Take a second and think about a past idea you have had to make something better. This could have been fixing a process at work, launching a new business, creating a new product, etc.
Chances are that there are several of these that you can think of. Now ask yourself why these ideas never came to fruition.
Lack of Drive
In a general sense, I believe that nearly everyone wants to improve their situation, quality of life or employment status. What holds us back is our inability to simply drive the scenario in front of us. Don’t take this wrong way - I am not trying to be a downer - but rather I am trying to identify and understand what sits in our way.
Our inability to drive an improvement could be caused by a lot of things. Perhaps we are lacking a required skill, such as a network engineer wanting to transition to being a software engineer. Maybe we lack a certain personality style or trait, such as someone who wants to make the leap into management. The list is long and could go on forever.
Identify the Blocker
The key then is identify whatever it is that sits in our way. Once that blocker is found - we can then put our able mind to the task of figuring out a plan to overcome that blocker. Without knowing what obstacles are sitting in front of us - there is little hope in being able to accomplish our goals.
This step can be very difficult for a lot of people. We have heard it portrayed as stepping out of your comfort zone. It can take a lot of courage to confront an issue head on and make the necessary change required for improvement. Most of the time however the benefit outweighs the cost. All we need to do is muster up the courage to take the step.
It is for this reason that execution is so important. Sure you have a hundred wonderful ideas for improvement - but which one are you actually bringing to reality?
Resolve the Doubts of Others
If you have a new idea for your game, but others are not bought in, then there are doubts you need to resolve. This doesn't mean you need to avoid them or go around them. Rather you need to understand their concerns and work to resolve them.
The resolve the doubts and concerns of others, use the following steps:
Strive to Understand by Asking. If you don't understand what their concern or hesitation is - ask. "What are your concerns about this new idea?" or "How do you think this new idea will do?". These simply questions will help surface their initial concern
Repeat back the Concern. Once you hear what their concern is, repeat it back to them. This helps to convey that you are listening to them and respecting their opinion. It also ensures that you heard them correctly.
Identify a Common Ground / Goal. Maybe their concern is rooted from a previous idea that was similar that didn't go well. Maybe they just don't see the value or are concerned about revenue risk. At this point you need to start from their perspective and grow from there. If they are concerned about revenue, share that you are concerned about revenue as well, because without it, we all would not have jobs. This helps to ensure that you are both starting from the same spot and progressing towards the same goal.
Create a Resolution. Now that you are on common ground and marching towards the same goal, you can now share additional details that apply specifically to their concern. In the case of revenue concerns, you can share admin tools or reports that you plan to create to understand the direct revenue impact. You can also share pieces of your design that will help to improve revenue.
NOTE: This process is often a 2 way street. You may find at this point that your idea is not 100% bullet proof as you thought. Depending on the doubts surfaced by others, you may need to make changes or adjustments to your idea. This is not a bad thing. In fact this is often needed when developing and designing game ideas in a team or collaborative environment.
Balancing Follow Through and Micro Managing
A critical part of executing in a team is follow through. If you are pushing an idea through, you can't simply hand it off to someone else and expect it to come out perfect. Ensure that you are involved in the respective processes and help to drive your idea through to completion.
At the same time - ensure that you are not micro managing the process. You can have too much oversight which in turn stifles the ability of other team members from executing in their respective roles. For example, if you give too much oversight to an artist, they will not use their creative brain to create the art, rather they will just have some weird concoction that they think you are trying to describe. Similarly with Software Engineers. If you provide too much oversight they will not be able to design and program the feature in a way that is performant and reliable.
