As part of the GamesBeat 2016 conference, veterans of the game dev gave advice on how to encourage and develop creativity among employees.
The discussion was attended by Megan Gaiser, CEO of Spiral Media Ltd, Ru Weerasuriya, creative director at Ready At Dawn Studios, which created The Order: 1886, Daxter and God of War: Chains of Olympus, and Michael Condrey, co-founder of the studio from 300 people Sledgehammer Games. The moderator of the discussion was Nicole Lazzaro, head of XEO Design.
The main idea of the discussion was the following: the more diverse the team, the more it helps to reveal the creative potential of the studio. The participants of the discussion suggested specifically creating a company as diverse in composition as possible, since it is this diversity that enhances creativity, and formulated several tips.
1. Accept ideas from all employees of the company. Bring together small and diverse groups of employees so that they regularly discuss exactly how to improve the situation in the company.
2. Publicly emphasize the diversity of the company’s composition – on the studio’s website, in the media and in social networks.
3. Keep a balance in each specialty (for example, hire women not only for positions in marketing, but also in the technical department).
4. Train employees to listen. In order to productively discuss an idea, you need to be able to listen to different points of view, and not just defend your own.
5. Encourage a caring attitude to responsibilities. Ask questions – how exactly can the company’s projects be improved, what will improve the quality of customer service, what will make the life of employees better, what new market opportunities employees see and how best to adapt to these opportunities.
6. Organize a series of lectures on related disciplines within the studio so that employees learn from each other and develop both their horizons and their mentoring skills
7. Apply the practice of a “blind resume” (that is, a resume where nothing is known about the gender, age and nationality of the applicant – approx. editorial offices). This will allow us to consider all candidates without prejudice.
8. Encourage team members to leave selfishness at the door.
9. Make sure that diversity is reflected in your leadership style.
10. Try to ensure that any of your employees have the opportunity to challenge someone’s idea and offer their own.
11. When hiring employees, set specific goals.
12. Attract experts from areas outside the industry.
13. Encourage trade unions and initiatives that raise awareness of the company’s various problems.
14. Make sure that employees change leading roles. Start with meetings and small tasks.
15. Create a strategy for developing diversity in the company that involves the skills and abilities of each employee.
16. Invest in a Leadership Enhancement program. Encourage company executives to develop creativity and emotional intelligence. This will help them acquire non-linear thinking skills, better cope with teamwork and not be afraid to act independently and set ambitious goals.
17. Change the recruitment process for new positions and the job descriptions themselves so as to attract the most diverse and qualified candidates.
18. Come up with ways to measure and evaluate the quantitative and qualitative impact of the practices listed here on the development process.
19. Make regular trainings on the development of awareness, creative leadership and awareness of involuntary prejudice (UCB) mandatory for all employees (approx. Editors: Facebook, for example, has released a whole series of videos on what involuntary prejudice is and how to deal with them).
20. In order to realize involuntary prejudices, encourage communication between employees on this topic, hold meetings dedicated to the issue. If you notice that you yourself are subject to these biases, openly admit it.
21. Give employees the opportunity to safely speak out about issues related to the diversity of the team.
22. Create an internal committee that will deal with the diversity of the team.
23. Hire a variety of employees (regardless of gender, country and favorite game genre).
24. Encourage and praise the diverse talents of employees – this will increase their self-confidence.
25. Make sure that the discomfort that arises when it is necessary to assimilate new ideas and cope with new tasks becomes part of the creative process.
26. Invite a variety of players to playtests. Let the developers communicate with them. Listen to their stories. Eat pizza with them. Play games with them together.
27. Create a specific algorithm and use it to rally the team when there are conflicts/complex tasks that need to be solved. For example:
- Step 1. Formulate the problem in the form of a question. For example, “How do we come up with an algorithm to solve complex issues?”
- Step 2. Have a collective discussion to find the answer to the question.
- Step 3. Discuss the solutions you have received.
- Step 4. Practice using the methods you have learned to consolidate the skill.
Source: VentureBeat