Gaming Horror – it's a Game Dev's Life

A couple days ago i started wondering what our corporate culture is. If we even have such a thing. Wether there are “things” that defines our corporate culture that most of my coworkers would uniformly agree on … and most of all: WTF is corporate culture anyway?

I’ve asked a few of my coworkers what they thought is part of our company culture. They were as helpless as i. Basically no one could even explain in any satisfactory way what corporate culture is. A few examples were given but i really wasn’t sure if that fell even into our vaguely defined idea of culture.

A few more days passed when i finally remembered to google for corporate culture. The most useful description i found is from Rick Kilton and titled A Culture to Retain Employees. If you only read one thing about corporate culture because you don’t have much time, take the ten minutes to read this link.

Once you get more interested in corporate culture, like i am now, you should invest into Edgar H. Schein‘s book Organizational Culture and Leadership. It really puts things into perspective. Especially after having read the book Team Leadership in the Game Industry by Seth Spaulding.

Team Leadership in the Game Industry is one of the few books i mentally ate. I’m still digesting it. I could imagine that there’s few books about Leadership as good as this one, and its use is not limited to Game Industry leaders. The basic ideas and observations apply almost everywhere, or at least in high tech industries. Obviously, i you’re a coalminor you’d expect different kinds of leadership but for knowledge workers in leadership positions this book is invaluable and an absolute must-read.

I very much enjoyed the examples that were given and how it was brought into perspective. Leaders don’t just fail on their own, there are other factors as well which will help or hinder one to develop great leadership skills or just being able to make use of them. Corporate Culture being the biggest issue here, followed by leading by example. If you try to copy one style of leadership but it’s not yours … you are not authentic and it will show. And being insecure you’ll end up doing all the right things wrong, and sometimes just doing the wrong things. Not knowing what is expected of you feeds into existing insecurities. I should know because reading over the examples i’ve seen many of my own mistakes while realizing that maybe i would have been more successful as Manager if only i was offered regular feedback and mentoring opportunities and setting clear expectations. Maybe i wouldn’t have failed as a Manager but then i wouldn’t have been where i’m now with the experiences i’ve made, now knowing exactly what it is that i expect of a Lead and which makes becoming and being that lead so much easier. Almost natural actually. It keeps surprising me how it still feels just like flipping a switch, getting out of crap-mode and into strong leadership mode. And i’m only still starting.

But now, enough of the book reviews and memories. Go out, buy them and read. Hush hush!