I tend to work by the saying “ask forgiveness, not permission”.
To plenty of people – this phrase can sound incredibly disrespectful. As if at work I’ll just do whatever I want with disregard to anyone else’s thoughts, opinions, input, or previous work.
I can see that, certainly.
But in my head, acting flippant, arrogant, and selfishly isn’t what that phrase is about. In fact, it’s near the exact opposite.
And, it’s something I want to challenge you to be considering in your own work.
Ownership
A major facet of good work is all about ownership. Ownership is simply you taking responsibility – being responsible for, or owning something.
If someone has tasked you to make gun sounds, for example, you’re then responsible for:
- The sonic character or tone of those sounds
- The quality level of those sounds
- The delivery date
- The type of delivery
- Matching the directive of all of the above, if you were given any
These types of responsibilities typically aren’t too difficult for anyone that’s a high enough level creator.
But what about when it comes to the things you’re supposedly not responsible for? The tasks that have grey areas, the tasks that other team members are trying to put on you, or simply the things that you see that need to get done but aren’t?
Those are the sort of things that separate some of the most incredible performers from everyone else. And, getting those things done is usually so subtle – you might not realize that those folks are working right next to you. You simply know them as “indispensable”.
But why are those things so important, what should you do about them, and how do you go about finding them?
Why Be Responsible?
I hope that reading this last headline makes the question “why” seem kind of silly – because it is.
While you may hit everything you’re tasked to do perfectly – in my opinion – truly owning your work is going far beyond that.
No, I’m not talking about working “crunch” or even one minute of overtime. I did my time with that in the film industry, and I don’t need it in games.
What I mean is picking up balls that you see dropped, or picking up balls that nobody’s picking up – if you can.
This is where asking forgiveness, not permission really counts.
In a previous game, during gameplay testing I noticed some potential really neat but simple audio features that hadn’t been discussed. We hadn’t planned on them, hadn’t scoped them, and weren’t going to.
Simply put, they weren’t “in the time budget”.
But, if I knew they would be cool and could focus to make time for them – why not do it?
Worst case scenario the boss hears the features, doesn’t like them, and they get taken out. My poor, poor ego – right? If the boss was really unhappy about it, I’d know not to do that again.
Except, the way I knew they would be cool was through plenty of conversations with the boss. Simply put, I knew what the game should sound like, what we were going for, and how I could aid that.
So, instead of bringing it up and asking if it would be cool – which would result in a time budgeting discussion plus lost time to hemming and hawing – I just did the work. I also made sure to do all my other work.
It turned out great. I saw something we hadn’t it and made myself responsible for taking it on. I figured out a way to do it without destroying any previously existing plans, and executed.
The additional magic of it is – this sort of thing builds trust.
Even in failure, you can turn to your boss and say “Understood – I apologize – I was trying to act in our best interest and I clearly hear that this kind of thing isn’t what you want. I’ll be sure to ask next time prior to jumping on something out of the box, thank you for being kind and communicating this to me!”
What Responsibility Looks Like
I touched on this a bit in the example above – but taking responsibility doesn’t have to simply mean you’re constantly being a creative hero.
It can also mean claiming ownership of tough decisions.
You’ve probably been in the place where you weren’t 100% confident about a sound you’ve created. Perhaps you’re stuck between multiple options or paths to take and you’re just not sure what to do.
It’s like a more serious, work-based version of realizing you don’t know what you want to eat for dinner.
You’ll do anything but face and make that decision, if you can.
And the more people who are involved in making that decision with you? God help you all.
I’ve (no lie) been a part of massive email chains where at least a handful of people were discussing varying options for how to produce a sound, cinematic, feature, or video – and nobody would make a final call.
Everyone was happy to give their opinion – but nobody wants to say “let’s do this one.”
Why? Two reasons:
- The decision isn’t concrete and clear, there’s risk involved
- If you make the call, you’re responsible if the risk (or lack thereof) doesn’t work out
But here’s a crazy truth – making a decision, any decision, is almost always 100% better than procrastinating.
Usually, your initial gut instinct is the best call – even if it’s not the right call (and there is a difference).
In the worst case when I have no idea what to do – I just pick one. I’ll literally flip a coin if I have to.
And then, instead of jamming up your team and their work, everyone gets back to focusing once a decision is made. Then you’re giving your team the opportunity to tweak and iterate on what they’re creating, and perhaps polish or improve what you were originally incredibly unsure about.
And, in regard to making the call, decision makers are usually more respected when they simply make a decision than when they don’t or have to ask for everyone’s input.
Leads are leads for a reason – they lead. Or at least, they’re supposed to.
How Do You Act Responsibly?
The place to start with being more responsible and taking more ownership is with yourself.
You can’t lead, cast a vision, or encourage your team to work together if you aren’t executing well.
You don’t have to be in a position of power to be a cheerleader for your teammates and try to encourage your coworkers to bring their best every day. You do have to bring your best if you’re expecting your coworkers to do the same. Don’t make demands or encourage ownership that you wouldn’t take yourself, if possible.
This starts by making sure you do all of those things I mentioned previously:
- Be responsible for the character and tone of your creations
- Be responsible for the quality bar
- Be responsible to hit your delivery dates
- Be responsible to delivering above expectations
- Be responsible to know what your team wants and needs
Do those things in your work every day. Don’t cut corners. Don’t get lazy. Don’t procrastinate.
Just bring the best of what you can. Some days you’ll be “off” and not feel “on your A game” – so if all you have is your “D” game, bring that well.
Once you do this – you’ll naturally notice little things you can pick up.
Maybe it’s naming files and getting things nice and in order. Maybe it’s creating documentation. Maybe it’s communicating your work or needs better. Maybe it’s spending time with feature owners and finding new ways to deliver above and beyond the call.
It could be anything – but you’ll notice those balls that haven’t been picked up, and you’ll start picking them up.
And then, you’re off to the races.
Don’t Shy Away
Being an owner of your life, your work, and responsibilities is hard. The temptation is real and always there to deliver only what you’re feeling up to.
And, if your coworkers are jerks – you’re going to be tempted to blame them and say something like “if they were nicer to me I’d be more inclined to do better for them!”
Don’t do this. Don’t abdicate your responsibility.
Instead, pick your head up, and in the face of adversity – “kill them with kindness”.
To me, asking forgiveness and not permission comes down to this –
In every situation, you bring your best. You deliver when it’s easy. You deliver when it sucks. No matter what, your reputation is awesome and bad ass because you’re responsible and you deliver the goods.
So I encourage you, especially if you’re down and feeling like “you’re no good” – daydream and imagine what your most bad ass responsible self looks like.
That should give you energy today. It should give you hope, because that person isn’t fake – that person is literally inside of you.
So become more like them, bit at a time. I know you can do it.
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