Summary: Leadership Lab, presented by John Farnsworth

John’s career in the military lead to the game industry. While stationed in California, John had a chance to give a tour of the base to Tom Clancy & Doug Littlejohns. They were building Red Storm Entertainment, and the meeting lead to his joining the company. After that, he worked for IBM on product development. John now serves as Studio Director at Destineer Studios, leading varied projects including game development, military simulation and training.

Leadership Lab

  • Important questions for any leader:
    • Do I have what it takes to lead?
      • It takes confidence!
    • How do I become a better leader?
      • Get to know people.
      • Match people to roles.
    • What does it take to lead creative teams?
      • You need inspiration and vision.
    • What should my priorities be?
      • Understand priorities for company, for product, for colleagues. Combine them.

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”
- John Quincy Adams

  • Leadership principles
    • Explain what needs to be done
  • Leadership style
    • Attitude is key. No matter what the problems are, you must overcome them. A positive attitude helps, but of course being realistic.
    • Learn to manage without authority — manage problems involving people that you don’t manage.
  • Leadership resources
    • Read about other great leaders. How did they solve problems?
    • What actions inspire others?
    • Get to know your team. Get to know their personalities. They are your resources.

Case study: Catherine the Great

“Praise loudly, blame softly.”
- Catherine the Great

  • Power
    • What are the keys to power in a company? Generally this is resource-based.
  • Leadership styles
    • Rule by committee
    • Rule by one (Catherine was an autocrat.)
    • Grow team and allow for talent to shine.
  • Conflict management
    • Withdraw! Don’t worry about it.
    • Force a decision. The end.
    • Compromise. Find a solution that solves the problem.
    • Conflict management. Bring people together, and get the conflicting parties to come together.
  • Roles and responsibilities
    • CEO: manages company vision, goals. Power comes from decision making abilities and understanding of company.
    • CFO: manages financial status of company. Power comes from resource management.

Colin Powell’s recent presentation

  • Leadership is leadership, is leadership.
  • Same principles and techniques.
  • Great leaders face reality and deal with it!
  • Find ways to constantly reward and praise your team.
    • If you’re not doing this, then chances are you are only focusing on negatives.
  • Prune the organization.

Technical Leadership

  • What do technical leaders do?
    • They get inside their customer’s mind.
    • Give straightforward and honest opinions.
    • Champion decisions that benefit the company even at a cost to your own project.
    • Express enthusiasm about the opportunity to serve customers based on the underlying passion for creative technology and its impact on the world.

Command and Control

  • How do you deal with the flood of data today?
    • Teams must understand the objective.
    • Freedom of action within clear boundaries.
    • Operate in a horizontal, team-oriented, collaborative environment.

Managing without authority

  • How do you fix problems?
    • Skill
    • Knowledge
    • Resources
  • 80% solution
    • Sometime this is the best thing that you have. Don’t wait for perfect knowledge to make decisions! You will miss things, because things are seldom perfect.
  • Good, better, best
    • Figure out everything you need to do in a day. What is the BEST thing that you could do today?
  • Conflict management
    • Work on a resolution together — empower your people to deal with problems.
    • Can anything be done to prevent it from happening in the future?

Overall things to consider

  • Match talent with roles — it’s SIMPLE:
    • Set expectations
    • Invite committment
    • Measure progress
    • Provide feedback
    • Link to consequences
    • E
  • Why do people stay in their organization?
    • “Finding meaning in the work I’m doing.”
    • “I like the people.”
    • “I can follow my dreams.”
  • What great leaders do differently
    • Create tension to achieve
    • Pursue opportunities
    • Define the outcome
    • Focus on performance
    • Create heroes in every role
  • Go toward the sound of the guns
    • Eyes on results
    • Team problem solving
    • Match talent with roles
    • Spend the most time with the best people
    • Don’t outsource retention

“If I have seen farther than others, it is because I stood on the shoulders of giants.”
- Sir Isaac Newton

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“The IGDA Leadership Forum has, without question, the highest quality of content of any game industry event I have ever attended. As far as “”bang for the buck”" it is the best conference for producers and managers in our industry. Any studio looking to upgrade its production and management techniques should make this a must attend event for their studio’s production and management leads. The annual IGDA Charitable Foundation dinner is also not to be missed.”

- Tom Buscaglia, The Game Attorney


“I’ve had the pleasure of attending the IGDA Leadership Forum for 2 years now. The conference is small and focused, which is its greatest strength. Not only does it offer an excellent schedule with high quality speakers, attendees have many opportunities to connect with other developers. This networking and sharing of ideas is what gives someone the additional tools, and perspective to be better at their job. The IGDA Leadership Forum has had a huge impact on my career. Every year, I’ve come away with new friends and mentors, and new inspiration that I can immediately apply to create positive impact within my company. For such a low cost with such high return, I ask you this: How can you not afford to send yourself and your employees to the IGDA Leadership Forum?”

- Kim Sellentin, Associate Producer, Blizzard Entertainment


“I’ve attended the Leadership forum every year since its inception. It’s my can’t miss conference each year for a couple of reasons… 1. It’s a very personal conference, small enough to get to know everyone and large enough to attract great speakers. 2. The game industry tends to build leaders from with in, but being a great developer does not make a great leader. The Leadership Forum provides a wonderful opportunity to develop those traits and learn how others have gotten there. 3. Unlike some large events, this is a very focused conference. The topic is narrow enough to attract a lot of like minded people and broad enough to cross disciplines. I can’t recomend the Leadership Forum highly enoughto any producer, leader, or simply those in our industry seeking to be the best at their craft. ”

- Chuck Hoover, Studio Production Director, Schell Games


“If you’re a manager in the games industry, or you have managers reporting to you, you owe it to yourself to come out or send them to the IGDA Leadership Forum next year. Your competitors are out here trying to figure out how to get better at capturing the lightning and putting it in a package to ship out to customers. We desperately need better trained leaders in the industry, and this is a proven place where they can come and improve their skills. This year I found an insight in every talk to make me better at my job, and to help my reports become better at their jobs. I really don’t feel like I can afford *not* to go. Can you?”

- Brett Douville, Lead Systems Programmer, Bethesda Softworks
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