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Leadership Styles Your Team Needs

Joshua HowardIGDA Leadership ForumNov 2010

Acting

Interacting

Players World

KillersAchiever

s

Socializers

Explorers

Bartle’s MMO Player Model

• The games industry is used to using models to help us build better games

• Models help us understand the landscape of a given problem space

Playerexperience

HardFun

PeopleFun

EasyFun

SeriousFun

amuse

fiero curiosity

relax

goal

life

open ended

game

The 4 Fun Keys

© XEO Design

• Another model that games industry is familiar with

• This model is one of several that lets us understand the different kinds of fun

• Different models for the same thing can shed different insights onto the same topic

• Understanding what your team needs and what your team wants is key to knowing what leadership style you should using

• Develop a Leadership Strategy based on a Model of Needs & a Model of Wants

• Not selling you these particular models• About the power of using models

• Not training on a specific leadership strategy• About showing you how to come up with

your own leadership strategy

PremiseWe think a lot about the user experience in games,

butdon’t think enough about the employee experience

Developing yourLeadership Strategy

Action Deliverable Result

The ADR EquationAll work can be broken into a

Result, which is achieved (or not) by a Deliverable, which is the

consequence of an Action.

Raise MoneyProduct

BuiltMake Money

Use 3d Modeler3d ModelCreated

Model ready for

Dev

Applies at Any ScaleAny task can be broken into many

smaller ADR Equations

ADR is fractal

Action Deliverable Result

Action Deliverable Result

ActionDeliverable

Result

ActionDeliverable

Result

ActionDeliverable

Result

ActionDeliverable

Result

Action Deliverable Result

ActionDeliverable

Result

ActionDeliverable

Result

ActionDeliverable

Result

ActionDeliverable

Result

Action Deliverable Result

ActionDeliverable

Result

ActionDeliverable

Result

ActionDeliverable

Result

ActionDeliverable

Result

Management’s job is to scale the ADR Equation appropriately for each given project and team/team

member

• Before you could do a book report you had to learn to read

• Your Teacher taught you to read• Your Teacher was your first

manager

NeedsParents are not Managers, because

Parents offer unconditional love. What Managers offer – pay, rewards, etc. – is conditional, based on performance.

• Before we start anything we have to learn the basics

• Then we develop those skills a little more

• Then transition to the skill of using those skills

• We need different kinds of help along the way

Progression of Needs

TEACHER

• Skill Acquisition• Learning how to do something you have never done before

COACH

• Skill Application• Applying the essential skills in diverse and less controlled

situations

MENTOR

• Wisdom/Experience• Council of someone who has a deep understanding gained

through iteration

PEER

• Perspective• Council of someone enough uninvolved to see things that

otherwise would be missed

Progression of Needs Model

See Situational Leadership as more advanced take on

this core idea

• Step 1: Diagnosis• Which role does your team need (for the task at

hand)?

• Step 2: Filling the Need• Provide the role, either personally, or through the

application of other resources• Perhaps from within the team itself

• Step 3: Validating the Diagnosis• If the team is still not making sufficient progress

(on the task at hand) then consider an alternate diagnosis

• Step 4: Re-evaluation• Before the next step make a new diagnosis• Don’t assume the team is in the same place, nor

that they have moved further alongApplying the Needs Model

TEACHER

COACH

MENTOR

PEER

• Not a value statement about how ‘good’ or ‘smart’ the team is

• Is highly dependent upon the task at hand• Teams are often good at some things but not

yet at others• Teams often contain their own Teachers,

Coaches, and Mentors• Don’t assume they must be externally

sourced• Find your natural default role, and be

careful not to slide into it too often

Needs Model Notes

TEACHER

COACH

MENTOR

PEER

What do they Want?

• Bartle’s Model applies to MMO players

• Could it also apply to the work place?

• Finding a useful model for you is the point

• While useful for MMOs, perhaps Bartle’s model is not the best way to think about the workplace…

Model of Motivations

Acting

Interacting

Players World

KillersAchiever

s

Socializers

Explorers

Bartle’s MMO Player Model

“likes getting stuff done”

“likes working with others”

“likes doing new things”

“likes winning most of all”

Bartle’s Employee Model?

Secret to Success

Hold yourself accountable

with everyone

Say what you are going to

do

Do It

When asked what it takes to be successful and get promoted, this is the advice I have offered over

and over again.

‘Flip Success Over’ to see Wants

Hold yourself accountable

with everyone

Say what you are going to

doDo It

Decide for yourself

Pride in a job well done

Knowing what you do

mattersAutono

myMastery Purpose

*See D. Pink’s “Drive” for more about these primary

motivators

* **

• Autonomy• Having the right to make decisions

about your own work

• Mastery• Feeling good about being good, and

getting better at what you do

• Purpose• Making a difference• At work and/or in the world

Primary Motivators

Autonomy

Mastery

Purpose

• In general, everyone wants these• Assumes certain conditions have

already been met• Pay is sufficient that money is not a primary

motivator• Essential needs already meet (safety, etc.)

• Doesn’t distinguish between different individual motivators, but is a good broad tool

Notes on Wants

Autonomy

Mastery

Purpose

Putting it All Together

Action Deliverable Result

Results should have

Purpose

Deliverables provide opportunit

y for Mastery

The Team deciding how to get a Result

provides opportunity for

Autonomy

Teachers tend to operate on this

end of the equation

Coaches move closer to the

Result

Mentors provide feedback, not

dictates

Frame Results such that the Action and

Deliverable are Self-

discoverable

Self-discoverable being dependent

on where the team is on the Needs model

Combining Needs & Wants leads to a ‘playbook’ – a Leadership Strategy

• ADR Equation gives us components to consider

• Progression of Needs illustrates how needs are situation and team dependent

• Secret to Success ‘flipped over’ is Model of Wants

• Using models helps us create our own Leadership Strategy

• Use these models, find or create your own, and commit to being a better leader

Conclusion

Questions?

{ {Resources

• Situational Leadership• http://www.situational.com/

• “Drive” by Daniel H. Pink• http://www.danpink.com/drive

• Bartle’s MMO Player Model• http://

www.mud.co.uk/richard/hcds.htm

• The 4 Fun Keys by XEO Design• http://www.xeodesign.com

Recommended Reading for growing Leaders

• “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team” by Patrick Lencioni• http

://www.tablegroup.com/books/dysfunctions/

• “Freakonomics” by Levitt and Dubner• http://freakonomicsbook.com

• “It's Your Ship: Management Techniques from the Best Damn Ship in the Navy” by Michael Abrashoff

References {Contact• More from Joshua Howard

• http://thereisnothem.wordpress.com

• Email Joshua@bonegames.com• All material © 2010 Joshua Howard or

their respective owners