CSR Racing GM discusses nurturing a creative company culture

[Music] [Music] so yeah thank you for coming myself and my six invisible friends are gonna be talking about culture and talent I mean thank you so much for coming so the friends are already known in the room and today if I haven't met yet particularly the young GameMaker at the back of the room rocking the Zelda hat I really appreciate you coming to listen to what we've got to talk about today and think about what you see us on rating - when we were here last year we talked about this which was the CSR racing - core loop the race we in an upgrade loop that we inherited from the original game and took such care with we wanted to protect that core loop but

updated every single way whether it's the rendering effects the post effects chain the graphics the car models the multi car garage we added a whole host of stuff to really respect and protect that original core loop and make it better in every way and then we added social features like PvP and a cruise system and crew chat and then wrapped all of that in an Elder game an event harness that supports the game today over the past year through 2017 we've done seven full releases awarded 49 season prize cards and actually put nearly 70 cards into the game and launched 40 new features into this are racing - so it's been a really big enterprise we've launched a whole load of manufacturer exclusives as the motto Volcom you can see here we've had a whole load of partners that we've signed up IEM partners AC Schnitzer Voss Steiner rather but greater Liberty walk and a whole load of first scenes the Ferrari super fast the Lamborghini Huracan perform ante and work with some

amazing partners we partnered with Universal about a year ago to support to support the events harness in the game and we've launched a whole range of fates and furious cars over this year across six events including the dodge demon the Plymouth and the ice charger which we showcased in our final event in December of the year and not least we partnered with Ferrari on their 70th anniversary with a whole range of bespoke deliveries and a that worm within so the last year have seen has put a lot of stuff in a mobile game a game that sits on your phone car's content features and that's not even talking about what we've been doing at the back end the work we've done a machine learning player cohort analysis the work of the IPP team do with VIP players customer support the community managers it really is an exercise in complexity management and I think you

know for those of us working in the live services and you know this this morning's theme has been a little bit about the difference in live services premium games but for those those of us working in live it is an exercise in complexity management and this graph which Scott brink has very kindly let me borrow kind of shows the paradox the technology that we're working with is changing exponentially I mean we haven't even gotten to the conversations as an industry deeply yet about what blockchain might mean to video game transactions although those conversations are starting and your our organizations change logarithmically much more slowly the way we manage and work with teams changes so much more slowly than the technology itself and this challenge is growing harder over time every single year the level of technical innovation is speeding up for those who have been in the industry for a long time and I've been in for it for a few years now this has kind of become a necessity to scale teams if you're working with five or ten people you can

command and control you can direct each individual developer but as you get to scale it has to change if we look at the players at the top of the value chain underneath it is the talent that people building assets talking to the players the community support manage the VIP account managers the data scientists the artists and us as leads directors and studio leaders are there to support them to mentor them to grow them and to coach them and to provide culture structure and resources that enables those people to the to the delivers to their best work every single day and yet I don't think there's really been a massive shift in the way we work since the nineties when scrum agile dsdm and production methodologies were introduced and the question is is what we've got today enough will it support us as we enter an increasingly complex technical environments and so today I'd like to think about coach from talent and at least an approach we took when we were building the csr studio around culture and talent and the way we think about

that and of course like all these things is work in progress but this is where we are today before I join a chiral motion I had the privilege of spending a day in the company of this Lady Nancy Klein a Nancy back in the eighties started to think about thinking and she said if the quality of everything we do depends on the quality of the thinking we do first which if you think about it it's self-evident right whether you're building a car asset whether you're talking to a community support manager whether you're analyzing a piece of data whether you're running a meeting the quality of everything that we do depends on the quality of the thinking we do first if that's true then what creates great thinking how do we create an environment in which every one of us every person in this room can think clearly can empower our cognitive functions to think superbly about the

problems that were faced with about complexity and from that she came up with a model she looked at the inhibitors and the enablers of thinking I said well what things are they then what are the components that create great quality thinking and they're ten things and the reason why introduces to you today is this is the cornerstone of our studio culture this is how we work with each other it's the contract we've signed up to and I think it's really powerful and I always have actually since I'd since I first found this and the first one is that we give each other exquisite attention that you think really clearly when you're paying attention to somebody when you're looking at them and they know they're being looked at that you're really listening to what they've got to say you're not waiting to interrupt or waiting for your turn to talk over them or you're waiting to put your idea forward you're actually paying attention to what they're going to say and accepting that that's going to change your thinking treating them like an equal thinking pair like their thinking has value regardless of whether or not it fits your world model that you put each other

at ease the ease for communication and we'll talk about feelings in a second is at the heart of quality thinking in the presence of negative emotions like stress and anxiety fear frustration we can't think clearly we know that we've all been in arguments I'm sure in the past and when we're arguing we're not thinking clearly we're just trying to make our points and so ease for communication really ignites the mind as there's known we're appreciative for who we are and what we think in the moment regardless of whether we agree with it right being appreciated for the qualities we bring is critical to engage high-roller thinking as well as being encouraged to go further with our thinking and what more do you think feel or want to say on what else you know how far can you go with your thinking because it's easy to settle for good but I'm reluctant to use that the cliche good is the enemy of great but it kind of is it's really easy to settle for a good idea and yet let's encourage each

other to go further for that let's agree we're going to do that and challenge each other with questions and we talked about it a little bit earlier recognizing that feelings have a really big impact on how we think and sure if fear anxiety stress frustration create lower quality thinking then what are the feelings that create high quality thinking acceptance appreciation happiness engagement flow all of which flourishes when you have all the information you need the facts the hand where you know it's an obfuscated or hidden we're not keeping things from each other there's no contract where I'm going to keep information from you to be more powerful than you you share information freely in order to get the best quality thinking from Emma in the room and the diversity and this is diversity of thinking different thinking patterns whether that comes from someone who's lived in a different country who come from a different company who's had different experiences that when someone goes ones and says something that you don't really agree with it's like huh that's interesting wonder why you think

like that or I've never thought that way before because that changes our thinking and that works as towards hopefully the cutting edge of ideas we think best in the presence of questions well what do you think how would you do with that rather than statements which tend to close down our thinking and finally place and what a wonderful place were in today and it's a real pleasure to think here actually because place makes a big difference to how we think and we're part of the place if this room was empty it's just the space right but when we're all in it together this has real meaning this is a real place where we can think together and this underpins everything that we do we run meetings using the thinking environment we talk to each others and thinking environments we don't interrupt we have rounds of appreciation at the end of our meetings because we wanted to create this an independent thinking culture where creativity performance and engagement are the cornerstones of what we do the absolute cornerstones of what we do so that's the backbone of our

culture I could talk about this for hours I would really encourage you to look at Mount seek line she is a spectacular person and a real inspiration and I'd happily talk to talk about afterwards or connect with me in LinkedIn I can go on about this all day but I guess the question that comes from that there for a fact the foundational part of our culture then what kind of people do we look for what are we looking for when we meet them and what people work well in a culture like this because this kind of culture helps everybody but there's definitely some behaviors that we look for I mean it's kind of obvious right we always look for smart competent people all of these people are smart and competent all of you are smart and competent and yet we look for something else and we really are interviewing for people who are either aware of their emotions or on a good emotional intelligence journey there's a lot of research around this I'm happy to share the sources we weren't going into in too much detail but the creative leadership

team in the u.s. found emotional intelligence was one of the biggest indicators our lack of emotion intelligence actually of executive derailments people who weren't able to handle change or handle their emotions and Carnegie Institute of Technology has put about 85% of our business success down to emotional intelligence rather than our capability and the great thing about it is is no matter where we are on our journey of emotional intelligence we can get better unlike IQ which is relatively fixed CI there are tools out there that help you assess your emotional intelligence or those of your team and work with them on developing it because however we see ourselves whether we have high self regard able to achieve our goals using our emotions aware of our emotions are impacting how we think and how we work whether we can express ourselves positively be assertive without being aggressive and without falling into passive passive aggressive behaviors whether we can independently think on

the issues that are facing us relate to people whether in the room over zoom Skype around the world from a different culture different company different way of thinking because we're not trying to normalize around one person here we welcome diversity but the ability to navigate those complex emotional environments is critical to success whether we can solve problems and test reality actually without becoming frustrated or or anger about what's happening and whether with flexible stress tolerance and optimistic about the future even when things are under pressure because live environments are very pressured all of those things can be developed and a super critical we think to the success of people within within our environment this is a I mean I'm assuming you probably know those quotes from but we do also look for the passionately curious there's been lots of talk in the past about t-shaped people we don't look for t-shaped people who've got more than one skill but the curious the incurably interested Wow you know I will soak those people up

wherever they are because even if they come in with one skill or straight active University that's not where they're going to settle for sure their curiosity will take them wherever it takes them and it might be applied to the problem that we have in hand but when you share information freely all of your business challenges and opportunities those people are going to go away and think on it and suddenly they might even tell you they're solving your problem they'll come back and have solved it I love curious people and we definitely look for its purpose actually everyone's got a sense of purpose but can they tap into it you know are you currently connected with your sense of purpose I love making video games it's been my career I'm deeply passionate about it and underneath making video games and this is like this is our purpose actually as a studio to enrich players live to create social connections and friendships excuse me through a shared passion for cars every single day that's what we've all signed up to as a

studio and our collective purpose sits a deeper purpose within me I'm really connected to actually I really want to see amazing people wherever they are in their career with purposeful independent thinking flourish in creative innovative cultures that we all sign up to create in curious passionate people that's my real driving force that gets me up every day and so as a studio what do we look for smart people who are emotionally intelligent and are willing to go on a journey with their emotional intelligence recognizing the impact it has in their performance who are curious deeply curious about the world and with a real sense of purpose cause you think that really does lead to excellence and so that's kind of where we are today I guess the question that's interesting and I'd like to sort of think about actually is now what now what I mean there's so much right there's so much coming up and these are just some sort of themes that are definitely arising in

the world neuro leadership how neuroscience informs our approach to leadership and all of this is neuroscientific lis backed up actually I think the really amazing stuff about Nancy's work in particular is she was well ahead of the curve and when we go back to the mid eighties where the neuroscience of leadership or the neuroscience of your brain at work was really underdeveloped but the work of people like David Rock Paul has just gone on to validate this and I encourage you to look those two up particularly that they're genuinely inspirational but the coaching cloud experience LED technology the connection of mind body and spirit within the workplace in a secular sense actually how he presenters authentic human beings so you think and how the millennial workforce is gonna expect to work within the environment are all gonna have an impact on what we do and it's interesting actually that the World Economic Forum when they produce the future of jobs report looked at the skills that were valued by employees in 15 and what will be valued in 2020 and if we look at the top three complex

problem-solving critical thinking creativity high order cognitive work that require high quality independent thinking to flourish but critically if we look at number six it wasn't even there in 2015 and now it's shooting up because it's recognized how important emotional intelligence is to the success of people within the workplace and so I hope this is a conversation that will all be a part of you know how talent is going to flourish and work within our amazing industry it's been such a privilege to spend some time thinking about this building up to the conference and today here in this room thank you so much for sharing that with me in giving me your exquisite attention it's really appreciated that's why I think what do you think thank you very much [Applause] [Music]

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