Month 1 - May 2008

Introduction

May 5, 2008, was the first day of my Master’s degree and the second time attending Full Sail. This time I was attending online and embarking on being a full-time student along with working a full-time position at THX Ltd. I remember my original intention for starting the degree was the pure fact that I could get a Masters while gaining experience in my chosen career’s industry. I was certainly not ready for the amount of work and long weekends the degree was going to demand of me but I knew I had the determination to see this through. Learning, interacting with teachers and students, and submitting course work online was a new experience for me and although it isn’t for everyone, I felt it was still adequate to my learning style. I have learned a great deal since this first month and looking back, it is amazing how little I knew just a year ago. I am looking forward to completing this Leadership Portfolio project and taking an interactive look at my journey, experiences, and history of my Master degree.

This Leadership Portfolio project, a part of my Thesis, is an interactive resume to document and showcase what I have accomplished to receive my Masters degree. When given the choice of format in which to present my LP project, I decided to revamp my personal website and include a specific blog dedicated to my degree. Each post will review and showcase a Reflection of that class/month of the degree process, including my community involvement, and the original document submission (if available) I had for that month. For this program, we developed monthly projects in various formats as an outgrowth of the assigned tasks, in a group or community of our choosing according to our industry. I am herein separating the monthly reflection from the monthly community involvement segments. Join with me in this journey and I look forward to hearing any feedback or comments you may have.

Reflection

My first month’s class, titled Executive Leadership, served as an introduction, a primer, to the degree process and proved to be an early mindset changer for becoming a strong business leader. I remember gaining inspiration from the story of Walt Disney and how his leadership skills and business intuition helped build the long lasting empire known around the world today. The skills and drive he displayed definitely influenced me in knowing that no matter where I am in life, greatness can be achieved through dedication, determination, and drive. This month also featured the beginning of elements needed for my thesis projects.

Looking back to this month makes me realize where I actually was in my personal career. I was prepared to successfully fulfill the requirements of my chosen position, but I knew I wanted to become a Producer eventually and I lacked some skills for that position. I entered this program without fully comprehending the magnitude of the experience. As I learned about Walt Disney, I began to see the importance of management procedures when leading a project or business. My eyes were opened to the many possibilities that this Full Sail education could prepare me for. My thirst for information was increased, so I found more meaning in my other experiences, especially my Internet interactions. I began to recognize characteristics of company leaders which helped them achieve CEO status. I was truly invigorated and excited to read, learn, complete assigned tasks, and was eager to discover what the next activity would involve.

Community Involvement

I originally stated I would record podcasts each month showcasing my involvement but after delving into the degree program, this turned out to not be the case. Instead, I did document, in an email to myself, what community elements I took part in each month and will be retelling those items in this section of the post. During the first month I actively renewed my participation in the Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G.). There were significant changes since the last time I visited the website as new supports, sponsors, and website designs had been created and it was obvious that this group was evolving constantly. My involvement consisted of personal growth activities, reviving my knowledge of available resources, buying equipment and sound/music packages at a discount, visiting support groups, focus areas, and discovering trends. I was able to establish networks of contacts, including Tommy Tallarico, and notably Paul Lipson, whom I would later interact with at industry conferences. I was able to bring my current insider view of what the audio game industry wants and needs.

Original LP Submission

Link to Original Document

Update on Tuesday, May 12, 2009 at 5:31PM by Mark Gugler

A Reflective Analogy

As an inspirational addition to the Leadership Portfolio project, I felt each month could have the analogy of composing a piece of music. The first month is centered on having a goal in mind, in this case a musical composition, and starting in the most logical position. For business this is leadership and for music it is the melody. Leadership and the main melody are what hold a business and a composition together, respectively. Leaders must first figure out their strengths, their weaknesses, and learn how to conduct themselves in many situations. They set the boundaries, manage production, and provide motivation. A melody must likewise lead the entire composition. It must have direction, interesting flow, and correct structure as it establishes the foundations of tonal key, tempo, meter, and mood. Below is the melody representing the foundation created this month, and moving forward, I will add the unique backgrounds, harmonies, and other aspects to fully develop the composition. These additions correlate with the development of each of us as we learned through the program and began to exhibit characteristics that will make any business person impactful.

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Month 2 - June 2008

Reflection

The second month’s course, Project & Team Management, continued the idea of leadership, business management, and working as a team regardless of background and personal goals. I feel this month’s activities were designed to help us experience some difficult management techniques. At the beginning of the course the class was divided into teams of 4 to create a business idea pitch. The team was tasked with meeting multiple times a week to iron out details and create a pitch document to present to the teachers during the last week. Since all the classes were online and only a month long, I sent out emails to get to know all my classmates the first month. This proactive take on the degree is what I feel prompted my team mates to choose me as project manager. I have had prior team management experience with being Asset Lead in my Bachelor’s thesis and managing my own teams here at THX but it is always nice to have a group of your peers decide you are the best to lead a project.

The LP document for this month was a basic reflection on the team experience, the pros and cons of working with a virtual team, and what I learned from the other members of the group. After rereading the document I sent, most of the details are still fresh in my mind. The “Forming” stage, mentioned in Clements book “Successful Project Management”, was quickly overcome because of the aforementioned emails I sent in the first month. We knew each other’s names and through the month we grew to understand each individual’s strengths, backgrounds, and experiences. There was plenty of moving between the two main stages of a team’s development, “Norming” and “Storming”, but through pure force of will and proactive measures by me, the team managed to learn and continue to move forward with the project. At the end of the month we all had learned a great deal and I am thoroughly happy I got the chance to manage a project so early in the degree program.

Community Involvement

Reconnecting was the theme of this month’s community involvement with G.A.N.G. and I spent the month building up my LinkedIn profile and making new connections. I found many members that I had met at the Game Developer’s Conference 2008 event in San Francisco. Reconnecting and sharing ideas, experiences, and good times is what the group was made for and I am still connected to many of those friends today. I also took this month to setup a few meetings for the next month when I would be at the XNA Gamefest in Seattle.

Original LP Submission

Link to Original Document

Update on Friday, May 15, 2009 at 5:31PM by Mark Gugler

A Reflective Analogy

The addition of a set of strings represents the TEAM concept learned this month. The strings are individualistic, having high, medium, and low pitch capabilities, and the composer must motivate them to work together to produce the desired result. Through application of great leadership techniques and teamwork, the result is solid support for the melody.

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Month 3 - July 2008

Reflection

The third month’s course, Business Storytelling & Brand Development, focused mainly on the development of the business’s core brand and about delivering the core message of the business to customers. The Leadership Portfolio portion of this class focused around analyzing a brand, revealing their successes and their failures to better understand why that brand is important to us today. I naturally gravitated to the brand of THX because of the history and importance of the brand in my life. Not only was it my employer, but it meant something very profound in the entertainment industry and I wanted to better understand it. Through the month and research, I found the brand had been heavily associated with excellence and high quality in its early days which has made it continue to be a market leader today. I grew to have a greater respect for the major brands in today’s market and discovered a new interest in the process.

My passion for brand understanding, development, and delivery grew out of this class and continues to be at the forefront of my mind with most of business decisions. I understand the importance of having anything visible to the public represent the brand and the business in the correct manner. The core story and message of a business must exist in all of its products and services to give consistency to customers and to help establish a brand for a long lasting life. The biggest factor that kills a brand is confusion or contradictory messaging to a customer. I have continued researching this topic into the brands I use every day and have enjoyed discovering that the similarities and the main differences each brand has can be represented clearly by the concepts learned in this class. I look forward to expanding my knowledge on brand development and business storytelling.

Community Involvement

Due to the nature of my job, being a games software programmer, I am able to travel and represent THX to many industry conferences. This was the first month during my degree that I went to a conference and it offered a great place to meet face to face with many of the contacts I was making during the first two months. The conference I attended was the XNA Gamefest in Seattle and it was Microsoft’s game conference with focus on the Zune, XNA-PC, XNA-Xbox 360, and Xbox 360 development in general. I spent the majority of this conference at the THX booth where we were showcasing the Neural-THX technology (which is now actually DTS-Neural Surround Technology) and I was able to meet, exchange contacts, and network with many industry professionals. Some were members of G.A.N.G., IGDA, and other industry groups of which I am a member. These conversations and discussions lead to an easy way of staying in contact with them both on a personal and professional level. The conference was exciting and exhausting as most shows are but well worth the time spent in networking and community involvement.

Original LP Submission

No Original Document

Update on Friday, May 15, 2009 at 5:36PM by Mark Gugler

A Reflective Analogy

This month’s course, business storytelling and branding, is seen as the musical addition of a bass line.The bass line solidly tells the story of the composition by laying the foundation of the form. The analogy is that the bass establishes the brand of the music, so other aspects must be redesigned to maintain the integrity of the brand.In this case, the strings part needed to reflect the addition of more complex chord structures demanded by the bass line.

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Audio Click Play to Listen