There is No "I" in Teamwork (But There's a "Me" Kinda)

Both theatre and video games are inherently collaborative mediums, much to no one’s surprise. If your only introduction to either has been my past writings - press X to Doubt - then even by skimming these put-to-page-word-vomits (gross), you’ve probably drawn the same conclusion.?

If we apply deconstruction (ew, deconstruction? Who even uses that weird abstraction?), then we can consider each facet as an inherent collaboration that we can study, and those studies become fascinating deep dives into discipline-based action, interpretation, and iteration. It’s where each person’s own understanding and action is a beautiful part of a bigger whole.

If we want to fold in some metatext flavoring (we’re all experts now that we read my article, right? Right!), then we can say one’s contributions are a collective expression of all their experiences, curiosities, and sense of innovation to create a new experience.

Drawing from those ideas, if a single person’s work is being weighed, then it results from a myriad of factors that are not only unique to that person, but that also influence the actions and interpretations of those around them.

That’s just considering one person. Apply the collaborative mediums that are game development and theatre, and you have a whole that is greater than the sum of each part. It becomes a gorgeous tapestry of lives, journeys, and brainstorms.

Sure, that’s a little flowery, but this is OUR flower, comrade. You’re in too deep.?

Before I continue with the “no I in teamwork” adage, take a second and reflect on where you are in your journey. Give it that good ol’ college try at self-awareness and meditation. Go on. I’ll join you. Let’s find that core of what makes us an individual when we’re asked to step up.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

Did you lose focus almost immediately because your cat made a ruckus in the other room and you had to be sure everything was above board? No? Just me? Figures.

But anyway, consider how far you’ve come to get to where you are now - as a person, as a professional, as a friend, as a partner, as the infinite ways we as individuals can be. Now, consider that the person next to you working on your shared project is just as complex as you. So is the person sitting on your other side, and across from you, and the one who just stepped away to use the bathroom - we are all complex, intricate beings.

And we exist in this current (hypothetical) context to create something together.

How can one possibly override the other? What space does ego have in collaboration?

There is the self-confidence that comes with knowing yourself and your skills, but rather than ego, I would call that... truth.

In performance mediums like theatre, truth is a language that can be used to construct scenes and stories. What is a character’s truth? What is your personal truth as an actor that informs your approach to the character? What are the truths that come together to create a new idea? How are the actions of a character indicative of not only their truth, but of the greater truth of the collaborative performance? Truth informs.

By contrast, ego detracts. To place one’s own experiences and thoughts above the others, to shut down or refuse other ideas out of place simply because your experience is different - how does that inform or support one another? It takes away from what could be, alters and takes away from that greater creation we all have come together to imagine.

That’s not to say that our own experiences are moot or irrelevant - not at all! It means that our experiences and ideas must be considered by the whole. The insights, the actions, the considerations - each of these create a greater truth from which more action is derived by others. When it comes to a team, the objective becomes to pursue a collective truth, one that is a shared foundation to find and create truth in new ways - it’s a cycle of discovery and creation.

That’s why performance mediums are fascinating to me, and why I studied theatre to begin with at all.?

Collaboration based in truth discovers creation.?

So yes, reductively speaking from my poetry above, there is no “I” in teamwork. It’s also just a fact when you spell the word "teamwork."

“Pranshu,” I hear you say, “we still haven’t talked about video games.”

Alright then, if you want me to get to the point - what would it mean if I said there’s a “me” (kinda) in teamwork??

All of this expounding and soapboxing aside, we still do need to contribute SOMETHING to our work that gets it done. So what’s assigned to me? What does the team require of me? What’s left entirely to me? Me me me me me me me me (to be said as a child might)

If truth informs and ego detracts, then let’s consider that the “me” in this scenario is the aspect of our participation of the work that’s being affected by the truth.?

What is the truth of the work that the team has decided on? What has that truth affected in terms of our prioritization, and what does that truth ask from? What is our truth that causes me to act?

As complex and storied as game development is and can be (ask any one of your senior staff or mentors what their craziest stories are from their time in game dev - things get WILD), personal experience doesn’t necessarily become a refusal of a proposed plan. It becomes a basis to recreate and develop a new plan, to see the truth of the current situation and find a new truth that comes from all of us.

This categorization of “me” rather than "I" is a subtle shift, but it’s one that becomes apparent in performance. Nuance is the friend of the performer, and somehow, shockingly, grammar seems to keep popping up in interpretations of the truth (crazy how that works).

“I” implies that the center of the idea, the subject pronoun of the sentence, is the self. “Me” instead conveys that there is some greater or other substance that acts or affects the self (cough cough the object pronoun), where the self is not leading but is instead allowing itself to be led. It becomes a vessel rather than a tyrant - a service leader, one might say.?

It’s me, “one” is me.

But with all that, I need to acknowledge something.?

The importance of the truth and its readiness is not as available as we might hope. We don’t always get the joy of knowing everything about the truth of the matter. Oftentimes, we are told only what is considered “need-to-know”, and from there, we need to find our core from which to act. It’s not ideal. It’s unfortunate. It can even feel restrictive or hostile.?

But even that is also the truth, and from that truth, we can begin from that point to build trust and growth together with our companions (including the one that’s still in the bathroom). And it’s from that truth - even in its uncertainty - that the “I” is shed away to contribute to the “we”, and we consider what others are asking of “me”.

But there’s a silver lining here, and it’s that this is an opportunity to find a new truth in the chaos, from me to you.

“Believe in the me that believes in you.”

See you next week.