TEDx Editor’s Pick
The Best Managers Are Dungeon Masters
Jeff Randolph, Chief Marketing Officer at EAG Advertising & Marketing, on what 50+ years of Dungeons & Dragons can teach today’s leaders. Recorded at TEDxAvilaUniversity.
About the talk
In “The Best Managers Are Dungeon Masters,” Jeff Randolph argues that Dungeons & Dragons, a game that started in 1970s basements, has become a masterclass in leading modern teams. Over those 50+ years, Dungeon Masters have developed tools that keep high-performing groups coming back week after week to solve more problems. Jeff shows how those tools, focusing on “Session Zero,” build empathy and emotional intelligence, and shift leadership from command-and-control to collaborative world-building.
The talk was named a TEDx Editor’s Pick, a distinction given to fewer than 1% of published TEDx Talks.
Key ideas from the talk
Start with Session Zero
Before a campaign begins, a good Dungeon Master holds a Session Zero so the table agrees on expectations, sets boundaries and establishes shared values. Jeff shows how the same conversation builds empathy and emotional intelligence within a work team before the first problem arrives.
Lead by building the world together
A Dungeon Master doesn’t command the players. In fact, they hate that, calling the practice "railroading." Instead, Dungeon Masters set the stage and co-create the story. The best managers do the same, trading command-and-control for collaborative world-building and a vision the whole team helps create.
Make people want to come back
Gaming groups meet week after week, by choice, to solve complex problems together. Jeff breaks down the tools Dungeon Masters use to keep a high-performing group engaged, and how they translate to keeping a team invested.
Own the nerdy
From running games for Special Forces veterans, sales professionals, an architect and an attorney, to corporate team-building campaigns where new leaders emerge, Jeff makes the case that D&D is one of the most powerful ways to build a high-functioning team.
D&D terms from the talk
Dungeon Master (DM)
The player who runs a game of Dungeons & Dragons. The DM describes the world, plays every character the players meet and guides the story, while the players decide what their own characters do.
Session Zero
A planning session held before a campaign starts, where the group agrees on the tone of the game, what everyone wants from it and the boundaries that keep it fun for the whole table.
Roll for initiative
The moment a D&D encounter turns to action. Each player rolls a die to set the order in which everyone acts, so every person at the table gets a turn.
Total Party Kill (TPK)
When every character in the group is defeated at once. It usually means the team, or the person leading it, misjudged the challenge.
About Jeff Randolph
Jeff Randolph is the Chief Marketing Officer at EAG Advertising & Marketing, a strategy-led marketing, advertising and PR agency in Kansas City. He brings two decades of marketing leadership to EAG’s strategy work, helping entrepreneurs and nonprofits grow their brands.
Jeff has taught marketing as an adjunct professor at Avila University for 25 years and hosts the Small Business Miracles Podcast, where conversations about team building often come back to lessons from the gaming table.
About TEDxAvilaUniversity
TEDxAvilaUniversity 2026 was Avila University’s first TEDx event, held in Kansas City, Missouri. Jeff was selected as one of six speakers.
TEDxAvilaUniversity is an independently organized TED event.
Frequently asked questions
It’s a TEDx talk by Jeff Randolph about leadership. Drawing on nearly 50 years of Dungeons & Dragons, Jeff explains how the tools Dungeon Masters use, like Session Zero, build empathy and emotional intelligence and shift leadership from command-and-control to collaborative world-building.
Bring the Dungeon Master mindset to your team.
Invite Jeff to speak at your event, or talk with EAG about leading your marketing with the same collaborative approach.
You May Also Like
Episodes From Our Small Business Miracles Podcast
