We are caught in a pincer grip between intensifying competitive pressure and accelerating change in the landscape around us, creating enormous performance pressures. What we know today is becoming less valuable as we struggle with the challenge of innovating faster and learning faster to operate more effectively in these challenging times.

Mention learning to senior executives, and they tend to default immediately to training programs. Here's the problem: Training programs are effective only at transferring what we already know to others. How do we create powerful platforms jointly to innovate and develop new knowledge that no one had before?

For an answer to this question, executives would be well advised to look at World of Warcraft (WoW), a massively multiplayer online game. Few executives have heard of this game, much less participated in it, despite the fact that over 10 million players are active in it around the world. Upon hearing this, most executives are likely to respond that "that's an awful lot of pimply teenagers," falling back on a conventional stereotype about video game players. In fact, the majority of the players are in the 23-39-year-old bracket and are deeply engaged. The average player invests about 23 hours per week playing the game.

Points for Experience

In WoW, performance is measured in terms of experience points. Players accumulate these by performing a variety of tasks that become more challenging as the game progresses. As players accumulate experience points, they advance to higher levels in the game, culminating at this point in level 80 (a new add-on recently expanded the number of levels from 70 in order to keep experienced players challenged).

The degree of complexity and challenge increases dramatically as you advance across levels, and the number of experience points needed in order to advance also increases sharply with each level. Yet the number of hours required to get there actually decreases. Experienced players become adept at leveraging the resources available in and around WoW to learn faster and advance faster even as the challenges become more difficult. In contrast to the diminishing returns to learning that we often encounter in business, players in WoW appear to have joined an environment where there are increasing returns to learning.

As with many promising developments on the edge, it is often hard to discern how or why this might be relevant to those playing in core business arenas. WoW matters because it creates a powerful platform for learning, without a training program in sight. Many of the approaches used by WoW could be very helpful to business executives as they strive to improve performance more rapidly in their own organizations.

Bottom-line lessons for executives

Reduce barriers to entry and to early advancement

WoW is carefully structured so that anyone can join and quickly gain a sense of accomplishment. The early tasks are relatively simple, but novice players quickly learn to improvise and innovate in their approach to performance challenges.

Provide clear and rich metrics to assess performance

WoW provides players with an overall metric for performance in the form of experience points and levels, but it also enables players to assess in real time their own performance and the performance of teammates along a variety of dimensions. One of the key innovations in the game offers players the ability to craft personal "dashboards" to monitor their performance on certain tasks. Corporations have begun to offer senior executives dashboards to monitor key aspects of corporate performance.

What if these dashboards were made available to everyone in the company? What if these dashboards could be designed and tailored by the individual employee? What if these dashboards provided real-time feedback on individual performance as well as the performance of the broader group? What if this feedback was visible to everyone and not just the individual contributor? Within WoW, this real-time performance feedback helps players to focus their innovation in game play on the areas with greatest impact.

Keep raising the bar

WoW designers have constructed an environment that continually challenges players to develop new skills. Complacency and boredom are rarely encountered, but neither is frustration, since challenges are thoughtfully calibrated to the existing capabilities of players. The next rung of achievement is just in sight, motivating players to invest the time and effort necessary to achieve that next level of performance. In the real world, companies, particularly those pursuing high growth strategies should provide a continuing set of new challenges to drive innovation by their employees.

Don't neglect intrinsic motivations

Talk about incentives in a business context, and the discussion quickly falls back to cash. With minor exceptions, cash is not an incentive to play WoW, so the designers focused on intrinsic motivations. Players get widespread recognition as they master new skills and successfully address each new challenge. As the game advances, players learn to collaborate and participate in "guilds"—teams of players who must work together to innovate in their game play and achieve the next level of performance. As relationships and trust develop within these teams, everyone is motivated to innovate by the desire not to let the team down.

Provide opportunities to develop tacit knowledge, but do not neglect broader knowledge exchange

The guilds foster the relationships and trust required to generate new tacit knowledge—the kind of knowledge that cannot be easily expressed and develops through shared practice. This is where most of the innovation in game play occurs.

At the same time, the game has generated a rich ecology of online forums where players can share experiences, post requests for help in addressing new challenges, and learn from each other. These forums provide a "pull" platform where players encountering unanticipated needs can quickly reach out and assemble helpful resources. In contrast to knowledge management initiatives in more conventional corporate environments, a significant part of a player's recognition and status accrues from participation in these forums. In fact, these forums have become a primary vehicle for identifying high performing players to be recruited into guilds.

Create opportunities for teams to self-organize around challenging performance targets

Participation in guilds in WoW is not mandated from above. Players naturally coalesce into guilds as they move into more advanced levels because they realize they cannot accomplish the tasks without collaborating with others with complementary skills. Teams have become important organizational units within companies, but how many of these teams are self-organized? By giving teams the autonomy to recruit new participants and—equally importantly—expel participants who are not carrying their weight, companies can significantly increase the accountability and motivation of teams.

Encourage frequent and rigorous performance feedback

WoW designers built in detailed performance metrics specific to the individual, the role, and the guild. These provide a foundation for regular after-action reviews where all the participants come together after a major initiative to review how they performed as individuals and as a team. The key focus is on how they can do better. This is a catalyst to innovation in game play as players can see performance gaps that are holding back the progress of the team.

These 360-degree performance reviews ensure that everyone from the guild leader down to the newest member receives feedback. Unlike the 360-degree reviews that have begun to crop up in a corporate setting, the reviews are based on objective, quantified performance metrics and visible to all participants. In this environment, poor performers at all levels have a strong incentive to address performance gaps in order to avoid being sidelined in future initiatives.

Create an environment that rewards new dispositions

WoW not only encourages players to develop new skills; it fosters a new disposition. WoW has created a compelling environment that naturally attracts participants interested in gaming, but it also enhances and rewards their dedication over time.

This encourages players to seek out new challenges as an opportunity to innovate and learn faster. Rather than viewing the unanticipated as a threat, gamers learn to welcome unexpected events as an opportunity to innovate, tinker, experiment, and, in the process, learn even more.

They also learn to welcome collaboration as an opportunity to learn faster by focusing on a set of individual strengths while being exposed to the diverse perspectives and experiences of those with complementary strengths. At the end of the day, this is the most powerful contribution of WoW. This disposition creates an amplifying effect throughout the game. Players seek out other players who share this point of view, and they end up performing better than players who bring more conventional ideas to the game.

Companies seeking to thrive in a world of increasing uncertainty and accelerating change will need to foster this disposition among their own executive team and employees. They would be well advised to take a closer look at World of Warcraft, both in terms of the approach taken to foster this disposition and as a potential recruiting ground for employees who can bring this attitude and approach into the company.

'Gears Of War' Creator On Gaming's Future

Mary Jane Irwin, 12.29.08, 03:40 PM EST

Epic Games' Cliff Bleszinski chats about his inspirations and innovations.

A chainsaw revs. The heavily armored Marcus Fenix lumbers forward, ripping through a Locust soldier as if he were shredding turkey with an electric carving knife. The combination assault rifle and mechanized saw blade, known as a Lancer, is one of the most recognizable components of "Gears of War," the Xbox 360 shooter that asks players to save humanity from an alien horde.

The most recognizable man behind the franchise happens to be Cliff Bleszinski. The 33-year-old design director of Epic Games has cultivated a rock star aura, despite the videogame industry's general lack of celebrity. He started out in the business when he was 17. Now he is in charge of one of the largest franchises on Microsoft's (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ) console. "Gears of War 2," his latest title, launched in early November and sold 2 million copies its opening weekend. The game is expected to be one of the best-selling games this holiday season. 

Bleszinski, who recently unleashed a new pack of multiplayer maps for "Gears 2" over Xbox Live, talked to Forbes.com about the impact downloadable content has on games, making hardcore shooters appeal to casual audiences and his love for "Super Mario Brothers."

Forbes.com: What game inspired you to make games?

Cliff Bleszinski: The first game I ever played was "Space Invaders" on the Atari 2600. I was instantly hooked by the idea of manipulating images on my television screen but wasn't quite old enough or aware that this could be a possible career. The title that inspired me the most would have to be the original "Super Mario Brothers" on the Nintendo Entertainment System. There was something about these cartoony worlds that unfolded before me that were filled with secrets that, at the time, I believed were not meant to be discovered by the designers.

What is the defining moment of your career, so far?

I'd have to say presenting the original "Gears of War" at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in 2006 to a crowd that was incredibly impressed is right at the top of the list. I hope that there are many more exciting moments like that in store.

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- James Bond's quantum of the weekend box office: $70.4 million.

"Quantum of Solace," with Daniel Craig returning as Bond for the first direct sequel in the spy franchise, pulled in nearly $30 million more over opening weekend than its predecessor, 2006's "Casino Royale," according to studio estimates Sunday.

The debut also topped the previous opening-weekend record for a Bond flick, $47 million for 2002's "Die Another Day."

Adjusting for inflation, Sony's "Quantum of Solace" easily drew a bigger audience than that installment, the last Bond adventure featuring Pierce Brosnan. Based on 2002 admission prices, about 8.1 million tickets were sold for "Die Another Day" in the first weekend, compared to 9.8 million for "Quantum of Solace."

Two years ago, Craig was an unknown quantity as Bond, a stage-trained actor with little action experience and a resume that tended toward small, artsier films. Many fans were unhappy with the casting choice, but the critical and commercial success of "Casino Royale" silenced the critics.

"Quantum of Solace" picks up where "Casino Royale" left off, with Bond seeking to avenge the death of his lover.

"With 'Casino Royale,' people were rediscovering the franchise in a way with Daniel Craig as James Bond," said Rory Bruer, head of distribution for Sony. "Quite frankly, they loved it. They loved the movie, and they loved him in the role, so I think by the time 'Quantum of Solace' was ready, audiences in the U.S. as well as the world audience was way ready."

"Quantum of Solace" began rolling out overseas two weekends before its U.S. debut, and its worldwide total now stands at $322 million.

DreamWorks Animation's "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa," which debuted at No. 1 the previous weekend, slipped to second place with $36.1 million, raising its 10-day total to $118 million.

"Quantum of Solace" gave a huge boost to overall revenues as Hollywood heads toward Thanksgiving, one of the year's busiest weekends at theaters. The top 12 movies took in $142.9 million, up 54 percent from the same weekend a year ago, when "Beowulf" led the box office with $27.5 million.

Movie revenue is running 1 percent ahead of 2007's record pace, when the industry took in $9.7 billion, according to box-office tracker Media By Numbers. Factoring in inflation, the number of tickets sold this year is 3.5 percent behind 2007's, though.

The next two weekends will bring more likely hits, including the vampire romance "Twilight," John Travolta and Miley Cyrus' animated comedy "Bolt" and Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn's holiday romp "Four Christmases."

"Hollywood is in the best possible position right now, because it's all about momentum, and the industry certainly has that heading into the all-important holiday period," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Media By Numbers.

Fox Searchlight's "Slumdog Millionaire" had an impressive debut in limited release, taking in $350,434 in 10 theaters for a strong average of $35,043 a cinema. By comparison, "Quantum of Solace" averaged $20,400 in 3,451 theaters. iReport.com: What did you think of Bond's latest?

A film festival favorite, "Slumdog Millionaire" was directed by Danny Boyle ("Trainspotting," "28 Days Later") and follows the alternately heartwarming and horrific life of a poor youth who becomes a contestant on India's version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?"

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.

Sun Microsystems Inc. plans to cut up to 6,000 jobs, or 18 percent of its global work force, as sales of its high-end computer servers have collapsed.

The drastic move announced Friday highlights Sun's desperation to cut costs and survive as an independent company. Sun's shares have fallen so steeply they've crossed an ominous threshold, driving the company's market value below its cash on hand.

That means investors believe the company itself is essentially worthless. After eight years of devastating financial problems and multiple attempts at restructuring, Sun's latest woes have ramped up speculation that one of the most storied names in computing could be snapped up dirt-cheap by a bigger rival. Hewlett-Packard Co., IBM Corp., and Dell Inc. are all possible suitors.

"The magnitude of the work force reduction is certainly overdue," said Brent Bracelin, an analyst with Pacific Crest Securities.

Bracelin said the move puts Sun in a better position to return to profitability, but added that the company is facing hard questions about a possible sale or spinning off parts of the business.

Sun shares fell 2 cents to $4.06 in midday trading Friday.

The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company said the job cuts will include between 5,000 and 6,000 of its 33,000 employees over the next year. The cuts should save an estimated $700 million to $800 million annually.

Sun expects charges of $500 million to $600 million spread out over the next 12 months to pay severance and other restructuring costs.

Sun also said its software chief, Rich Green, has resigned, as the company splits its software division into three new business groups. One will handle Sun's Java programming language and open-source database offerings. Another will be responsible for Sun's Solaris operating system, which is used to run servers. The third will focus on developing programs for "cloud computing" services delivered over the Internet.

"These are hard but necessary changes," Jonathan Schwartz, Sun's chief executive, said in an interview.

He said the company has been deeply wounded by the credit crunch, because customers can't get loans to buy expensive servers. A quarter of the Sun's business comes from the ailing financial services sector.

Schwartz said the restructuring of the software division reflects the company's increased focus on open-source software, whose underlying code is available for free. Sun's strategy, which some analysts believe isn't paying off as promised, is to sell support services for that software.

Schwartz said he's pleased with the company's process in picking up new customers through its software offerings.

The company's problem is "isolated to a single line item": sales of its high-end servers, which fell 27 percent in the latest quarter to $576 million. That's a staggering shortfall for a division that contributes a quarter of Sun's overall revenue. Sun's sales last year were nearly $14 billion.

"Across the board we feel great about our direction," Schwartz said.

Breaking up the business units also serves another purpose: it packages them nicely for possible spinoffs or sale, analysts said.

Sun's share price gives the company a market value of roughly $3 billion. Yet at the end of September, Sun had $3.1 billion in cash on hand. The gap indicates extreme pessimism about the company's prospects.

Sun posted a loss of $1.7 billion in the latest quarter, largely because it wrote down the value of the business by $1.45 billion.

At the height of the dot-com boom, Sun's stock price, adjusting for splits since then, topped $250 per share. The company was riding strong sales to Web startups and boasted that its servers "put the dot in dot-com," a catch phrase that became a punch line after the meltdown when Sun's sales shriveled.

The company has done several rounds of big layoffs in the last three years. Sun has cut 2,700 jobs since August of last year in two separate restructurings. The company had previously cut about 4,000 jobs after Schwartz took over as CEO from co-founder Scott McNealy in 2006.