This page describes a new vision for Wizcorp, focusing on its WHYs
The drive to write this page and a big chunk of inspiration is coming from having read Start with Why, Simon Sinek
A New Chapter
Why now?
I have been doing a lot of soul searching lately, and a lot of self-questioning about what Wizcorp means to me, and how I see my future involvement with it.
Reading Start with Why, Simon Sinek has allowed me to put the finger on something that had clearly been missing, but that I hadn’t been able to identify
Wizcorp’s history has been a roller coster overall, and I realized that, as its captain, all my efforts were directed toward keeping it afloat, and not really focusing on where it was heading, and most importantly, why we had boarded the boat in the first place.
This has resulted in what Wizcorp is today; a collection of talented individuals that has access to amazing growth opportunities, but is lacking of a reason to tackle these opportunities other than basic survival
You may of course remind me that we have already made many attempts at defining this vision, the most recent one being 2 years ago, but I now realize that we were attempting to define the WHAT and the HOW, but not the WHY.
I also think it is the perfect time to revisit our vision. Joining Keywords Studios last year has been a blessing for many reasons, not least that we now have a safe environment that allows us to stop running, consolidate our experiences and thoughts, redefine our vision, and resume our journey with a clearer destination.
Now that we have access to so many more opportunities of proving ourselves, it almost feels like a crime not having a clear vision, a clear reason that keeps us going.
Lastly, the situation with COVID-19 has presented us with a new challenge: working remotely. Now more than ever, we need a strong culture to keep us together despite the distance, and a culture starts with a set of beliefs.
Why do we need a ... WHY?
A company is a group of people who need to make many decisions every day. A lot of these decisions are driven by what we feel is right. Right for us, right for our peers, right for the project, right for the company, right for the industry. What feels right depends form person to person, and relies on their morale compass.
We would like to believe that we are perfectly rational beings, and so are our decisions, but that’s unfortunately an illusion of our brains, as doctor Daniel Kahneman explains in Thinking, Fast and Slow
Most of the decision are made, pretty much unconsciously, in our Limbic System which is in charge of emotions, feelings and decision making, but not language
So, what feels right will depend from person to person, unless we all have a common set of beliefs that can put our morale compasses in phase, and we all now where North is, and when to head toward it
That’s where the WHY comes into play. It is the unifying factor, the North Star of our morale compasses
It will guide every decision we make, why we chose a client or project, who we hire
It will be the tie-breaker in difficult debates
We will need to stay true to our beliefs and to ourselves
The WHY is also what we want to sell to our employees, our clients, our partners, future candidates
One message, one vision
I want our culture to become public. I want the world to know what we are standing for and why
We're not saying that we are there yet. But that's where we want to go, and we want to invite everybody involved with us to join us in this journey
Defining Wizcorp Culture
The 3 Questions
Why does our company exist?
To bring back magic to game development
Why Japan?
Because it was once a powerful source of mana, and a source of inspiration for many aspiring wizards
That source of mana was perverted by non-initie who didn’t care about their craft and only cared about making profit
We only work with clients who believe in their project, and are trying to do the right thing (maybe too vague)
We care deeply about the projects we work on, they become very personal to us, and we take a lot of ownership for our contributions, maybe more than other studios
We are very selective with our staff, and they all have the following DNA
We work hard to provide the salaries that experienced creatives deserve
We try hard to improve the efficiency of their work environment every day
Leave the organization in a better way than you found it
We actively promote knowledge sharing within the company, so that we can offer more than the simple addition of our individual contributions; that’s were the magic happens