What can leaders learn from „Squid Game"?

Squid Game became one of the most popular series of 2021 – our blogpost focuses on the lessons that leaders can learn from Netflix’s series. The article contains spoilers.

Squid Game is a Korean dystopian series, which presents a worse society and world than our current one. The series tells the story of Gi Hun (player #456), a divorced, compulsive gambler, indebted chauffeuer. The protagonist is hoping to settle his debt by playing the game, but he isn’t aware of the outcomes. In this game, game over means death. Beside the eye-pleasing visuals, the excellent acting performances and exciting plots, Squid Game also presents universal messages. It’s a cautionary tale about money: how having too little or too many of it can ruin lives. However, it also contains great lessons for leaders.

The players are a great metaphor of leaders, the game masters of the the market – the market dictates the challenges, and whoever is fastest to react and has the best strategy, wins. An organization has four key aspects: design; culture and employee experience; learning and growth; and leadership. In this article, we will summarize Squid Game’s messages by these four aspects.

 

Design

This aspect has two important substances:

• Goals determine outcomes

In the „Red light, green light” challenge, Sang-Woo (Gi Hun’s teammate) realizes, that the best strategy is to move fast and hide behind others. While others are in a state of panic and being eliminated from the game, he reaches the finish line. Our work presents us with a number of challenges. Some may bring us an initial shock, but after that, we have to learn to focus on the goal, figure out a strategy and determine what we need to reach them.

• Agile structure results in efficiency

During lights-out period the players annihilated each other as the kills made more money for the bank. Gi-Hun formed an alliance with four other players. They stood night-watch and protected each other because they didn’t want to participate in the mayhem. Forming connections helps us solve problems fast and efficient, especially in times of crisis. It’s also useful if one of the players is overwhelmed, as the others can support him.

 

Culture and experience

This aspect has four key elements:

• Inclusivity will help you win

During the marble game, players are instructed to form pairs. Player #212 wasn’t chosen by anyone so she automatically went to the next round. In Korean culture, she is called the „kkakdugi”, or the person in children’s games who is considered to be the weakest link. During the game he will receive some kind of special skill, usually immunity. This is t teach children to be considerate and include everyone, players who look weak or different, too. This way, everyone can enjoy the game. In the workplace, we should build a culture where inclusivity is a key fact, everyone is part of the team and no one is left behind, this way we can march toward a goal. What society considers weakness, might not be a disadvantage and we can gain a special skill from it, which take us closer to our goal.

• Teamwork

Even though the game is individual, players are sometimes greatly helped by teamwork. A good example of this is the tug of war game, where Gi-Hun’s team consists of people with different backgrounds, ethnicity and age. They weren’t the strongest team, but they still managed to win by following one of the player’s strategy. Gi-Hun’s leadership and Sang Woo’s tactic also helped them win. The key to success is overcoming differences, listening to each other and working together.

• A sense of purpose

It might appear like every player is in it for the money, but most of the time their goal goes beyond earning cash. There was a player who wanted to gain custody of his daughter, another one who wanted to buy medication for his sick mother, a third one who wanted to help his parents cross the North-Korean border, a fourth one wanted to provide a better future for his family. Goals that go beyond earning money can motivate workers better. It is also crucial to determine what shared essential goal we would like to reach with the organization.

• Shared values or expertise

Success is not only the result of expertise, but of shared values, too. The protagonists’ friendship helped them in different ways during the game. Relationships based on shared values last longer than connections based on expertise.

In this article, we have analyzed the first two organizational aspects, which suggest that inclusivity, teamwork, a sense of purpose and shared values will contribute to the group’s, organization’s success. Next week we will continue with the learning and growth; and the leadership aspects.

 

The original article can be accessed here.