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	<title>Comments on: Entrepreneur Profile: Justin Beck, PerBlue</title>
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	<link>http://www.nathanlustig.com/2010/01/05/entrepreneur-profile-justin-beck-perblue/</link>
	<description>Staying Out of the Cubicle: Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Travel</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Thu, 29 Jul 2010 19:48:19 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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		<title>By: ANAND</title>
		<link>http://www.nathanlustig.com/2010/01/05/entrepreneur-profile-justin-beck-perblue/comment-page-1/#comment-557</link>
		<dc:creator>ANAND</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 22 Jan 2010 14:31:06 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.nathanlustig.com/?p=740#comment-557</guid>
		<description>Hi JB, that was a nice and interesting. Could you please visit our company and take a glance. I&#039;m sure you will love it. Is there any chance we could have a business deal. Eagerly looking for a reply.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Hi JB, that was a nice and interesting. Could you please visit our company and take a glance. I&#8217;m sure you will love it. Is there any chance we could have a business deal. Eagerly looking for a reply.</p>
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		<title>By: corky</title>
		<link>http://www.nathanlustig.com/2010/01/05/entrepreneur-profile-justin-beck-perblue/comment-page-1/#comment-528</link>
		<dc:creator>corky</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Sun, 10 Jan 2010 16:20:26 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.nathanlustig.com/?p=740#comment-528</guid>
		<description>Thanks for the extra.  I think decent lawyers who get to do the fun part of law (not the cranking out burgers kind of law) fit your definition of creative, and the difficulty of managing creative people applies as well.  I wonder, though, whether some of your ideas also would be helpful for the burger-crankers of the world...might a good manager of mundane taskworkers also get better performance by looking for an individual&#039;s talents and strengths?  probably, but the range of variation might be smaller.  Thanks for prompting the thoughts.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Thanks for the extra.  I think decent lawyers who get to do the fun part of law (not the cranking out burgers kind of law) fit your definition of creative, and the difficulty of managing creative people applies as well.  I wonder, though, whether some of your ideas also would be helpful for the burger-crankers of the world&#8230;might a good manager of mundane taskworkers also get better performance by looking for an individual&#8217;s talents and strengths?  probably, but the range of variation might be smaller.  Thanks for prompting the thoughts.</p>
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		<title>By: Justin Beck</title>
		<link>http://www.nathanlustig.com/2010/01/05/entrepreneur-profile-justin-beck-perblue/comment-page-1/#comment-520</link>
		<dc:creator>Justin Beck</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 07 Jan 2010 21:16:24 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.nathanlustig.com/?p=740#comment-520</guid>
		<description>Hey Corky,

I put a few of my thoughts together to try to address your questions.

What is a creative team?  
You know your part of a creative team when your job requires design, architecture, creativity, and ingenuity.

We aren&#039;t making burgers, pulling weeds, or driving trucks or selling products.  The output is a creation that is uniquely crafted.   I view Programming, Artwork, Marketing, Web Design, Game Design etc as creative tasks.  

What are the difficulties?

The challenge is with &quot;creative&#039;s&quot; is that individual performance or productivity can possibly have no correlation to &quot;time spent&quot; on a task but rather things like intrinsic motivation, guidance or divine inspiration. 

As a manager you have no explicit control of how they do there job. Yet your are responsible for getting quality results in a timely manner.

What advice do I have?

Each of your team members is different and you need to treat them all differently.  Treating them uniquely is more important than treating them fairly.  Don&#039;t assume they are like you, or &quot;all artists are similar&quot;. These differences are what makes them amazing and is what you can use to maximize their productivity. For example: some individuals need to be left alone.  Some individuals if you leave them alone they will waste a bunch of time and get virtually nothing accomplished. Some individuals you can &quot;beat with a stick&quot; to better stuff out.  Some individuals its all about cutting apart their work just right.  Some people you give financial milestones.  Some of them you complement them in public.  Some you talk to in private.

Constantly be looking for an individual&#039;s talents and strengths.  Work to maximize their individual performance my encouraging them to always perform better then they did in the past.

Find communication that works for the both of you.  Clearly explain what you want the outcome to be.  

Demand excellence or all you will get is crap. Constraints are an amazing tool.  &quot;I believe you can do better&quot;.  &quot;I think you can do this faster&quot; &quot;I think you can do this with fewer lines of code&quot;

As a manager you have &quot;no control&quot; you only have remote control.  Don&#039;t fake yourself into thinking your in control. At the end of the day all you can do is inspire and direct the team to doing the right things.  

Give them objectives and milestones that are meaningful to them.  Its your job to get all members of the team to build something amazing.  Treat each member of the team individually. Give them an objective that is something they have control over.  The best teams are the ones that have high performing individuals and are working towards one common vision.  

&quot;A great creative manager can get blood from stones without making enemies.&quot;

How do we make money? 

We sell a virtual item called &quot;Food&quot; to PK players.  PK is free-to-play, but you can spend Food for about 30 different things inside of the game.  It is also tradable with other players via  a little in game ebay for in game goods.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Hey Corky,</p>
<p>I put a few of my thoughts together to try to address your questions.</p>
<p>What is a creative team?<br />
You know your part of a creative team when your job requires design, architecture, creativity, and ingenuity.</p>
<p>We aren&#8217;t making burgers, pulling weeds, or driving trucks or selling products.  The output is a creation that is uniquely crafted.   I view Programming, Artwork, Marketing, Web Design, Game Design etc as creative tasks.  </p>
<p>What are the difficulties?</p>
<p>The challenge is with &#8220;creative&#8217;s&#8221; is that individual performance or productivity can possibly have no correlation to &#8220;time spent&#8221; on a task but rather things like intrinsic motivation, guidance or divine inspiration. </p>
<p>As a manager you have no explicit control of how they do there job. Yet your are responsible for getting quality results in a timely manner.</p>
<p>What advice do I have?</p>
<p>Each of your team members is different and you need to treat them all differently.  Treating them uniquely is more important than treating them fairly.  Don&#8217;t assume they are like you, or &#8220;all artists are similar&#8221;. These differences are what makes them amazing and is what you can use to maximize their productivity. For example: some individuals need to be left alone.  Some individuals if you leave them alone they will waste a bunch of time and get virtually nothing accomplished. Some individuals you can &#8220;beat with a stick&#8221; to better stuff out.  Some individuals its all about cutting apart their work just right.  Some people you give financial milestones.  Some of them you complement them in public.  Some you talk to in private.</p>
<p>Constantly be looking for an individual&#8217;s talents and strengths.  Work to maximize their individual performance my encouraging them to always perform better then they did in the past.</p>
<p>Find communication that works for the both of you.  Clearly explain what you want the outcome to be.  </p>
<p>Demand excellence or all you will get is crap. Constraints are an amazing tool.  &#8220;I believe you can do better&#8221;.  &#8220;I think you can do this faster&#8221; &#8220;I think you can do this with fewer lines of code&#8221;</p>
<p>As a manager you have &#8220;no control&#8221; you only have remote control.  Don&#8217;t fake yourself into thinking your in control. At the end of the day all you can do is inspire and direct the team to doing the right things.  </p>
<p>Give them objectives and milestones that are meaningful to them.  Its your job to get all members of the team to build something amazing.  Treat each member of the team individually. Give them an objective that is something they have control over.  The best teams are the ones that have high performing individuals and are working towards one common vision.  </p>
<p>&#8220;A great creative manager can get blood from stones without making enemies.&#8221;</p>
<p>How do we make money? </p>
<p>We sell a virtual item called &#8220;Food&#8221; to PK players.  PK is free-to-play, but you can spend Food for about 30 different things inside of the game.  It is also tradable with other players via  a little in game ebay for in game goods.</p>
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		<title>By: corky</title>
		<link>http://www.nathanlustig.com/2010/01/05/entrepreneur-profile-justin-beck-perblue/comment-page-1/#comment-518</link>
		<dc:creator>corky</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 06 Jan 2010 18:24:30 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.nathanlustig.com/?p=740#comment-518</guid>
		<description>JB noted that the most unexpected challenge was how difficult it is to be a  really good manager of a creative team.  I&#039;d like to know more about that:  what are the difficulties; what advice could he give; how is it different managing a creative team rather than other types of teams.

Second, how does he make money?</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>JB noted that the most unexpected challenge was how difficult it is to be a  really good manager of a creative team.  I&#8217;d like to know more about that:  what are the difficulties; what advice could he give; how is it different managing a creative team rather than other types of teams.</p>
<p>Second, how does he make money?</p>
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