For this issue of G!VOICE, we are fortunate to invite our long-time human resources correspondent, Fay Chen, to offer us valuable advice. Fay is the most prestigious consultant and chief technical adviser for the ── DDI, Asian branch.
▲G!Voice visits our longtime human resources correspondent, Fay, at the DDI South-east Asian Headquarters in Taipei 101.
Management is all about social skills and interactive communication
G!VOICE: From your past experience with the Logistics, Creativity, R&D and Operations team, what strengths do you think they each have? What suggestions would you give to each of the four main units?
I think a shared trait that all Gamania management personnels have is: They are wonderful instructors. Management is all about social skills and interactive communication, and being capable of directing a team, and at the same time, maintain harmony within, is not easy.
The four units have their own special qualities. This is my advice for each:
Logistics Team: Its priority lies in having a bridge of communication with other divisions
“Logistics”: A logistics team’s service is always internal. Its main objective is to establish a healthy and fair coordination between company members and units. That is to say, there isn’t much room for self-centeredness in this team. The logistics unit often have to sacrifice their own means when a company’s overall strategy changes. Their projects are delayed in order to deal with communicational issues between departments, and take up the role of defending project causes or goals. It is essential to master the way of talking to others, as well as understand the impact and gravity of their influence.
Creativity Team Evaluate carefully how the market is inspired by creativity
Creativity: Creativity is a company image that has to be coherent and present at all times. Many corporations struggle upon associating themselves with a good idea, hence, the creativity team must know what kind of “originality” can be sold on the market.
R&D Team: Pay attention to the user feedback, and predetermine both product longterm and short-term goals
“R&D Team”: A problem with research and development is that, although being extremely authentic, it is scarcely considered that: Is this what the client is looking for, or not? Is it really necessary to present something that is entirely unique to the market? What R&D leaders need is to pay attention to the user feedback as a means to predetermine both long-term and short-term goals. It is not about any personal breakthroughs, but rather, more about responding to the market’s immediate needs and knowing how to change one’s product to appeal to the bigger picture. For example, the Chief Creative Officer of Pixar Studios, John Lasseter, stated once that their aim is to achieve “Healthy Perfectionism”, in which all sorts of feedback are taken into consideration for product development. Such an ability to adapt to change is why they are so successful. Therefore, the most important job for a creator is to know how to listen to the opinions that matter.
Operations Team: More efficient planning, with strict evaluation and follow-up of a product’s results
“Operations”: The gaming industry is one of the most competitive markets out there. For the operations team, a good employee needs to be able to do a strict evaluation, with a solid follow-up plan, of each product’s results. If the operations team cannot improvise or adapt to change, every project will be run in the same way, and come out with same results. It is a true waste of time and effort. The key point here is ability to follow up on the evaluation, which is the only way for one to thoroughly understand the market.Learn from different fields, and develop potent presentation skills
G!VOICE: If Gamanians are to stay ahead of the game, how should we tackle the three areas, “Professional Intel”, “Problem Solving” and “Social Innovation”?
From the surveys, we can see:
Professional Intel: Most managers value their employee’s ability to learn from new things, or their mistakes. A problem is that, work experience is usually passed down without being given much room for new ideas. We suggest that gamanians can approach the company from a fresher perspective, in comparison with other industries. It is crucial to be able to think outside of the box and be open-minded to new things.
Problem Solving: You must train yourself to be “aware of what might become a problem”. This takes time and experience. It is not easy to detect a problem, yet in order to do so, always think about the cause, meaning and expected goals of any action. By developing a keen awareness through work experience, you will be able to pinpoint a problem and cut right to the topic. Come up with more proposals to tackle a problem, and welcome discussions or opinions from others. It is always better to fight alongside someone else than to fight alone.
Social Innovation: From my experience, Gamania has a wide variety of different social groups. I strongly encourage everyone to take on a hobby through this network. You need to be active in order to make more friends. Either send a email to ask advice, or find other opportunities for simple small talk, always listen to what others may have to say.
Creativity is largely related to personal characteristics. If you don’t see yourself as particular inventive, don’t be afraid to engage in new things to challenge your mind and perspective. A recent study from Harvard shows that most innovative breakthroughs occurs at times other than work. It is hard to be creative under a high level of stress, and people end up opting for easier alternatives. Why not use your recreational time to become inspired!
Communication Skills: To add an additional remark: I believe the importance of presentation skills are very much overlooked! Train yourself in becoming an excellent presenter while you are still young. Try to deliver your message through it in the best way. A most needed skill is to know how to persuade others by putting effort into your power point design, and also your composure on stage.
Don’t be the difficult employee in the eyes of your supervisor!
G!VOICE: G!VOICE has collected a variety of properties that an office worker is expected to have by the leading officers in logistics, creativity, R&D and operations. What is your take on the results of these surveys? Since DDI introduced these principles, do you think gamanians have achieve these goals so far? What is the concept of work competence? How is it useful for an employee?
DDI’s own definition of work competence is very similar to these skills. Aspects such as coordination, problem-solving, applied learnings, and creativity have the same effects as those mentioned, respectively. When DDI set up these principles, there wasn’t a sorting between different departments in mind. It was more about what kind of people the company as a whole was after, and which skills our employees or management team need to have. The only difference is that DDI emphasizes more on “Teamwork”!
For the average employee, my advice would be: Don’t be the difficult employee in the eyes of your supervisor! Leaders are very allergic to team members that are “self-centered” or “narrow-minded”. Another headache is a person who is quite competent, yet unwilling to work or share with zothers. This kind of apathetic attitude will greatly sacrifice a team’s efficiency.
The current work competence principles Gamania adopt are”: “Innovation”, “Problem analysis”, “Work management” and “Quality-oriented”. Needless to say, being innovative has always been Gamania’s trademark and core value: People with productivity and imagination are Gamania’s biggest assets.
Looking into the past, it is fair to say that Gamania’s decisions are often based on intuition rather than careful evaluations. DDI suggests that Gamania takes each step carefully, and act only after a full analysis of the current situation is made. As for work management, DDI recommends gamanians have better time management skills, since the company discourages working over-time. Gamanians tend to not see “being at work” as a constant thing, but rather fills one’s day in the office with a string of casual activities, such as surfing the net, going on Facebook etc. You need to rearrange your work priorities, as not to waste your time or company resources. We have mentioned earlier that inspirations hardly take place under a “work mentality”. Try to engage in different activities after leaving the office, such as rock climbing, cycling, playing bridge… etc, and relieve some of the stress going to the brain. Creative ingeniousness is more likely to happen when you are relaxed.
▲Prioritize your tasks each day to relieve the stress at work. It is very helpful to have an after-work hobby that is unrelated to office affairs.
The last is quality-oriented; many people don’t follow SoPs, but rather act upon individual standards. It is as if company regulation is just for reference. Also, people have different standards of perfection. In order to avoid such controversy, DDI’s supervision team intentionally added this aspect, particularly for Gamania.
Broaden your social network: Start from GamaVille
G!VOICE: In our company, we have a platform similar to Facebook, GamaVille. How do you think this system can help us improve our work competence?
In DDI we also have a social platform similar to GamaVille. It helps us elevate our professional skills and also get to know the people we work with on a personal level. Facebook is a place for private circles, while GamaVille is one that offers company-related news and updates. It is the perfect source for learning more about your work. You can use a certain amount of spare time each week on GamaVille, as a means to see what’s going on in other parts of your company.
GamaVille is a network that connects different personalities into a same virtual space. You might not know every single person in the company, but through GamaVille, you can reach out to others through interests and hobbies. GamaVille not only can be a place to form social relationships, but also is perfect for absorbing professional knowledge. Work experiences shared by your co-workers might come in most handy in the future.
For gamanians, GamaVille can be a new mode of learning, or it can be an efficient way of obtaining information. Here, you can expand your social network by interacting with others. I recommend everyone to take good use of such a platform.
▲GamaVille consists of many social groups that allow gamanians of the same interest to meet.
Source:
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