But Can We Really Learn Something From Pokémon?
Okay, okay, pirates and trees can teach us something. But learning something from Pokémon, isn’t that a bit far-fetched? No way! There are many interesting lessons hidden in games as well. In fact, I dare say that gaming has taught me a lot about entrepreneurship. In this blog, I zoom in on the lessons from Pokémon.
- Building a strong team takes time. Every Pokémon game over and over again, you start with one weak Pokémon. This Pokémon is good at one thing, but not so good at the rest. Step by step and bit by bit, you’ll build a strong team of Pokémon with the skills to handle the toughest situations. You do this by putting time and energy into all of your Pokémon, but especially by giving them individual attention. Isn’t that also how our teams get better?
- Challenges make us better and are the path to success. The Pokémon on your team don’t get stronger by themselves. No, to become stronger, they must face various challenges. Battling other Pokémon, challenging strong “Gym leaders,” and solving challenging puzzles-all contribute to making your Pokémon stronger. Challenges should therefore be embraced as opportunities to get better and cope with future challenges. So it makes absolutely no sense to keep inexperienced and young people away from every mistake and difficult situation “because you can do it faster, better and easier yourself”, in fact, through these challenges they get a little bit better every time!
- A strong team consists of a wide variety of specialists. Each Pokémon has unique skills and a unique strength. As a result, a Pokémon with the right skills and strength is enormously strong in specific situations and these situations are no problem at all. In a balanced team, you make sure you have the right Pokémon so that you have a specialist for every challenging situation, but as a team you can handle any situation.
- The journey is often more fun than the final destination. Every Pokémon game you start with the goal of “finishing” the game. But when the game is finished, it is secretly less fun than the whole journey towards it. We too sometimes need to learn to enjoy the journey a little more and be a little less focused on what we want to achieve. Targets and objectives are good, but enjoying the steps toward them is perhaps even more important!
- Sometimes you have to attack, sometimes you have to defend. No single Pokémon game is won by just attacking or just defending. A good mix is needed. Sometimes you know you are strong and can take on the world and you choose to attack. In other situations, it is wiser to invest in the growth of your people, the structure of your organization and your strategy. Even a Pokémon game becomes easier if you know how to strike this balance.
Geert Buskes
Employer Branding Strategist
There are also things about Pokémon that you just don’t want to learn from them. For example, Pokémon are quite keen on constantly “fighting” with each other. We strongly prefer good cooperation. Of course, a good discussion is always allowed!
Staying Curious and Continuing to Learn
As we can see, there are great lessons hidden in many places. Transparency, fair rewards, specialization, patience and team dynamics. Who would have expected to see this reflected in trees, pirates and Pokémon; By keeping an open mindset, staying authentic and wanting to learn everywhere, you too can take maximum advantage of these opportunities!
Therefore, always stay curious because there is something to learn everywhere. Even in places where you might not immediately expect it! Learned something yourself from a unique situation? Was this blog helpful? Or do you find it nonsense? I am curious to hear your story!
