Nothing matters more in the effectiveness of a team than teamwork, and teamwork is directly and fully dependent on your communication. Let me be very clear here – effective communication in speedrunning is not about being some notion of ‘nice’ or talking more or less or in a certain tone or whatever. Pretending to be positive all the time is not what produces good teamwork, just like negativity isn’t.

I want you to instead think of your communication as a form of mechanics. The things that trigger WHEN you say something, WHAT words you choose to fill your sentences and, most importantly, HOW you structure your sentences are what determine what your uttering actually does. You always create a reality by verbalizing something, and this communicative sphere upon which you interact with your teammates has the structure of your spoken structure. We’ll call this the mode of speaking from now on. The combined speaking modes of the players produce the workflows of the team, so take it very seriously.

Let’s have a look at what I consider the three downfalls of poor communication. See if you can identify having experienced some of this before.

Communication as a source of problems

1.            People generally start building something and focus on that, let’s say task A. Then, as an afterthought, they realize other things are needed to be able to do that, or should be done at the same time, etc. So then, when task A is already started, a call is made for someone to do necessary task B. But since everyone does what our self-absorbed example player is doing, everyone is already on some task. And to what degree they make sense in the order they’re being done can vary. This leads to many other frustrations, like everyone deciding to build something that needs the same resource that is now out, someone preparing for a task for a long time to then see it has already been taken care of, people trying to do too many things while others have to wait, etc. Example: Player 1 is building blue science. Player 1: “Why are there no red chips?! I needed another copper lane here!” Noone knows what he’s talking about or is busy. 2.            When people are confronted with an issue, like resources missing, a build being incomplete, or changes having been made to something they expected to be a certain way somewhere, the immediate reaction is: “This is bad.” I’d go so far as to say that there’s often a gut reaction of “There must be stupidity behind this.” Only after that point are inquiries made, asking why something is missing or different or not done yet or slow. So now the other(s) have to explain their way our of an assumption of stupidity, mistakes, forgetfulness, laziness, incompetence. Usually, the issue is settled after some explaining. But it drains everyone’s energy a little bit. And is, just like the first point, reactive instead of proactive, and can only lead to worse/slower outcomes rather than better ones. Example: Player 1 is building processing units. Player 1: “Why is there no sulfuric acid yet? And what’s with this tank setup?! It lowers throughput! This isn’t how I usually build it! It’s imperfect! It’s impure!” Player 2: “I had to clear the iron patch of biters first, sorry. It took a while because there were no grenades left.” Player 3: “I took them to clear the forest at the oil, sorry.” Player 1: “Okay, but why the tanks?!” Player 2: “Well, we already had oil running but we had no iron for the acid, so I put down some tanks to buffer the oil in the meantime. I wanted to add some refineries and chem plants to produce more acid once we get the iron. We just need to add some pumps and the throughput will be fine, we’ll catch up.” Player 1: “Okay, well do it then!” Player 2: “I am doing it…” 3.            Because points 1 and 2 lead to a) longer and longer times to complete a communication point, because issues get bigger and communication deficits reach further back in time and/or compound and to b) a negative connotation in general about bringing things up and having things brought up, people start shutting up. In two ways: a) They grow reluctant to talk about their own problems and discuss solutions with the others proactively, and b) When an issue is brought up and some questioning and explaining has happened, frustration flares up faster than the issue can be resolved more and more often, so it’s just dropped. Everyone notices, and the problem gets worse.

Summarily, we end up in a situation where blaming and being blamed is the feeling you either are left with or have to at least fight. And for performance, it means that it inevitably gets worse and worse and you can only try to catch some problems with your feet after they’ve fallen through your fingers.

Communication as a source of unlimited power – The PROSPER principles

My proposal for solving this is what follows. Remind yourself over and over that everyone is always doing their best and we all have the same goals. Teamwork is never perfect – this is not something that is done to you by someone else, it’s just the nature of it. Just do your best, assume the best, and accept that it still won’t be perfect and that’s fine. Learn to use communication proactively, as a means of structuring your workflows.

I’ll close with some examples of what I consider strong, performance-enhancing communication that can be applied in any team-based game mode. They assume a very low level of practice and a fairly casual setting, where you don’t know every step every teammate does by heart (yet). The most often you run something with the same team, the less open questions remain, of course.

1.            Plan ahead, not behind. Divvy up responsibilities and always make sure people understand and agree with their parts. Be specific. Instead of building a mall and then saying “We could use more power”, you should first say: “I want to build the mall next. Is anyone free to build the power? Player A? No? Player B?” To which they may respond f.ex.: “I’m finishing the copper miners, I’ll go to X and get the furnaces, then I can build the power, so in about X minutes. I’ll build it at location Y. Is that ok?” Player C is now in the picture, so they could interject: “After my current task, I wanted to start on the outpost. Can you build enough power for that right away?” Be specific and make sure you were clear, stay in your own perspective instead of judging things like an all-seeing objective being, and always assume the best out of your teammates, so problems can be explained from a productive state rather than everything having to be explained to sensefulness from a state of posterior destructivity. -> Speak proactively. Bad example: “I wanted more coal here!” Good example: “I will need more coal here before smelting stops!” -> Speak precisely. Bad example: “I will need more stuff here!” Good example: “I will need another half belt of plastics at red chips ASAP!” 2.            When you are confronted with an issue, like something missing, being left incomplete, or changed, always first assume the best. This most probably has a good reason. The other players aren’t suddenly idiots for forgetting something, which they probably didn’t even do. They surely have to do something more important first. Just because you may not see what they have been doing this whole time but now see something you want to have already done, that doesn’t mean their work is bad or invalid or slow or wrong. Instead, if there is need, you can simply state: “X is not done/changed. Who has that on their agenda?” If no one, go to step 1 and assign it. If someone responds it’s theirs, state how the issue relates to you so they have context, and let them then estimate their response. F.ex.: “I’ve completed the blue science build, so we need the sulfur. We need it connected ASAP because our science has stopped.” – The responses may range from “I know, I have to finish power first or we’ll brown out, I’ll do sulfur next.” Over “Oh okay, you were fast. I’ll head over there now.” To “I’m off fighting biters/my inner demons, please do it yourself since I’ll need 5min+”. Either way, always be specific (“blue needs sulfur” rather than “this is really bad”), keep perspective (“I need this ASAP” rather than “You should always do this first”) and assume the best (“Why did you change X?” rather than “X is wrong, explain it to me”). And should someone really just have fucked up, just tackle it head-on and rationally. It’s fine. You’re still a team solving the problem, forget who made the mistake. Don’t get personal, don’t make it a big deal, and don’t be afraid to be completely direct and honest about it. -> Assume the best. Bad example: Player 1: “Who forgot to put down the chem plants?” Good example: Player 1: “Why are the chem plants not down yet?” -> Stay in a state of precise feedback. Bad example: Player 1: “The combinators are missing. Someone needs to fix it.” Players 2-8: “…” Good example: Player 1: “The combinators are missing.” Player 2: “I forgot. I’m far away now. Player 3, you’re close, can you place them?” Player 3: “Yes, in one minute. Player 4, can you finish the science for me?” Player 4: “Yes, if you drop the assemblers for me.” Player 3: “In this chest.” *pings* -> Don’t get personal. Bad example: Player 1: “Uh, Player 2, you screwed up the belts here? Sorry uh, it’s no big deal, I understand you’re tired, but can you fix them please?.” Good example: Player 1: “This belt is wrong. Who can fix it?” Player 2: “I’m on it.” -> Keep perspective. Bad example: Player 1: “You should always place the power poles before the pipes.” Good example: Player 1: “I think it’s better to place the power poles before the pipes because you can drag the pipes without blocking the engine connections with poles that way.”

TL;DR: Don’t downplay your own mistakes and don’t focus on others’. Speak proactively (“We will need more power before we build more miners” rather than “Someone should’ve built more power”), keep perspective (“I should’ve helped you” rather than “You’re still not finished”), be specific (“The belt at X is rotated, that’s why power is out” rather than “Power is fucked”) and assume the best (“I guess you couldn’t finish the build” rather than “I guess you decided to not care about finishing the build”). Moreover, and this is important, commit to emotional hygiene and don’t let frustration build up.

Remember that these are your mates, and feel secure in your relationships; even if that includes speaking up against someone, giving and receiving criticism and reinforcing boundaries. Don’t get personal, assume the best, have fun. That’s what everyone is here for. Unless someone rotates 3 times instead of counter-rotating, then they’re idiots and should be banned.

Make sure to adapt your communication to what your needs are. You speak differently in Any% than you do in DS%, because they require different workflows and player functions, different strengths. Make sure to develop your own communicative culture.

If you want to use this guide on communication in your team, you may find it helpful to remind yourself or each other of its three central principles as an acronym.

Speak PROactively,
be SPEcific,
be aware of your PERspective.

-> PROSPER.

And, most of all, make sure to have fun.

Streamobert, August 2020