The Buck Stops Here

The plaque “The Buck Stops Here” that was on President Truman’s desk in his White House office.

U.S. President Harry S. Truman popularized the phrase, “The buck stops here.” The phrase refers to the fact that the President has to make tough decisions and will accept the responsibility for those decisions.

One of Riot’s key beliefs is that we empower smart people (from intern to CEO) to make decisions that increase player value. I have never heard anyone say “That’s not my problem” at Riot. And if I ever did, I would probably lose my shit because there is a pervasive, shared belief that Riot is our company.

Game development, like much of the entertainment industry, relies on creativity and technological innovations. There are near infinite opportunities to explore and problems to fix. Gone are the days when companies tell you what to do. Today, you choose what to do and that starts with aligning your strengths with how you work best and what you want to do. Once you figure out how you can best contribute to your company’s efforts, the next step is figuring out what opportunities and problems you are going to own.

Nicolo Laurent (@niiicolo), Riot’s head of international business, offers a good framework for ownership that I’ve been using: when encountering a valuable opportunity or a significant problem, the main thing to do is to identify an owner, if any.

Scenario A: Owner exists

1. Default to trust and…