Topic: Leadership in Conflict:

Speaker: Kane Minkus

Where does conflict come from?

- Different “maps” of reality

- Attention is on answering a different question

- Different levels of experience

- Different belief systems

The Real Essence of Conflict.

- (Audience volunteers these: Competition, different needs, fear, survival, trust)

- Safety. Guarding our belief systems and what we experience to be right from wrong.

- Love/Belonging. To our family system, to own ecological system.

We don’t separate away from these when we go to work, and we will do anything to keep these stabilized.

In A Conflict.

- Defense of Belief.

- Focusing on the gap (what are the concerns? What is right now v. what would you like? Everything else is focusing on the gap.) Focusing on the strategy to get to where we want? What happens when you focus on the gap (concerns), the gap widens.

- Arguing with the example?

From Challenging to Listening

In a conflict, we are often challenging rather than listening.

Resolving Conflict.

- Rapport (especially deep rapport) is how we know we are safe with each other. Two processes are in place: Are we safe? What is the quality of our life? Literally gives the brain the signal that “we are alike.”

o Physical – Getting to the same body language with the other person

o Vocal – Tempo, pitch, tone of the other person speaking.

o Keyword Backtracking – Using back keywords that the other person just said.

o Breathing -

- Discovering the IPO

All behavior has a positive intention.  IPO = Intended Positive Outcome.

People are always doing the best they can.

Just a quick introduction: this is Jacques Pavlenyi, Segment Executive: Small and Medium Business – Communications Industries, IBM Corporation (how’s that for a mouthful of a title?).  I’ll be attending the IGDA Leadership Forum tomorrow and Friday.  I was honored to be asked by Jason Della Rocca to be one of the guest bloggers for the event.  I’ll specifically be covering the following sessions:

• Leveraging Outsourcing (Thu 4pm)
• Managing Artists & Art Outsourcing (Fri 10:45am)
• Local Asthetic/Localizations (Fri 1:15pm)

But of course I’ll be covering other sessions as well, particularly those with a more business, rather than technical, twist.  I’ll also be cross-posting to IBM’s blog on all things games, GameTomorrow (http://www.gametomorrow.com/blog).Â

Looking forward to meeting everyone in my fair city!

The sessions for the parallel Leadership and Production tracks have been locked and loaded. The sessions are:

Leadership Track:

• Building the Perfect Team – Mike Capps, Epic Games
• Leadership Lab – John Farnsworth, Destineer
• Death By 1000 Ideas: Managing Designers and Creatives – Tim Gerritsen, Big Rooster
• Managing Engineers – Mike McShaffry
• Managing Artists and Art Outsourcing for Next-Gen Games – Mike Swanson, Gas Powered Games
• Communication Breakdown: How to Prevent This on Your Watch – Tony Van, Ubisoft
• Caught in the Middle: Managing Staff, Teams and Executives – Catherine Herdlick, gameLab
• Panel: Motivation & Team Morale – Jason Della Rocca, IGDA; John Farnsworth, Destineer; Catherine Herdlick, gameLab; Mike McShaffry; Tony Van, Ubisoft

Production Track:

• How Not To Schedule A Project – Jamie Fristrom, Torpex Games
• Agile Implementation – Trent Oster, BioWare Corp.
• Something from Nothing – Tim Longo, Crystal Dynamics
• Working with Publishers as a Developer Producer – Chris Natsuume, Boomzap
• Local Anesthetic: Painless Game Localization – Heather Maxwell Chandler, Media Sunshine
• How To Create a Console Game With 10 Core People – Shekhar Dhupelia, Midway
• Due Diligence on Developers – Michael Heilemann, Stormfront Studios
• Leveraging Outsourcing to Enhance Development – Aaron Pulkka, Vivendi Games
• Panel: Production Potpourri – Mike Capps, Epic Games; Shekhar Dhupelia, Midway; Jamie Fristrom, Torpex Games; Tim Longo, Crystal Dynamics; Trent Oster, BioWare Corp.