To Make Better Games
SessionⅡ
Team Management Skills
WOLFGANG HAMANN
Radical Entertainment
Game Development Seminar
What We Will Learn
Finding your own personal management
style
Hire “Character” not just “Skills”
Developing Core Values for your
company and your team
Retaining your best employees
You can never have enough “Soft Skills”
The importance of team and company
building skills
Game Development Seminar
Two Short Movies
Movie #1:
– Team management in the video game industry
is like managing a football team!
Movie #2:
– How NOT to manage a team!
Game Development Seminar
1. Determining Your Own Personal
Management Style
Self Analysis
– Determine
 Your Personal Goals – are they in line with your company’s
goals? Your team’s goals?
 Does your company & team see you they way you see
yourself?
 Your strengths
 Your challenges
 Improve your strengths/shore up your weaknesses
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Management Style Matrix
Relational
Independent
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A
B
Commander
Facilitator
C
D
Bureaucrat
Entrepreneur
Directive
Facilitative
Management Style Matrix (cont’d)
 Commander: “Captain Kirk of the Enterprise”
Decisive, controlling, competitive, highly demanding,
perfectionist, confrontational, results oriented, power
conscious, dominating.
Combine the directive interpersonal style with a strong
relationships orientation. Commanders like being in
control and thrive on using legitimate power to achieve
excellent results.
Game Development Seminar
Management Style Matrix (cont’d)
 Facilitator:
Characterized by people-pleasing, spontaneous, informal,
sharing and participative, sensitive, accommodating,
non emotional, conflict-avoiding.
Are relational like commanders, but they prefer
to facilitate (guide, encourage, equip) team members
rather than to overtly direct them.
Game Development Seminar
Management Style Matrix (cont’d)
Bureaucrats:
Like to be: organized, efficient, politically
sensitive, closure-oriented, concern for routine, planner,
formal, detached, information-focused, detail oriented.
Like to use formal, official policies and
procedures to efficiently direct ministry activities in a way
that permits independent action and decision-making,
minimizing the need for group deliberation and group
management. Bureaucrats favour orderly, routine
operations run "by the book."
Game Development Seminar
Management Style Matrix (cont’d)
 Entrepreneurs:
Characterized as: change-oriented, innovative,
persuasive, visionary, non traditional,
questioning, long term focus, experimental,
activist, controversial.
Prefer to operate independently of
organizational bureaucracy with an eye toward
facilitating change and innovation. They yearn to start
projects with visions of making great games that no one
has made before!
Game Development Seminar
Management Style Matrix (cont’d)
Which one are you?
The best managers adapt to the situation
and use the right technique at the right
time or a combination of techniques
You will not always succeed
Takes time and a great deal of practise
and patience!
Game Development Seminar
Situational Management
Effective managers manage the situation
“Reading” the situation quickly is
important
Flexibility is important
Listening is important
Communicating effectively is important
Game Development Seminar
Situational Management Examples
 Simpsons:
a) Communication problems
b) Team motivation problems
c) Conflict management problems
 The Hulk:
a) Conflict management problems
b) Team casting problems
Game Development Seminar
Situational Management Examples (cont’d)
 CSA – Critical Stage Analysis
 This process
a. Discovered these problems and others early
before they became major issues
b. Facilitated team input to solve these
problems
c. Acted as a “feed back loop” and team
building mechanism
d. Does away with Postmortems
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2. Hire the Right Team Members
 Important to have team members who are “self
actualized”
 Even when the going gets tough, team members
with character will do whatever it takes to make
the team successful
 Important to have an extensive interviewing
process
 Both you and the prospective team member must
have a clear and thorough understanding of each
other before an offer is made
Game Development Seminar
Hiring (cont’d)
If you can’t wait to hire the right team
member, hire the best talent on contract
to get the job done
And keep on looking until you find the
right fit
It may cost a bit more in the short term
but save you plenty in the long run
Game Development Seminar
3. Developing Core Values
Important to have a company and team
mission statement
Make sure these are “marketed” internally
on a regular basis
Everyone must understand these
Everyone must support these
Those that don’t should be encouraged to
“leave the ship”
Game Development Seminar
Mission Statement Examples
 Company:
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
Work hard
Have fun
Balance personal life with work
Respect each other
Share your knowledge
 Team
a) Help your team mates become better artists,
programmers, designers…people!
b) Make the best RPG game ever
 Important to have participation in
developing these from all relevant
parties
Game Development Seminar
4. Soft Skills
Such as Conflict Management, Time
Management, etc..
These are not just for “managers”
Internal and external courses to raise the
level of learning
Game Development Seminar
5. Employee Retention
Is not about paying the most $$$$$
It is about constantly getting feedback
about what your employees deem the
most important
It is about making these changes in a
positive way
You will not be able to make everyone
happy all of the time
But it is important to show that you are
trying
Game Development Seminar
6. Company and Team Building
For your team and company to grow, they
must grow together as a team and as a
company
This means the company/team must grow
as a “learning unit”
Important to set a unified direction
Important to have “buy in” from all
Individuals learning on their own is not
sufficient
Game Development Seminar
Be A Team Player!
 Game teams today are developed by
“teams” NOT “individuals”
 In order to have success your team
must have success!
 It is not a question of having
disagreements (disagreements are healthy!)
 But a question of how you resolve
those disagreements.
Game Development Seminar
Team Player (cont’d)
 A team member must effectively
manage:
a) Themselves
b) Their team mates
c) Their boss!
 A good technique is to treat everyone
…………….like your “boss”
 Even if you are “The Boss”!
Game Development Seminar
Team Player (cont’d)
 Communication style is important
 Effective communication is made up of:
a) Listening
b) Understanding and
c) Speaking effectively
 Feelings ARE important and should
always be dealt with first
Game Development Seminar
Team Player (cont’d)
 Techniques for better communication
include:
a. Blending - any behaviour by which you reduce
the differences between yourselves to find
common ground ie. “I understand you are also a
football fan!”
b. Backtrack – repeat what the other person said ie.
“in other words….”
c. Redirecting - any behaviour to change the direction of
the interaction to something positive
ie. From conflict to cooperation
Game Development Seminar
Team Player (cont’d)
Very Important!
Blend before you redirect
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Team Player (cont’d)
 Five step action plan for better
communication:
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
Blend verbally and non verbally
Backtrack some of the other person’s words
Clarify their meaning and intent
Summarize what you have heard
Confirm how the other person felt
Game Development Seminar
Team Player (cont’d)
Artists
– Think differently than
Programmers who
– Think differently than
Designers who
– Think differently than
Sound artists
All have their own language and ways of
communicating verbally and non verbally
Game Development Seminar
Team Player (cont’d)
To work better together, each should try
to learn each other’s language, style and
way of doing things
Game Development Seminar
Famous Quote
“Treat people as if they were what they ou
ght to be and you will help them
become what they are capable of
becoming.”
– - Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Game Development Seminar
Team Management Summary
In creating great games it is our job to
help everyone we work with become the
great person we know they can become
 If we can do this successfully there is no
telling what kind of great games we can
develop
Game Development Seminar
Finally
Great game concepts developed
by great people in great teams
make even better games!
Game Development Seminar
Thank You!
To Make Better Games
SessionⅡ
Team Management Skills
WOLFGANG HAMANN
Project Manager/Manager Sound Depart
Game Development Seminar