What Wordle Teaches You About Management

Are you playing Wordle? In the unlikely case that you’ve never heard of it, Wordle is the wildly popular word game that gives you six tries to guess a five-letter word. Though it began in English, there are now versions of the game in around 50 languages.

The creation and success of the game is a business case in itself: developed by Josh Wardle for his partner, it became a viral hit in October 2021 and was sold to The New York Times three months later. It’s a study in the simplicity of design – not to mention the role of serendipity in business.

But what does Wordle have to do with management? Since at IESE we teach management, it’s never far from my mind. Here, three reflections:

• The strength in diversity. In chatting about Wordle, I’m continually surprised by the variety of strategies people bring to the game, depending on their educational backgrounds, their personalities, their lives. My own strategy reflects my background as a German engineer: I combine some language knowledge plus some “artificial intelligence” to quickly reduce the number of potential options. On the other hand, our Communications Director, an American with a long career in journalism, takes a completely different approach, relying on an intuitive knowledge of words and memory of letter combinations. The diversity enriches the conversation, just as it enriches teams and organizations, and proves yet again that there is no one single way to solve even the smallest of challenges.
• The importance of connection. One of the crucial moments in the development of Wordle was when it became possible to share results in color tiles that didn’t reveal the word. It instantly converted the game into a social rather than solitary activity, and that made all the difference in the world. We are all exhausted from two years of pandemic, and it’s more important than ever to connect and to celebrate accomplishments together. Those achievements don’t have to be world-changing: on the contrary, they can be a small task well done. But now more than ever, it’s crucial to find ways to connect as teams and to recognize successes.
• The power of a simple, common goal. For me, a big part of the appeal of the game is that everyone, everywhere is working to figure out the same word. It would be a different game if the words varied by location, or were simply random. Working toward a common goal brings us closer. And that goal must be simple, and clearly understood. There has been much online discussion of whether The New York Times’ purchase of the game is going to make it more complex, featuring more difficult, obscure words. Many word games are for people who like language, not for people who prefer numbers. But the most effective goals are simple and inclusive.

And besides, it’s enjoyable. After the upheaval of the pandemic and now the tragedy of the war in Ukraine, we all need simple distractions. At IESE, we’ve recently introduced a formal policy on digital disconnection, in order to ensure that everyone is getting the break they need to enjoy their lives outside the office. In a recent column, Arthur Brooks, a best-selling author and professor who has spoken frequently at IESE, made the distinction between enjoyment and pleasure – pleasure being something that happens to you and enjoyment being something you craft through your own effort. “Enjoyment is better than pleasure because it is more conscious and permanent,” he says. “Far from being a waste, enjoyment is generative and restorative, and thus worthy of time and resources.”?