How to Improve Staff-Player Communication

[Yokunama]

Second, my biggest concern is with the shifting of clan assignments.

This.

Regarding the switching of staff and clans, don't be shy about sending your new staff an email letting them know everything that they need to know about your PC.  Yes, we do communicate with former staffers about what's going on, but your former staffers may not recall everything that the new staff would need to know.

It could help the players, especially the leaders of the clan, if the new staff could send e-mails containing what they would like to see in weekly reports and their policy on certain things. New staff means things -will- have a different way of handling and going about things. We shouldn't be expected to -know- everything.

[Nyr]

Usually, policies within clans do not change from staff member to staff member (that's why there is documentation for clans and GDB information).
The latest two rotations, there was a transitional period in which clan staffers get e-mail from their old clans and advise the incoming staffers on how things have been working in the past.  The times that I can think of that there were significant changes to any clans, staff members AND players were heavily involved.

[Gimfalisette]

Usually, policies within clans do not change from staff member to staff member (that's why there is documentation for clans and GDB information).
The latest two rotations, there was a transitional period in which clan staffers get e-mail from their old clans and advise the incoming staffers on how things have been working in the past.  The times that I can think of that there were significant changes to any clans, staff members AND players were heavily involved.

I think most of what people are experiencing so far as differences, when a new imm takes over a clan, is more attributable to the staffer's personal way of doing things, communicating, and what that staffer expects or enjoys from the clannies. It's much the same as being a university student and having a new professor for a new semester's classes; there are some commonalities between professors, but there are also LOTS of ways in which professors have very different styles. One may hold open office hours, another only takes appointments; one requires essays be written in this format, another in a different format; one is at class and ready to begin lecturing at the stroke of the hour, another trails into the classroom and launches into the lecture at 10 minutes past; one requires note-taking and rapt attention and another couldn't care less what you're doing in class, so long as you're not disturbing others.

So, it's a critical skill for a student's survival to learn how to anticipate what the prof wants and adjust his/her own style to that. Otherwise, you can easily fail a class you really shouldn't fail.

Same thing happens when clans get new imms. Does the imm want weekly reports? If so, in what format? If I need something from the imm, which method of asking for it is most likely to get me a positive response of some kind? What expectations does the imm have of me in this particular role, ICly and OOCly? What things will really piss the imm off?

To that end, I think it would be really helpful if imms would state up-front what their expectations, requirements, and desires are. Then players don't have to guess so much.

When I played my Tuluki noble, we received docs up-front that contained a lot of this stuff, and it was immensely helpful.

[Sephiroto]

As an offshoot of my last post:

Spending anywhere from fifteen minutes to an hour talking individually with our/your people once a month, or even at the discretion of the player + staff, especially if the player is a leader in a clan, is an idea to help bring us together.  I believe this has the potential to strengthen player-staff relationship exponentially and help us learn to anticipate what we, as a whole, want and expect from one another.  Be warned, however, that there should be policy in place to ensure things stay professional.  Ultimately, we are a collective of roleplayers who have similar needs and goals and communication is important the success of our team and the longevity of our relationships.

One thing that I've learned in the workplace is that the better you understand your people, the easier it is to comprehend their emails and relate to their point of view.  This helps us be tolerant, amiable, and productive despite our differences.  Now, sending emails back and forth is great for getting tasks done.  Overall though, it leaves me with some F'ed-up, ambiguous idea of a relationship-gone-wrong because I don't get face time with the "boss".  I don't know if it's just me, but I have trouble getting on the right wavelength with my leader when that piece is missing.  From the perspective of a long-time staffer it may be hard to understand the disconnection that we players can feel.  It's easy for imms to work together as a team because they can chat real-time amongst themselves whenever they want, but when I have to wait a .  When I can't readily communicate, I don't feel as much like I'm part of the team.  I feel like I'm on my own a lot of times, even when I have great clan staff to back me up because I lack that feeling of "togetherness."

***

After an hour of pondering I've reached an ineffable block and I can't think of how to end this post except to say that I'd like to see some willingness to try this out and to remember that this is an idea for discussion and not some "The old way is broken, my way is better" plug.