Elysian Shadows

People who have been in teams:

What would you say is the best ways to keep your team motivated?

My team will get their stuff done in time but it's very rare they go at it with a "YAY WORK!" attitute.....

I've tried the "Good work man" attitude aswell as the "Stop moaning and get the fuck to work you lazy bastard" attitude. Both of which motivates them allmost equaly

It'll ebb and flow like anything else, sometimes you're high sometimes you're low. There is not too much that will motivate members who are unmotivated. Two of the chief forces behind inspiration are just having it to begin with or the evidence of progress.

This is what I've found anyways. I think that a lot of folks are in love with the idea but not in love with the process. You'll see ALOT of this :]

I think the best thing that you can do is to be a source of inspiration by being excited about what you're doing, documenting your progress and relating it to how this will get us to the "end vision", and do it frequently. Plow ahead. I think the most motivating thing that you could do is to demonstrate that progress IS happening.

Buy them beer! No but really.. I have no clue.. I can barely keep myself motivated, so I can't help with advices.. unless the beer works for you.. in which case.. you owe me a beer for helping !

I see what you guys are getting at. The main problem is most of the development has halted due to unmotivated team members and this of course is holding us that are still motivated to work back from getting somthing awesome and flashy to show.

N64vSNES wrote:I see what you guys are getting at. The main problem is most of the development has halted due to unmotivated team members and this of course is holding us that are still motivated to work back from getting somthing awesome and flashy to show.

I told you chris and I are having an arting session. Hopefully there will be some contemplating and planning for future stuff that may get us more motivated

qpHalcy0n wrote:It'll ebb and flow like anything else, sometimes you're high sometimes you're low. There is not too much that will motivate members who are unmotivated. Two of the chief forces behind inspiration are just having it to begin with or the evidence of progress.

This is what I've found anyways. I think that a lot of folks are in love with the idea but not in love with the process. You'll see ALOT of this :]

I think the best thing that you can do is to be a source of inspiration by being excited about what you're doing, documenting your progress and relating it to how this will get us to the "end vision", and do it frequently. Plow ahead. I think the most motivating thing that you could do is to demonstrate that progress IS happening.

Couldn't have said it better. All of my experience seems to coincide with qp's wisdom.

What if you have a team that is motivated but they basicly they just want to make what they want to make? Ex. Me: "Hey can you draw a sprite of the thing in forge mode from Halo? I want to use it in a test game." (First Time Asking) Him: "UUUUUUh... sure" Me: "Whats whrong?" Him: "Idk I just will kinda feel like ur bitch" 0.0 He sends me tons of concept but wont draw any sprites

It's a struggle to be motivated sometimes, but other times it just comes so effortlessly. It would be nice if we could have that motivation riding high at all times. I really like qp's advice here. If group members not genuinely interested in it (or they can't find some part of it that genuinely interests them) then they won't put in the effort without you harping at them. That's not a particularly good thing for your time and stress levels, and you also probably won't get nearly as much out of them as if they actually found a reason to drive themselves.

Here's a good video I came across some time ago:



I don't think that video points to the entire picture, but I think it's pretty close. I think belonginess is an important component of that too. It helps to be part of a group that's moving in some direction together. It think that's part of that feeling of momentum that comes from a group of people doing something awesome together. I can definitely vouch for the fact that being part of a driven group helped propel me through music and athletics back in high school (and I've only just been realizing how big a factor that was and why it was so much more difficult afterwards).

If you want to go further down the well, I suggest checking out stuff by Daniel Pink and Dan Ariely. One talks primarily about motivation, and the other talks a lot about behaviour and irrationality which ends up frequently tying into motivation. Both are funny and very approachable (they're not dry or boring).

Don't underestimate the power of giving someone autonomous control over something. That video has a couple of great examples of that. It sucks when you don't get a handle on the vision of what you're doing.

Well hopefully if Eric and Chris gets some art done I can get on and this will motivate the rest of the team? (hopes)

I find that when the rest of the team arn't motivated to work that kinda kills my motivation too

EccentricDuck wrote:It's a struggle to be motivated sometimes, but other times it just comes so effortlessly. It would be nice if we could have that motivation riding high at all times. I really like qp's advice here. If group members not genuinely interested in it (or they can't find some part of it that genuinely interests them) then they won't put in the effort without you harping at them. That's not a particularly good thing for your time and stress levels, and you also probably won't get nearly as much out of them as if they actually found a reason to drive themselves.

Here's a good video I came across some time ago:



I don't think that video points to the entire picture, but I think it's pretty close. I think belonginess is an important component of that too. It helps to be part of a group that's moving in some direction together. It think that's part of that feeling of momentum that comes from a group of people doing something awesome together. I can definitely vouch for the fact that being part of a driven group helped propel me through music and athletics back in high school (and I've only just been realizing how big a factor that was and why it was so much more difficult afterwards).

If you want to go further down the well, I suggest checking out stuff by Daniel Pink and Dan Ariely. One talks primarily about motivation, and the other talks a lot about behaviour and irrationality which ends up frequently tying into motivation. Both are funny and very approachable (they're not dry or boring).

Don't underestimate the power of giving someone autonomous control over something. That video has a couple of great examples of that. It sucks when you don't get a handle on the vision of what you're doing.

Great Advice! :-D
I cannot see the vidoe but I can understand what you are getting at

N64vSNES wrote:Well hopefully if Eric and Chris gets some art done I can get on and this will motivate the rest of the team? (hopes)

I find that when the rest of the team arn't motivated to work that kinda kills my motivation too

Make some art yourself. If they're better artists than you this will naturally motivate them to want to make it better and show off their skills.

dandymcgee wrote:

N64vSNES wrote:Well hopefully if Eric and Chris gets some art done I can get on and this will motivate the rest of the team? (hopes)

I find that when the rest of the team arn't motivated to work that kinda kills my motivation too

Make some art yourself. If they're better artists than you this will naturally motivate them to want to make it better and show off their skills.

He does try art, and admittedly he's pretty good.

dandymcgee wrote:

N64vSNES wrote:Well hopefully if Eric and Chris gets some art done I can get on and this will motivate the rest of the team? (hopes)

I find that when the rest of the team arn't motivated to work that kinda kills my motivation too

Make some art yourself. If they're better artists than you this will naturally motivate them to want to make it better and show off their skills.

...Yah, you know the art you said looked good minus the house.....Guess who did the house?

That could work though

eatcomics wrote:

dandymcgee wrote:

N64vSNES wrote:Well hopefully if Eric and Chris gets some art done I can get on and this will motivate the rest of the team? (hopes)

I find that when the rest of the team arn't motivated to work that kinda kills my motivation too

Make some art yourself. If they're better artists than you this will naturally motivate them to want to make it better and show off their skills.

He does try art, and admittedly he's pretty good.

No way, my art sucks

Low self esteem gets this project no farther Nico xD

I'm always trying to show my team somekind of progress - it doesn't matter if its a video, a post in a "What are you working on?" thread or something like that.
Most of the time the other team-members will get motivated and start doing stuff theirselves.
Until now, this worked pretty good for me :D
Maybe think about what makes you motivated and do the same thing to them?