaign he presided over and claims his experience concocting monsters and inventing…