Squid Game for Management Professionals — Part II

Lessons to learn from the South Korean Drama about building meaningful Professional Relationships

In the second article of the series, our focus will be on the activities that take place in the game before the candidates who have qualified, now called players, move to play their first game.

For the uninitiated, I am writing a series of articles on the take-aways from the South Korean drama Squid Game that can be related to the practices of the management in companies and organizations. In the first article, we talked about the lessons regarding the talent acquisition.

Naturally, onboarding comes right after the induction. In the game, this is critical because this is for the first time the players are exposed to what they have signed up for by responding to that invitation card with the shapes on it.

Onboarding

First of all, I don’t think I need to say this out loud but dude, that is no way of taking employees to the workplace. I mean, one might! But I would definitely recommend against it!

Anyways, once the players are back to consciousness, they acknowledge the presence of all the other players and try to learn whatever they can from the surroundings — how many people are there, what are they all wearing, do they know anyone out of all of them, and so on.

As the masked workers with red outfits enter, they conduct the onboarding in the following sequence

Step 1 — Orientation: They tell the players about the competition — there will be six games in total over six days, and the winner will win a handsome cash prize.

Step 2 — Consent: The players were made to sign a consent form. The consent form had 3 clauses:

1. Players are not allowed to stop playing.
2. A player who refuses to play will be eliminated.
3. Games maybe terminated if the majority agrees.

Once the forms are signed, they are all moved to play the first game. We will be discussing the games themselves in the upcoming articles.

Ambiguity

What the managers of the competition very conveniently exploit throughout the competition is the mystery. Providing inadequate information to the players, they plan to take them by surprise. This unpredictability before and the shock upon the discovery of the nature of each game adds to the misery of the players, and consequently adds to the entertainment of the VIPs — the investors.

The information that the management of the competition have not disclosed to the player till now includes:

1. Identities: The anonymity of every member of the staff other than the shape on their masks (circle, triangle or square) which represents of a hierarchy, and the numbering of the players (from 1 to 456) is basically to create the homogeneity among the members of the same group. Their individual identities are irrelevant to the game. Other than that, players do not know who has created the competition, who is watching it or who is controlling every thing that happens to them.
2. Purpose: The players are presented with the game as the only chance to make their lives worth living, but they are not presented with what is the gain of anyone who has created the game and where the cash prize is going to come from.
3. Nature of the Games: The games are actually childhood games. Prior knowledge of the games in most cases is not beneficial, as you may discover when you watch the show, but still, the information is kept a secret from everyone for keeping the mystery alive.
4. Cash Prize: This is interesting. Although the players are aware that they are going to win money if they win, they do not know how much. The information however could not be shared before the first game, because a lot had to be discovered about the competition before they could disclose that what the winners may win at the end is dependent on others losing.
5. Meaning of the word “Eliminated”: One of the most terrible moves of the onboarding is not revealing what being “eliminated” meant. The consent form warns that no one can later refuse to play, unless the majority refuses to play. But if one player refuses to play, “eliminated” suggests that they will be out of the competition.
6. Consequence of Performance: Winner goes away with a cash prize, but what happens to the rest of them? What happens when someone loses a game? What happens when someone fails to follow the instructions. There is a lot of ambiguity there.

Key Learnings

In the context of the competition, ambiguity is important because remember that the competition is designed for the exploitation of the players and the goal is the enjoyment of the VIPs from the misery of the players. That is not what ideally you would want for your companies, organizations or teams. So in order to avoid ambiguity, you should:

1. Be Elaborate! Reality shocks are not good for any relationships. Therefore, we have to do whatever we can to avoid a situation where an employee perceives that the reality of the employment experience at you company or organization is strikingly different from what they expected it to be. How to do it? Make sure that whatever information a potential employee gets from everywhere before experiencing the job at your workplace is not based on lies or is not exaggerated. It is a common practice that companies do brand themselves to be much more fun and exciting than they actually are. It may help in acquiring talent, but it never helps in retaining it. Even if there is a change in the experience of the workplace, that has to be transitioned slowly and steadily to make sure that it does not result in a shock for the employees.
2. Share Your Purpose! You can always boast about what you envision to achieve as an organization. There is no possibility of harm in it as far as you are honest about it and your efforts in having your organization achieve that vision are visible. It is an innate nature of animals to recognize and acknowledge effort. They may respond to it differently — predators like lions may enjoy them, while insects like ants may support their fellows. When you are an audience and you witness a good performance, you are naturally intended to applaud for it. So don’t worry! If you are trying to achieve something, let people know what and let people know how, and most of them will appreciate and some shall even help you. Unless obviously that achievement comes at the cost of the employees themselves, as we see in the case of the competition in the TV show. That is why it was critical here to not let the players know the actual purpose. Point to ponder: What could have happened if they had actually shared the purpose with the players in the game at any point? If you are reading this question, do share your point of view with me in this regard!
3. Guide and Ensure Understanding! During onboarding, it is very important that you keep guiding the new recruits throughout the process, as it is very easy to get distracted or bored. Make sure that they don’t miss out on any critical detail and understand what needs to be understood, so that their experience at job is easier and they can adapt to the workplace quickly. Again, it plays a role in avoiding the reality shock.

Check out the other published parts of the series:

1. How can we increase the probability of success in cases of headhunting?
2. How to steer clear of ambiguity in building professional relationships with the help of contracts?
3. How to stay sensible while making decisions during the times of stress?
4. How to manage the lack of privilege with innovative thinking?
5. How to lead the battle against the challenges that seem enormous and unwinnable?
6. How to manage conflicts and win in win-lose situations?
7. What to expect from humans when they are at their worst?

Feel free to share your comments on the analysis, and do share it in your social and professional circles if you think this can benefit them!