6 Ways to Cultivate Passion in a Team
Francisc and I have been talking back and forth about the state of the current video game industry. While there are a number of outliers, there is a struggle between old world and new world approaches to game budgets and teams.
Make a huge investment, build a huge team, and hope for a huge payout. Mitigate risk with heavy oversight and broad marketing campaigns.
Creative people become cats to herd. They must be managed in a way that prevents them from overreaching and gaming the system. Give them an inch and they will take a mile. Therefore, the box must be tight and controlled.
As a result, any amount of life and passion in the talent is sucked dry.
Why?
How is it that an industry built on the shoulders of passionate nerds can stifle passion at the same time?
Maybe it’s culture. If a game doesn’t do well, there is no business. Simple as that. Therefore, companies react by investing in costly infrastructure to ensure that they can catch bad apples as early as possible.
This infrastructure then ensures a “paint-by-lines” approach, making sure that everyone is pushing the cart in the same direction.
This results in a few critical vision-killing problems:
- Homogenization
- Lethargy
- Corruption
- Inhumane Workplace Practices
Between each of these, we find that the Games Industry is a cut-throat place. Passion is thrown around like a commodity, eventually turning bright-eyed youngsters into tired husks who either leave the industry for more consistent work, or sell their souls completely.
Queue the sound of clinking beers as we talk about how many scars we’ve earned over the years from soul-crushing work environments.
With us, we are starting to ask a very important question:
How do we cultivate more ownership and more passion for the projects we produce?
What drives a person to want to create, and how do we leave them energized for more, instead of drained and unhappy?
- First, it’s a simple shifting of perspective on the people who work for you. Instead of thinking of them as cats to herd, think of them as owners and partners. Anyone is much more likely to engage with a game if they have ownership. If they feel they are part of a strong group of people who all fit together. Let’s work on expectations together. Let’s set priorities together. Let’s appoint a Game Director who will guide the vision and keep people on track when things stray (think of a GD like handling the rudder of the ship instead of a task master).
- Think lean and fast. Keep teams small and encourage people to get to know each other. Nobody likes a project that drags on and on without any visibility.
- Fight to keep infrastructure clean and efficient. Use it only as far as someone needs it, but no more. Get rid of meetings unless it’s absolutely vital. People are responsible adults. Treat them like it.
- Hire people who can play nice. Egos have no place in a collaborative environment like this. They must have communication skills. They must be able to handle criticism.
- Get to work. Some of the greatest ideas have come from trial and error. They’ve come from executing on ideas in a way that allows everyone involved to learn and grow. Learn to execute, even if an idea is not great at first.
- People are human, with real lives. Give them a voice, make them a partner instead of an employee, and they will fight with you every day.
None of these are a silver bullet to success, of course, but it’s a starting point for the new millennial workforce. Passion can conquer even the highest mountains, while ennui is the death knell of even the greatest studios.
