My youngest son loves playing Piggy on Roblox. He runs around finding keys and unlocking doors to escape a building while being chased by a zombie pig. Objects hidden across the game’s many chapters unlock cool skins. The skins are hard to get, and they’re street cred in the world of Roblox. (Many players think it’s a sign of skill; I think it’s also a sign of having played too much.)
Regardless, I walk into his room one day to find the not-quite-10-year old sprawled on the carpet. His computer is playing a YouTube video of where to find the hidden objects. He has two iPads on either side of him. He’s running a Piggy game on a private server with two accounts. While the account on my (?!) borrowed iPad idles as Piggy, chilling out in corner instead of chasing him inexorably around the building, his account explores unhindered, collecting keys and hidden objects.
He should have been doing math instead, but his face beams when he comes into my office with frequent updates of his progress. With the universe of knowledge at his fingertips (thanks, YouTube!), passion (however misplaced), and purpose (also misplaced), he’s unlocked the coveted skins in a fraction of the time. He was efficient, effective, and problem-solved with incredible creativity.
I’ve seen it too at work. Some time ago, I had a short conversation with my team at Nice Healthcare about my vision for capacity planning. My only other contribution to the discussion was an illustrative spreadsheet I had hastily cobbled together with a few column titles (and nothing else!)
But my team left with gleaming eyes and excited smiles. They caught the passion and the purpose. Tapping into their universe of knowledge, they returned a few days later with a beautifully designed staffing model that integrated our historical virtual and in-person nurse visits to predict the required nursing capacity for each of our locations. My column titles were still in the spreadsheet…but everything else came from them.
Passion and purpose unlocks creative problem solving, but problem solving can sometimes create even bigger problems. The efficiency and effectiveness of the solution comes from the universe of knowledge the team brings into problem solving. Talent, experience, and expertise matters a great deal—and we can hire for it—but it’s our mandate, as leaders, to deliver the passion and the purpose.
Together, leaders and teams create magic — the perfect storm where passion and purpose collide into the universe of knowledge, and ignites it with new power and fresh energy.
The end result is a business accelerating through innovation and transformation, while delivering amazing outcomes for its partners and customers.
The end result could also be some really cool Piggy skins in Roblox.
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