Production Tips

After being a producer now for some time for GREE, I figured I'd take some time and divulge some of my lessons that I have learned recently. Hopefully through these lessons, you will learn to not duplicate them.

One of the first things is to not listen to past performance of a person. This has to be weighed a little, but do not listen to past performance rumors or criticism from other employees. Doing this will only set up the other person for failure. What if this person has learned from their past mistakes and is trying to be better? What if this person still stinks? Watch them closely but do not condemn them immediately.

Asking the right questions is important. This skill is a hard one to learn, but is crucial. What do I mean? My old mentor Travis George would say that when you are tasked with something, make sure you know the context. What is the "why"? After understanding the context, then start looking at the unknowns. You do not need to know all of the unknowns, but to understand the most important ones are crucial.

Lastly, empower the team. This one is an easy one to think that you are doing but is an easy one to screw up. When you are facing a team problem, let the team solve it, or at least propose solutions. By letting them drive the problem, they will take ownership. Do not just hand them a compass and say go to "X" location. Give them the context to solve the problem. Why are you trying to solve it? Will it help? Does the team value the change?

More lessons learned coming soon.