Game dev leadership and management part 1

Leadership and Management
Sergei Savchenko
Game Dev
Part 1 of 2

2
This master class is to:
▪ Acquire or refresh tools and common
vocabulary
So that:
▪ Deal with leadership and
management challenges effectively
and achieve better results
4

3
Sergei Savchenko
▪ Shipped over 20 game titles
(consoles, PC, handheld, mobile,
web) at 3DO, EA and WB
▪ Built and led large engineering
and multidisciplinary teams
▪ Studio CTO at EA Montreal
▪ Executive Producer at Warner
Bros. Games
▪ Co-Founder of several start-ups
(including an AI startup that’s
just getting under way)
▪ Wrote a book on Computer
Graphics
▪ Studied Automated Reasoning
▪ BSc and MSc in Computer
Science, McGill University
5

4
Part 1: We will talk about
1. Leadership and Management
2. Communication
3. Influence
4. Cooperation and Collaboration
5. Dealing with Conflict
6. Theory of Motivation
7

5
7. Managing Creativity
8. Structure and Organization
9. Policies and Staff
10. Team training
11. Strategy and Planning
12. Risk management
13. Establishing Process
14. Values 8

69
1. Leadership and
Management

8
Two aspects of people in charge:
▪ Leadership is about people
▪ What is important and why we must
succeed?
▪ Management is about planning
▪ What the future holds and how to be
prepared?
11

9
▪ Leadership & Management are not
complex in theory but hard to do in
practice…
▪ One reason: our innate intuitions - how
we think we need to lead and manage
others may be counterproductive
▪ Yet, both leadership and management are
vital!
12

10
Can Produce Amazing Results:
13

11
Or Be Easily Dysfunctional…
14

12
▪ Sometimes what people in
charge do is so dysfunctional
that it manages to snatch defeat
from the jaws of victory…

13
▪ Steve Sasson, the Kodak engineer
who invented the first digital
camera in 1975, characterized the
initial corporate response to his
invention:
“…But it was film-less
photography, so management
reaction was: that’s cute – but
don’t tell anyone about it…”

14
▪ To be effective Leadership needs to
provide:
▪ Purpose
▪ Focus
▪ Commitment
17

15
Purpose and Focus
▪ Purpose
▪ Why we must succeed?
▪ (And/or why we must not fail)
▪ Focus
▪ What is important?
▪ (And/or what is not important)
18

1619
▪ Purpose + Focus == Vision

17
▪ Effective vision becomes a common
end that unifies people to accomplish
huge goals often against tremendous
odds…
▪ An effective common end is bigger
than any individual… 
20

19
▪ Is the vision to “monetize chemical
film business” or to “reproduce
images for customers conveniently”?

20
▪ Vision needs to combine group
interest and self interest

21
Why group and self interest?
24
CompetingIdling
CollaboratingYielding
Concern for self
Concernforgroupsgoal Compromising
High
HighLow

22
▪ 3 techniques to express vision:

23
Expressing Vision:
▪ Target:
▪ #1 in Adventure category
▪ Make it so that a 5 year old can play
▪ Land on Mars
26

24
Can a computer make you cry?
“…We're providing a special environment
for talented, independent software artists.
It's a supportive environment, in which big
ideas are given room to grow. And some
of America's most respected software
artists are beginning to take notice.
We think our current work
reflects this very special commitment. And
though we are few in number today and
apart from the mainstream of the mass
software marketplace, we are confident
that both time and vision are on our
side…”
Join us. We see farther.
27

25
Expressing Vision:
▪ Common Enemy:
▪ A “Not EA Sports”, sports
game
▪ We are Ubisoft (and not
Vivendi)
28

26
Expressing Vision:
▪ Role Model:
▪ Like GTA
▪ Like Clash Royale
▪ Match-3 with
progression
29

29
To summarize:
Vision can be expressed as:
▪ Target
▪ Common enemy
▪ Role model

30
What do you think?
▪ “…We need to minimize inefficiencies
and maximize on existing partnership
synergies…”
33
Not vague and abstract

31
What do you think?
▪ “…Need to reach $4B annual revenue
with a 30% responsibility profit…”
34
Not strictly material or
monetary

32
What do you think?
▪ “…Purchase 12 Dell blades and a
Sysco switch to improve Pre-rendered
department’s throughput…”
35
Not tactical

33
What do you think?
▪ “…Reach quality target of 80 MC
score…”
36
Not excessivelymetrics driven

34
To summarize:
How not to express a vision:
▪ Not vague and abstract
▪ Not monetary/strictly material in
nature
▪ Not tactical
▪ Not excessively metrics driven
37

35
▪ People might commit on the strength on the
vision alone… But in most practical settings
they won’t…

36
▪ Commitment is the state or quality of
being dedicated to a cause, activity, etc..
It is also known as a pledge or an
undertaking. A commitment is never
supposed to be broken, if it is broken;
that means it was never a commitment
rather was just a pretention and lying.
-Wikipedia
39

37
How to ask for commitment:
▪ Asking for commitment takes
courage…
▪ Explain why the project is super
important!
▪ Explain how invaluable individual
contribution is to the project!

39
What not to do:
▪ Monetary/material coercion
▪ Changing your reasoning often

40
▪ 8AM. You are walking to work in a
sparse crowd of unknown
pedestrians. There is a man lying on
the ground. What do you do? (what
do you really do? Not what you think
the society expects that you do)

41
▪ It is a challenge asking for a group
commitment, especially when the vision is
fresh - effect of diffusion of responsibility
▪ Might be more effective on a 1-1 basis
initially
▪ Later on, if you have acquired a core of
followers (ideally with strong subjective
authority), group setting may be effective
44

42
▪ To be effective Management needs to
provide:
▪ Situational assessment
▪ Strategy and Plans
▪ Team Structure and Organization
▪ Control and Tactical Decision Making,
Process
45

43
▪ The biggest value of a manager
is asking right questions…

44
Situational Assessment
▪ Are there information gaps?
▪ What are the sources of information?
▪ What is the volume of information?
▪ What is reliable and what is not?
▪ What are strong and weak points of
the team?
▪ Etc.

45
Strategy and Plans
▪ What is predictable and what is not?
▪ What are the trends?
▪ What are historical examples?
▪ What is the planning granularity?
▪ How much discovery is expected?
▪ Etc.

46
Structure and Organization
▪ Number of experience disciplines in
the team?
▪ What is the general experience level
of the team?
▪ Size of the team?
▪ How many worked together before?
▪ Distributed or not?
▪ Etc.

47
Control and Tactical Decision Making, Process
▪ Project duration?
▪ External risks and liabilities?
▪ Cost of failure?
▪ How do you know when you are
succeeding or failing?
▪ How the process needs to evolve?
▪ Etc.
(to be continued in later sections)

49
▪ Programmer: I need this 3D model
made under 250k
▪ Artist: Absolutely! Consider it done!
1 week later:
▪ Artist: Here’s an awesome model! 250 000
polys only, 6 materials and 4 textures!
▪ Programmer: Ahhhhhhhhhh!!! I meant this model of the
bow and arrow needs to take less than 250
Kbytes of storage!!!
5 min later:
▪ Producer: What do you mean, one more week!?

50
▪ Whose fault was it?
▪ Who is getting yelled at?
*
* A hint

51
▪ Successful communication
requires 3 things:

52
Successful Communication:
Common Language:
▪ Are we talking about the same thing or
not?
▪ Vertical slice
▪ MVP
▪ Leading edge
▪ POC
▪ First playable

53
▪ Trust:
▪ Do we believe what is being
communicated?

54
▪ Attention:
▪ Is the audience listening?

55
▪ There are also 3 types of communication
barriers that could prevent successful
communication from happening:

56
Communication Barrier:
▪ Complexity of the message:
▪ “Magno- vs. parvo-cellular” (M-P) streams are
fundamental to the organization of macaque
visual cortex. Segregated, paired M-P streams
extend from retina through LGN into V1. The M
stream extends further into area V5/MT, and
parts of V2. However elsewhere in visual cortex,
it remains unclear whether M-P-derived
information 1) becomes intermixed, or 2)
remains segregated in M-P dominated columns
and neurons. Here we tested whether M-P
streams exist in extrastriate cortical columns, in
8 human subjects (4 female).
60

57
61
▪ Lack of Structure/Noise:

58
▪ Withholding of Information:
▪ Intentional
▪ Protect the team…
▪ Perceived information sensitivity…
▪ Unintentional
▪ Assumptions on information availability…
▪ Assumptions on individual interest in information…
62

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To summarize:
Successful communication requires:
▪ Common language
▪ Trust
▪ Attention
Following barriers may impede communication:
▪ Complexity of message
▪ Lack of structure/noise
▪ Withholding of information 63

60
Very early morning in the games studio
(~11ish), while getting coffee:
▪ Dev 1: Did you go to yesterday’s all-
hands?
▪ Dev 2: Yup
▪ Dev 1: Something interesting?
▪ Dev 2: Nah, it was about values…
▪ Dev 1: So what are our values?
▪ Dev 2: Ehh, cooperation, something
something...

61
▪ Assume communication is happening and
message is understood when received. Will
the info be remembered?

62
Made to Stick
How to craft a narrative that
will be remembered
66
Chip Heath & Dan Heath

63
▪ 6 techniques to make
communication sticky:

64
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LENvGRsr7Q

65
Stickiness of the message:
▪ Simple:
▪ Get from anywhere
to anywhere on
earth in under 30
min

66
▪ Unexpected:
▪ I thought they were
flying to Moon, Mars
and beyond, not
Shanghai

67
▪ Concrete:
▪ Not an abstract
idea, this is about
practical travel

68
▪ Credible:
▪ Or almost credible -
seems, if they can
land rockets
already…

69
▪ Emotional:
▪ Not just a
passenger, an
astronaut

70
▪ Narrative:
▪ Describes a journey
of passengers from
point A to point B

71
To summarize:
▪ Simple
▪ Unexpected
▪ Concrete
▪ Credible
▪ Emotional
▪ Narrative
75

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To summarize:
If there are only two to remember:
▪ Unexpected
▪ Narrative
76

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Neuroscience of memory:
▪ The brain remembers experiences as
associations – narratives easily map
this way: for given pre-conditions:
here is what happened

74
▪ Good narrative doesn’t tell what
happened (the conclusion) in 1st
paragraph… It keeps the audience
guessing (i.e. is a more active
neurological state)…

75
▪ The brain likes to preserve energy
and doesn’t like to rewire itself for
something that is similar to what is
already known
▪ A surprise usually dictates an
exception and a new type of
association forming

76
▪ One effective kind of surprise?
Used a lot in advertising?

78
The Memory Illusion
What we remember and how
we remember it
82
Dr. Julia Shaw

79
▪ And yes, human memory is
very, very flawed

81
From your friendly producer’s early Thu
email:
“… Please make sure all of your time-
sheets are up to date by EOD as
finance needs to close the payroll on
Fri. This is also super important for our
SR&ED claim. Much appreciated! …”

82
▪ What is the percentage of the team
that will oblige?
▪ Assume your communication is well
understood and may even be
remembered. Will it change behavior?
Will it be influential?

83
▪ There are 5 key influence
principles (and many techniques):

84
Influence Principles:
▪ Authority:
▪ People will make important what the
person in charge feels is important.

85
Establish Authority e.g.:
▪ Have the authority formally established for
you
▪ Formally establish authority for your leads
▪ Convey authority in sharing information
(rather than retaining information)
▪ Convey authority in decision making (you are
not there to just: “Help the team succeed”
you are there to make decision that lead to
team’s success)

86
▪ Common End:
▪ People will get behind the vision/
common end that is perceived essential
for the group and for people individually

87
Establish Common End e.g.:
▪ Speak about shared goals
▪ Why the goals are essential
▪ What the win will mean for the
customers/industry/society/the world
▪ What the win will mean for the group
and people individually

88
▪ Common Identity:
▪ People will conform to their ingroup’s
perceived shared principles, norms and
values

89
Establish Common Identity e.g.:
▪ Speak and act shared norms, shared
principles and shared values
▪ Speak about shared conviction on
your project direction and its place in
the market
▪ It is important to deal with people
violating group norms

90
▪ Trust:
▪ Everything you do will be questioned. It
will be questioned less if you have the
track record of honesty and don’t leave
big knowledge gaps in your team’s
worldview

91
Establish Trust e.g.:
▪ Ensure lack of surprises overtime
about delivery of what was promised
▪ Demonstrate prior successes
▪ Demonstrate transparency of decision
making
▪ If you are not sure about something,
say so

92
▪ Urgency:
▪ People are more likely to act if the goal is
meaningfully urgent

93
Establish Urgency e.g.:
▪ Demonstrate limited time and/or
resources of the opportunity
▪ Show that market dynamics may make
current opportunity obsolete
▪ Demonstrate that competition may
increase shortly

94
▪ Building influence is usually a
marathon, rarely a sprint

95
To summarize:
Influence principles:
▪ Establish Authority
▪ Establish Common end
▪ Establish Common identity
▪ Establish Trust
▪ Establish Urgency

96
▪ The other side of the influence
coin…

97
Solid as a rock! Just
350,000 km on it!!

98
▪ How to recognize unnecessary
or unwanted influence?

99
Influence
How not be influenced
unnecessarily and what
persuasion methods exist
104
Robert B. Cialdini

100
Influence Awareness:
▪ Reciprocation:
▪ People feel obliged to return a favor or a gift

101
▪ Scarcity:
▪ People routinely
want more of the
things they can
have less of

102
▪ False Authority:
▪ People follow the
lead of what they
perceive as
credible experts…

103
▪ Commitment to
Consistency:
▪ People like to
appear consistent
with the things
they have
previously said or
done

104
▪ Likability:
▪ People are more likely
to say yes to those
that they like (and
they often like people
who are like them).
People may mirror
your preferences,
interests even
gestures

105
▪ Social Proof:
▪ When uncertain,
people look at
the behavior of
others around
them to guide
themselves
▪ People, by
default, conform
to their group

106
To summarize:
Influence technique to be aware of:
▪ Reciprocation
▪ Scarcity
▪ False Authority
▪ Commitment to Consistency
▪ Likability
▪ Social Proof 111

107113
4. Cooperation and
Collaboration

109
▪ What do you think: Could a
newly formed work group be
more cooperative compared to
an already functional group?

110
Collaboration and Cooperation
▪ Collaboration
▪ When collaborating, people work together (co-
labor) on a single shared goal 
▪ Cooperation
▪ When cooperating, people perform together (co-
operate) while working on individual goals
▪ Two somewhat different things. We will use
these interchangeably though as they are
related
116

111
▪ Here are 5 pre-conditions for
cooperation:

112
People cooperate when:
▪ There is a common end:
▪ There is an accepted vision that is
essential for the group and for
individuals
118

113
▪ People are committed:
▪ People are willing to do what needs to be
done
119

114
▪ They are able to communicate:
▪ Communication barriers removed or
better yet there is a process to remove
these
120

115
▪ Able to maintain trust:
▪ Multiple successful outcomes of prior
cooperation strengthen trust
▪ A single hurting outcome breaks trust
121

116
▪ Able to be altruistic sometimes:
▪ Altruism is likely to be reciprocated
122

117
Good News:
▪ Humans are predisposed to cooperate
biologically. Driven by proven
altruistic behaviour bias
▪ Humans are shown to act altruistically
in situations where it may be against
self-interest (btw this is not uniquely
human) 123

118
The Nature of Human Altruism
Research on the nature and
different manifestation of
human altruism
Ernst Fehr & Uhr Bischbacher

119
Prisoner’s Dilemma:
▪ Two suspects committed a crime together. They
are being interrogated separately
▪ Any of the two might go free by implicating the
other who will receive tough sentence (5 years)
▪ But, if they co-implicate they receive 3 years each
(with a discount for cooperation)
▪ If they stay silent they will get minimal sentence
each (1 year) as there is little evidence

120
▪ Implicating the other – cheating
▪ Staying silent – cooperating

121
▪ What do they do?
▪ How does this game change if it is
recurrent (there is memory of previous
outcomes)?
▪ How does it change if there are multiple
participants?

122
▪ Punishing violators of social
norm is often against direct self-
interest and is a variation of
altruistic behaviour…

123
Trust/Fairness
▪ When will cooperation
break down if:
▪ No punishment is
possible
▪ Punishment of defectors
possible
▪ Punishment of defectors
and non-punishers
possible. 129

124
▪ Altruism is costly in biological terms and
cooperation can break down relatively easily
though…

125
Bad News:
▪ To counterbalance altruism people are
generally very sensitive to perceived
unfairness.
▪ However… it is proven, that people
are not particularly good at detecting
cheating and lies… (even worse, we
think that we are good at it) 131

126
▪ Over-sensitivity to perceived
unfairness and poor ability to
detect cheating results in
feelings of victimization, desire
to irrationally punish perceived
offenders == conflict

127
Why group and self interest?
133
CompetingIdling
Concern for self
Compromising
High
HighLow
Considered
Cheating? Concernforgroupgoal

128
To summarize:
Cooperation requires:
▪ Demonstrating altruism sometimes
▪ Having common end
▪ Having commitment to the common
end
▪ Being able to communicate
▪ Being able to maintain trust

129
▪ What does it mean if your team
is distributed?

130
Distributed team cooperation
▪ Being perceived altruistic is tougher
▪ Establishing common end is tougher
▪ Demonstrating commitment is
tougher
▪ Communication is tougher
▪ Maintaining trust is tougher

131
▪ 5 techniques to help with
distributed teams:

132
Managing Distributed Team:
▪ Prior co-working experience:
▪ Early on it helps to have people on both
sides who worked together previously
(This benefit will decline with time)

133
▪ Frequent face to face:
▪ No great substitute to frequent face to face
▪ This needs to be proactively organized and
budgeted
▪ It must not be limited to leads/execs
▪ All conflicts need to be resolved face to
face

134
▪ Sub-ownership of the whole:
▪ No great substitute to clearly established
sub-ownership of the whole (reducing
dependencies reduces the chance of
misunderstandings)

135
▪ Equidistant management:
▪ Distribute management!
▪ Make management equally distant from
all sub teams (identity-wise and
location-wise)

136
▪ Over-investment in information:
▪ Over-invest in up-to-date
documentation, records of decisions
▪ Documents that are not up-to-date
makes things much worse rather than
better

137
To summarize
Managing Distributed team:
▪ Prior co-working experience
▪ Frequent face-to-face
▪ Sub-ownership of the whole
▪ Equidistant management
▪ Over-invest in information

138
▪ The team is awesome, cooperating well,
there is no unhealthy internal conflict…

140
▪ Groupthink… Very cooperative groups
composed of very smart people can go
terribly wrong
▪ Groupthink occurs when common desire
for harmony and conformity results in
irrational or dysfunctional decision making

141
Social Phenomena
▪ Illusion of group efficacy…
Overestimating group ability to
achieve intended outcomes compared
to individually
▪ Group polarization… Making decisions
as a group that are more extreme
than individual decisions 147

142
Social Phenomena
▪ Social loafing… Exerting less effort when
part of the group compared to individually
▪ Diffusion of responsibility… An individual
is less likely to take responsibility for
actions or inaction when part of the group
compared to individually.
148

143
Principles of Social Psychology
Main principles of human
group behaviours
149
Free textbook without attribution

144151
5. Dealing with Conflict

145
▪ (Somewhere while consuming coffee or beer) “…Our publishing team
has no idea how to publish. I checked telemetry and only their
intern played the game for more than 1hr. Our social media strategy
sucks – all they talk about is how much money the company raises
for social causes…”
▪ That same day:
▪ (Somewhere else while consuming coffee or beer) “…Devs don’t
understand the market at all, only their intern played competition
game for more than 1hr. No one can explain what is cool about our
game! We keep asking them for content and receive nothing, have
to keep inventing things like how much money company raises for
social causes…”

146
▪ Based on psychological mechanisms,
there are 5 different types of conflicts:

147
Sources of Conflict:
▪ Conflict of Goals:
▪ Objective, material goals pursued by
parties are different yet rely on shared
resources
▪ A studio has two game teams…
▪ Conflict of interest, personal material
gain may be in conflict with the best
interests of the employer

148
▪ Social Ladder Conflict:
▪ Social comparison – we would like to be
better, stronger etc. compared to peers
▪ Misplaced ego…
▪ Rationalization of behavior…

149
▪ Trust Conflict:
▪ Distrust
▪ Perceived hidden rational for opponent’s
actions
▪ Perceived injustice
▪ Perceived violation of social norm

150
▪ Diverging Predictions:
▪ Different risks identified
▪ Fear
▪ Helplessness

151
▪ Identity Bias Conflict:
▪ Conformance to in-
group in opposition to
out-group
▪ Cultural conflict
▪ Lack of role empathy

152
To summarize:
There are 5 types of conflict:
▪ Conflict of Goals
▪ Social Ladder Conflicts
▪ Trust conflict
▪ Conflict of diverging predictions
▪ Identity Bias Conflict

153
▪ Cognitive biases often amplify
conflicts…

154
Cognitive Biases:
▪ Confirmation bias:
▪ We tend to prioritize what favours our
attitudes
161

155
Cognitive Biases:
▪ Personal attribution bias:
▪ We assign behaviour to a person rather
than social situation
162

156
Cognitive Biases:
▪ Self-serving bias:
▪ We attribute successes to self and
failures to the situation
163

157
Cognitive Biases:
▪ Backfire effect:
▪ A tendency to react to discomforting
evidence by strengthening the previous
belief
164

158
Cognitive Biases:
▪ Zero sum game:
▪ A tendency to think about a situation
where someone’s gain equates with
someone else’s loss of the same
magnitude

160
Predictably Irrational
Pitfalls of human decision
making
167
Dan Ariely

161
▪ Inability to interpret behaviour or mis-
prediction of behaviour amplifies conflict…

162
▪ Personality type classifiers attempt
to cluster behaviour patterns

164
Big Five Traits
Trait Scale
Openness to experience Inventive vs. Cautious
Conscientiousness Efficient vs. Careless
Extraversion Outgoing vs. Reserved
Agreeableness Friendly vs. Detached
Neuroticism Confident vs. Sensitive
Big-5 Instrument

165
▪ Big Five has been somewhat validated
for W.E.I.R.D. societies. It may not be
all-encompassing or universal
▪ Western Educated Industrial Rich
Democratic

166
Introduction to Psychology
Main principles of human
individual behaviour
173
Free textbook without attribution

167
▪ There are 3 main components of
establishing conflict resolution strategy:

168
Conflict Resolution:
▪ Identify importance of the outcome vs.
importance of relationship:
CompetingIdling
Importance of
outcome
Compromising
High
HighLow
Importanceof
relationship

169
▪ Everyone has conflict
resolution mode bias…
Thomas-Kilmann
Instrument

170
▪ Identify source of conflict:
▪ Conflict of Goals
▪ Social Ladder Conflicts
▪ Trust conflict
▪ Conflict of diverging predictions
▪ Identity Bias Conflict

171
Source vs. Mode
Collaborate Compromise Yield Compete
Conflict of Goals If possible establish
a bigger or future
shared goal
Split the areas and
elect to loose in
one area to win in
another
Put your goal on
hold temporarily
(sometimes it is
important to be a
follower)
Demonstrate
external validity of
your goals and
errors of the
opponent
Trust conflict Establish a shared
source of authority
Accept findings to
have your findings
accepted in another
area
Give another
chance to the other
party
Demonstrate
validity of you
information
Conflict of
diverging
predictions
Establish a mutually
acceptable metric
or a test of
predictions
Establish a mutually
acceptable plan B
Choose to accept
the other party’s
reasoning
Prove validity of
your prediction

172
▪ Element of competition in any
group is inevitable and could
generally be healthy but must
be moderated…

174
Source vs. Mode
Collaborate Compromise Yield Compete
Social ladder
conflict
Propose to put
competition aside
for the time being
Find an alternative
ladder to compete
on
Accept the situation
as unimportant
Overinvest in your
goal and your
acceptance by the
wider audience
Identity Bias
Conflict
Understand the
other party’s
identity better and
inform about your
own
Find an area of
similarity (or a
common enemy)
and use it as the
base
Choose to accept all
or part of the other
party’s identity
Overinvest in
informing the wider
audience about
your identity
▪ These two are surprisingly difficult to
resolve (e.g.: peace in the middle east)

175
▪ Interviewing a director after project
failed:
“…and then I intentionally sat
back and let others drive only so
that everyone can see that they
are on a wrong path…”

176
▪ Idling is one mode that is not
affordable. Seek (or propose
seeking) other opportunities in
the industry…

177
▪ Moderate by personality type bias:
Trait Scale
Openness to experience Inventive vs. Cautious
Conscientiousness Efficient vs. Careless
Extraversion Outgoing vs. Reserved
Agreeableness Friendly vs. Detached
Neuroticism Confident vs. Sensitive

178
Moderating by personality
▪ Someone cautious may have seen prior
fails
▪ Someone habitually careless may still be
trustworthy in important things
▪ Someone who appears detached may still
be motivated
▪ Someone who is overly sensitive may still
be efficient
▪ Someone reserved may just need some
time alone

179
To summarize:
Establish conflict resolution strategy:
▪ Identify importance of outcome vs.
importance of relationship
▪ Identify psychological source of
conflict
▪ Moderate by personality type bias

180
Beware
▪ Some ongoing goals and prediction
conflicts are inherently healthy!
▪ e.g.: there is an inherent conflict between
a Creative Director and Executive Producer
(vision vs. execution). This need to be
moderated rather than resolved
▪ Having a contrarian on your team will help
avoid Groupthink

181189
6. Theory of Motivation

182
An Experiment:
▪ Session 1: A group of participants
are asked to solve puzzles
▪ Session 2: A reward of $1 is offered
to those who have solved a puzzle
▪ Session 3: Participants return to
solve puzzles, no reward is given

183
▪ Do you think the performance
improves during Session 2?
▪ What about Session 3?

184
▪ Theories of Motivation

185
▪ Creating
▪ Learning
▪ Being respected,
being part of the
winning team
▪ Compensated
193
Hierarchy of Needs (A. Maslow 1943)

186
E.R.G. (Clayton Alderefer, 1969)
194
Existence
Needs
Relatedness
Needs
Growth Needs

187
Self Determination Theory (E. Deci and R. Ryan, 1985)
▪ Intrinsic motivation
▪ Extrinsic motivation

188
Intrinsic Motivations:
▪ Competence:
▪ Intrinsic need to gain mastery of tasks and
improve skill
▪ Autonomy:
▪ Intrinsic need to feel in control of behavior
and goals
▪ Relatedness:
▪ Intrinsic need to experience sense of
belonging, attachment, comparison to
others 196

189
Extrinsic motivations could also be very powerful!
▪ Regulation:
▪ External reward/punishment,
compliance/reactance
▪ Introjection:
▪ Approval or others or self
▪ Identification:
▪ Valuing of external goals
197

190
▪ While extrinsic motivations can
be very effective shorter term, it
is the strength of intrinsic
motivations that are a better
predictor of longer term
individual’s “success”…

191
Drive
About Autonomy, Mastery and
Purpose
199
Daniel H. Pink

192
▪ So what about Session 2 and Session
3 in Deci experiment?
▪ Performance improves somewhat
during Session 2 but drops during
Session 3 (and potentially ever
thereafter)

193
Another Experiment:
▪ Session 1: A group of participants are
asked to solve puzzles
▪ Session 2: A reward of $1 Recognition is
offered to those who have solved a
puzzle
▪ Session 3: Participants return to solve
puzzles, no reward is given

194
Beware
▪ Coercion with an external reward may kill
longer term internal motivation
▪ While you can easily kill it, you will not be
able to establish someone’s internal
motivation. You could look for people who
already have strong one
▪ Praise and recognition are generally
effective and normally do not decrease
internal motivations

195
▪ Recognition in group setting is
complicated. What about people not
recognized?

196
▪ Recognize team achievement and
collaboration in group setting…
▪ Recognize individual achievement in
1-1 setting…

197
▪ Do you train your lead to
recognize their team members?

198
▪ When motivated people are the
most efficient?

200
In positive psychology, flow, also known as the zone, is
the mental state of operation in which a person
performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of
energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the
process of the activity. In essence, flow is characterized
by complete absorption in what one does, and a
resulting loss in one's sense of space and time. 
 
-Wikipedia

201
Flow
The psychology of optimal
experiences
209
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

202
Flow state conditions:
▪ Knowing what to do
▪ Knowing how to do it
▪ Knowing how well you are doing
▪ High perceived challenges
▪ High perceived skills
▪ Freedom from distractions

203
▪ Motivation of the team members and
motivation of game player are mostly
based on the same psychological
principles…
▪ Player Engagement Needs
Satisfaction (PENS) model is based on
Self Determination Theory. (Your lead
designer must study PENS if hasn’t
already)

204
7. Managing Creativity
8. Structure and Organization
9. Policies and Staff
10. Team training
11. Strategy and Planning
12. Risk management
13. Establishing Process
14. Values 8

Thank you!!
For your consulting/training needs:
savchenko.sergei@gmail.com

Game dev leadership and management part 1

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