How to Increase Social Capital in a Remote-First Team
/Game development is a long road which be full of twists and turns, and usually requires teams of developers to work in harmony, coordinate and to trust one another. Whether you’re working on beautiful brewing sims, transforming thrilling tabletops or popular porting projects – the need for your team to communicate and perform is essential. The answer? Social Capital.
John Kennedy, Auroch Digital Producer
Defined as the value gained from the web of relationships you grow, Social Capital can be increased through social interactions and engagements within a team, and has the potential to elevate the productivity and trust of your team to new heights.
Recently, Producer John Kennedy set out on a mission to increase Social Capital within his team and documented his findings… and how a Brew at 2 became relationships that grew.
So pop the kettle on, and read the below article by John to discover how even the smallest interaction can impact the wellbeing and trust in a game development team…
What is Social Capital in Game Development
The concept of Social Capital is the accumulation of every day social habits which can sustain and improve a team’s performance and productivity. Think of it as if every team member is acting as a brick in the wall, and social capital is the mortar in-between those bricks. In Game Development, the success of a project is closely linked to the performance of the team as a whole and not of individually high-performing members, and Social Capital is a great way to bring a team together, unite them on a journey towards a common goal and improve performance in times of crisis or high pressure (like Milestone Deliverables).
But Social Capital is not a tick-box exercise, it’s something that needs to be maintained and tended to throughout the lifespan of that team through events and interactions. All social interactions add to the Social Capital pot – whether that’s small interactions like chatting to a colleague in the office kitchen or catching up on the commute to-and-from the office, or bigger events like a team lunch or after-work event. Every single interaction between team members can help to form and strengthen relationships, and boost the bonds between the team.
Seems simple enough, right?
Some of the auroch digital herd saying a remote “good morning!”
How do you increase your social capital in a team?
All social interactions add to the social capital pot. From after work events or chatting to a colleague in the office kitchen whilst the kettle boils. From having lunch together at work or catching up on the commute to and from the office. All these social interactions help to form relationships and improves bonds between team members.
So how can we increase social capital when we work remotely?
This is the question that I’ve been asking myself. I work with a team that work in various locations in around the UK and outside too. Therefore, this high frequency daily face to face social interactions that I’ve mentioned aren’t possible. There’s no bumping into someone in the kitchen when you’re making a brew, no passing conversation within earshot that you can join, no commute to have a chat with a colleague on the train about the weekend. So, what can we do to allow these kinds of interactions to happen and help cultivate this important Social Capital? Furthermore, how do we know and assess what we do is actually having an impact?
I had an idea… ☕
What was immediately apparent was that we needed to create the space and the opportunity for people to have those more personal, non-work related conversations. So the first thing I did was to introduce an optional weekly “Brew at 2” 30min meeting on Friday afternoons where the team could chat about anything, preferably non-work related.
We have lots of meetings throughout the week, but all these meetings revolve around work and therefore the conversations are often non-personal as they are limited to work related challenges, solutions and project planning. Therefore people don’t get much opportunity to talk about other interests / events going on in their lives. I wanted to create a space where people could chat about anything mimicking the conversations we’d have whilst making a tea or coffee in the office kitchen for example. The key thing was to highlight that work chat can happen outside this space and maintain a relaxed environment so that people felt comfortable to chat about what was going on in their lives.
I monitored the attendance of these social gatherings. At the same time, I introduced an optional team survey and requested they completed each month to see if there was any correlation between the survey results and the attendance of the weekly social get together. The survey was focused on confidence, support, isolation and general wellbeing whilst on the project. Each question gave the team the ability to score on a scale from 1 to 5 (1 = negative, 5 = positive). At the end there was also an opportunity for them to add any notes on how they were feeling in themselves and the project.
putting the tea in team ☕
Analysis
By monitoring the Brew at 2 attendance and cross referencing the team survey results I was wanting to see if any patterns immerged that I could draw conclusions from. I picked 3 team members that were the most consistent in both attending the Brew at 2 and completing the survey. I then compared the data on these 3 individuals against the overall team average data. These were my key noticeable trends:
As time went on the individuals who attended more brew at 2s felt less isolated than the team average
Their happiness with the project over time was on a more positive trajectory compared to the overall team.
On average they ended up feeling more confident in supporting others
The individuals were more likely to ask for help compared to the team average.
The last 2 points are the most relatable to the Social Capital theory. However, there are some other points that should be considered when drawing any form of conclusions. The average attendance for Brew at 2 was 31.3% each week. The average participation of the survey was 54.4%. These numbers do reduce the validity of the data as we are not seeing the complete picture. However, if I had forced these contributions, there was a risk that the data given would be impacted by the mandatory nature of these requests, therefore reducing the validity of any data that was given.
It’s worth noting that over time within the studio we have an increasing number of other social interaction opportunities. We have many online communication channels for non-work related chats; Pets, Food, Boardgames etc. We have virtual get togethers after work such as Creative Club where people can chat whilst doing anything… creative! This has been highly successful to the point where people would join just to hang around for a chat. There are also the less infrequent face to face get togethers; dog walking, boardgame nights, developer conferences. These extra social interactions / events are announced each week within our company wide meeting, ensuring everyone is aware and given the opportunity to join in / contribute. Many of these have risen out of other organised catch-ups and have organically grown by the team members themselves.
So by not being in a closed environment, having so many outside factors that ultimately affect team survey results, it is difficult to attribute one piece of data to another. But the data gathered are promising indicators that this social Brew at 2 interaction did have a positive impact and added to the Social Capital.
My final thought is this; we are by nature social creatures, therefore the more social interactions and communication opportunities within the work place the better. Forums, Playtesting, lunchtime and evening gaming catch ups all contribute to the bonds that a team creates, strengthening the bricks in the wall. Which in turn should improve their wellbeing, reducing their stress levels and combat the feeling of isolation. There are limitless social opportunities for us to help our teams, we’ve just got to give it our time and attention and then to action them.
One last note:
The very nature of asking the team to complete a wellbeing survey and to allow them to write notes on how they were feeling had an unforeseen effect. I had comments from different team members saying, “Thank you for asking”, “…it’s a good idea to ask” and “…it nice to know you care”. So, whilst the brew at 2 was the interaction platform I was focusing on, it totally bypassed me that the very act of asking them to complete the survey was a social interaction itself and it was also adding to the accumulating Social Capital pot.
It’s all these habits and practices that we do at work that generate and sustain Social Capital, every single interaction no matter how small, they all count.
John and the team at a rare in person meet up at our annual company conference Moocon
