Communication in Small Groups
Communication is critical to a team’s function. It’s also something that people are generally not taught about under the purview of a game development major. We know it can be really difficult for student-teams and professional teams alike to identify communication patterns and set healthy expectations early on, which is why we made this resource for our Rad Studio incubator program.
Being a team means holding a commitment to one another.
A huge part of this is making team contracts, which can nail down things like the avenues of communication you will use, how quickly you expect each other to respond, which leadership styles are preferred, expectations of project scope, what the consequences for missed deadlines are — the list goes on.
If you’re a small team that is running yourself, like a student team, you have a lot of agency to set these boundaries. There’s nothing stopping you from baking personal boundaries into these contracts. In the orientation blog post, we covered boundaries regarding harassment, but there are also specific workplace boundaries we can set together. An example of a workplace boundary is something like whether or not you’re comfortable with being contacted at all hours of the day about topics relating to work.
Example:
Let’s say you have made it clear that you are not to be contacted past 5 pm about issues relating to work...
You come in the next day to a teammate who is upset because you didn’t respond to their important work message at 5 pm, because “it’s not that far past 5 pm, right? You must have seen it.” In this case it’s ok to calmly remind someone of your boundary. It’s ok to say “Hey, I have set the expectation with you all that I am not to be contacted after 5 pm. If I need to know something, I need that information before 5 pm. Frankly if it needs to be addressed that day I need to be notified before 3 pm so I have time to address it that day. Otherwise, it needs to wait.”
You have the agency in this program [Rad Studio] to customize your contracts with these boundaries. It doesn’t HAVE to be in a contract, but it’s cool to have a team-agreed-upon document to refer back to to hold each other accountable.
Your ability to communicate and maintain boundaries is one of the most valuable skills you will learn as a game developer who works on teams.
Language / Professionalism
We felt it was important to set some light language/professionalism boundaries in Rad Studio, given that game developers tend to use language a lot differently, and we dress more casually.
Casual language is okay; it’s okay to be real with other people if you want to. If you prefer to be strictly professional, that’s also an okay boundary to set. However, please keep in mind that while we can have these casual conversations and be super silly with one another in the program, we are bringing in professional game developers from the world outside Rad Studio later on in the program and we just want to ask that you keep it professional with these folks. We don’t want you to hurt a potential networking opportunity. Not cold professionalism, just respectful.
Think of how you would treat someone if you were a barista at a coffee shop filling an order. You’re still going to be super warm and friendly, but polite.
Leadership Styles
It can be really helpful to have a conversation about leadership styles with your team before getting started on a new project. Different people respond better to different styles of leadership. Some folks work best with a lot of space for autonomy, and some folks like being handed crystal-clear instructions that they then carry out as listed. Some people respect a charismatic leader, while others respect proven skill or demonstrated authority. Knowing the preferences your team has in this area can transform how you interact with them as collaborators.
Leadership Styles…
Autocratic: the inflexible boss.
Democratic: collaborative subordination w/ focus on fairness & competence.
Strategic: the brains of the operation.
Transformational: initiate change and empower others.
Team Leadership: takes everyone’s heart & mind into account.
Cross-cultural: playing to people’s strengths and willingness to adjust.
Facilitative: facilitating group processes.
Laissez-Faire: complete power to the employees w/o consequence.
Transactional: immediate, tangible reward for maintaining the status quo.
Coaching: teaching & supervising.
Charismatic: manifesting revolutionary power.
Visionary: envisioning an end result and inspiring others to help you get there.
Communication Styles
I didn’t learn about this until I got into regular therapy, but there are names to the approaches to communication we take with others. Learning these names and definitions can be helpful in assisting you in understanding why someone saying something a certain way makes you “feel weird.”
Communication Styles:
Passive: Prioritizing the needs of others. Avoiding expressing your opinions, not protecting your rights, not identifying/meeting your own needs.
Aggressive: Prioritizing your own needs over the needs of others. Expressing your feelings/opinions and advocating for yourself in a way that violates the rights of others.
Passive-Aggressive: Trying to keep the peace by stifling your needs in a way that ultimately disrupts the peace. Appearing passive on the surface, but holding deep resentment, and expressing that in subtle or indirect ways over time.
Assertive: Emphasizes the importance of both people’s needs. Clearly stating your opinions/feelings, and firmly advocating for your rights and needs without violating the rights of others.
There are no “passive people” or “aggressive people” only “passive communication” and “aggressive communication.”
Even if someone tends to be aggressive, people are never 100% one thing, and letting a communication style define you can be harmful to your self-image and how you interact with others.
triforce of communication
I first learned about this on the multiamory podcast. This tool is often used in friendships and relationships, so we can try to use this in teams if everyone’s on board. Even if your team doesn’t want to use this, this is a really cool framework because you can recognize what would serve you best in an interaction where you bring a certain feeling to someone else and then communicate more about what you need from them in that moment.
Ex.) I might say “the state of the world is really getting to me and it’s hard for me to work right now.” and since we live in a patriarchal society Dana might assume that I’m coming to her for advice on how to not feel that way, or how to get past that feeling and feel productive… but I also might just be approaching her as somebody that I respect and trust and maybe I just want to share that feeling and be heard, and not have anything come of it, just share. That’s totally fine. This system helps me stop and think, and gives me the option to say “I’m just saying this from a place of wanting to share and be heard, I’m not really looking for advice right now.”
Incorporating this system might make us more mindful of each other’s needs in the communication we’re having.
Nonviolent Communication (NVC)
Use NVC when discussing challenging topics
State your observation of what happened, free of interpretation, evaluation, accusation, or spin.
Express your feelings without applying any story about something that was done to you by others
Say what it is you need
Make a request that is not a demand or an ultimatum. Your teammate should feel free to say “yes” or “no” or to negotiate the request.
Example:
Your producer sets a deadline that doesn’t take into account your specific timeline needs for the part of the project you’re working on.
“I noticed you set a deadline for X work on X day. When I saw the deadline, I felt like the amount of time it usually takes for me to complete this specific type of work was not taken into consideration. I need more time to complete something like this. Would you be able to extend the deadline now and in the future for similar projects to accommodate the amount of time it takes to do this task?”
It’s also important to recognize that your team is not responsible for your feelings.
Example:
Let’s return to the 5 pm boundary, where the teammate is upset because you didn’t get back to them at 5:30 even though you have set a clear boundary.
If after calmly reminding them of your boundary they are still resentful of you and seem incapable of reaching compromise, you get to say to yourself “That’s ok. I’ve done my best, they’re going through something. That’s not on me. It’s not my fault that they’re angry.” You’re not hardcore obligated to cater to somebody else’s feelings. People should not be getting angry or guilt-tripping you for saying no to their request. That’s unacceptable behavior.
It’s important to name all of these things at the start so we can have productive conversations about what works for us and doesn’t work for us on teams, as well as assert boundaries with one another early and often so we don’t fall into typical patterns of neglect on a team.
In times of conflict, remember to H.A.L.t.
H.A.L.T:
Hungry
Angry
Lonely
Tired
Pause before having difficult conversations if you’re Hungry, Angry, Lonely, or Tired (or Drunk). Take a self-care break, take care of that, then return to the conversation.
PRESENTATION SLIDES
A video recording of the presentation will be shared here when we have completed our editing process. Don’t worry, you’re not missing any content in the meantime: all of the information has been transcribed into this blog post. However, we intend to share recordings of each presentation for those who would prefer to listen along. Check back soon if you’d like to watch the video.
RULES OF USE
This blog post is based off of a portion of the 2021 Rad Studio Online curriculum. Rad Studio 2021 was a fully online summer program for game development students, and the information above was shared with the cohort of emerging devs during a workshop session. We’re making this information free and available to anyone who’s interested in it. You can learn more about Rad Studio and this initiative here.
Rules of Use:
Feel free to share this information with others! We ask that you cite Rad Magpie (and any relevant linked sources) if you use this for your class / workshop / etc.
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further reading
Set Boundaries, Find Peace - book by Nedra Glover Tawwab
This blog post was written by Megan McAvoy.