Cabal Recruiting - The Inevitability of Churn and Recruiting for Retention

Cabal recruiting, some thoughts from Inc.: LINK to original article here.

As a cabal manager* the most important thing you can do is recruit.  The nature of MMOs is that there is a constant "churn" of people who come in, play for a while, and move on (more on that here, here, here, and here). Some estimates are that 5%-7% of the player base quits every month (source).

Let that sink in a moment.

5% loss a month, every month. 

You have to look at everything through that lens - nobody is forever. In a cabal of 60 people, that's 3 people a month gone forever.  In a cabal of 20 people, that's just 1 person a month gone forever, though even if that doesn't seem too bad, over one year, on average, a game loses just over half of it's players. Those statistics are for a-level MMOs (like World of Warcraft), so it's not unthinkable that churn is higher in a niche title like The Secret World.  Many of us have known someone that quit the game after the first investigation mission, right?

So given that churn is a thing, how does one deal with it as a cabal manager?

There are (at least) two potential strategies to deal with this.

This is one way to deal with churn
(From memegenerator.net)

1) Recruit all the things.

Set the bar to entry very low and let people in without too much of a hassle. This way, your membership numbers are always high. However, this is going to lead to high turnover, high churn through your cabal. This means that all the time you spent getting to know your cabal mates, helping them through the game content, building up RP stories with them... just gone. Effort wasted - other than the enjoyment you got out of it while you were doing it.



2) Retain your people - slow down churn.
Another strategy is to retain the people you recruit - which brings us to the real point of this post.

Focus on recruiting people you can retain in the long term.

Therefore, how does one recruit?  Here are some thoughts, translated from the world of business, that might help you look at your recruits and decide which ones are best - long term - for your cabal.

Decisions, decisions, decisions...
(From Funcom's media library)

Look for People Who Enjoy the Same Things Your Cabal Does

This seems simple, but it's really not.  Take a good hard look at your cabal. Think about the percentage of time spent on PvP, PvE, RP, and socializing.  If you're running a heavy RP cabal, and someone is more interested in just finding people to chat with in voice while questing, this person isn't going to fit.  If you're a hard-core progression group there might not be a lot of room for a PvPer. Decide or determine what your group does, advertise that honestly, and look for candidates who groove like you do.

Sometimes, as a cabal manager, you may not be sure what your cabal does.  Or you may think you do - and you might be wrong! Definitely talk to your people and ask them how they see your group.  You may find doing an anonymous survey (free via Survey Monkey or Google Forms) very helpful in understanding how your group sees itself.

Look for People Who Fit Your Culture

Wait, what's "culture?" While there are multiple definitions (here,  here, and here) in short, the culture of your group is the expectations of the people within it. It's an amalgam of what's acceptable and what's normal and what's expected.

As a thought experiment, think of something your group thinks is really funny. Picture the most recent in-joke that your group is still chuckling about.  That in-joke is part of your group culture.

This is just a small example of group culture, but it highlights the importance of culture. You're going to want to find people that are also amused by that sort of joke.  Someone who is terribly offended by that joke, or just doesn't get it, is not likely to fit into your cabal very well.

Look out for Jerks!

Seriously. Wheaton's Law rules all.  If you can, observe candidates RPing out in the wild, or approach them on an alt they don't know so they don't know they're being observed. Alternately, look at the character's Twitter stream, or fiction the player posts online.

Is the character a jerk? Is the player a jerk? Is it hard to tell which is which?

In the immortal words of "Sam" from the movie Ronin (skip to 30 sec in), "Whenever there is any doubt, there is no doubt. That's the first thing they teach you." If you have any doubt, then wait and consider the candidate for a while longer.

If the candidate you're looking to recruit is a good one, they aren't going anywhere.  "Hire slow, fire fast," is business advice that's been around a while (here, here, here, and also here.)  As a cabal manager, make "hire slow, fire fast" work for you and invest the time on the front end to try to make sure that recruit is going to stick around.




* Cabal manager is an inclusive term that indicates a cabal leader, a cabal officer, or a cabal veteran that is widely looked up to even without a formal leadership title.

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Outside comments:

"To me, the recruiting approach for a guild is one of the more important decisions that you'll make. And, as you point out, it isn't as easy as one might think. Some of my more successful guilds have had fairly rigorous recruitment processes. They might involve applications, multiple interviews (IC and OOC), and were often designed to require a time commitment on the part of the applicant. It was not uncommon for me to have 60-75% abandonment rate on applications because people weren't willing to wait for the amount of time it took.

That was fine with me. I always wished them well, and if asked, would even refer them to other allied guilds that might suit them better. Part of the reason for the time consuming process was to see if they had the maturity and dedication to make it through.

However, if they did make it, I had very low turnover. Less than 10% annually in most cases.

The drawback was that it could feel to my members like we weren't growing very quickly. For some types of content (like dungeons / raids / pvp) it helps to have a larger population of players. I'd have to continually encourage them that we were going to make the progress to get there, it was just going to take time.

Thankfully, since many of them had been through my long recruiting process, I also had members who were able to understand that "quick fixes" weren't likely and they stuck with it."
Jonray - The Secret World Forums, 12-02-2014

Letting Someone Go With Dignity - The Dreaded GKick

Here's a business tip from the New York Times Boss Blog: LINK to original article

It's The Secret World MMO. It's just a game.

But...

Having to part ways with someone in your cabal can be nearly as distressing as firing someone from a job.  Sure, it's not like you're depriving them of wages, or upsetting their family finances, and sure, it's far easier to find another cabal than it is another job.

But...

It still hurts.  Both the person who is let go, and the people who let them go, often experience significant stress. On the cabal management side, it's often far more appealing to just let it slide for longer and longer and longer.  Unsurprisingly, if you have someone in your cabal that really needs to go, this is just going to let those reasons fester, and maybe spill out onto more of your people.

On the personal side, being "fired" is a statement that "you don't belong here and/or we just don't like you." As terrible as it is to say to someone, it's worse when that someone is you! It will affect their self-worth, their confidence, and can be humiliating.

Which is why the mantra "hire slow, fire fast,” is a thing. The firing process is so traumatic - for everyone, that you want to avoid it if you can, and if you can't, you need to do it right.

This is where we part ways...
(From Funcom's media library)

Recruitment mistakes happen. They just do. Someone looks good "on paper" in the application, but then once they're on the inside, you may find out they're not a good fit. That's not the applicant's fault - it's yours for recruiting them!  Therefore you owe it to them to to make the exit process as gentle as possible.  This is in your own best interest because the less you hurt that person's feelings, the less resentment and backlash you'll have to deal with.  (The bigger problem here is recruiting the wrong people, or too many people, but that's another problem for another post.)  Here are some things to keep in mind when you start thinking it's time to part ways with one of your cabalmates.

Can't I just ignore this person?

Short answer, no, its bad for your cabal and it's bad for YOU as a person.  You're doing the rest of your cabal a great disservice. A lesson from the business world (from Danny Boice, the co-founder and CTO of Speek) is that you are, as a cabal manager, likely to spend more time dealing with the minority of people in your cabal who are problematic than the majority of people who are doing great. So you are, essentially wasting your time with problem management rather than investing your time and energy into the people who are awesome.

Let me ask you this question. If you're a cabal manager, what's more likely to get you down and contribute to burnout - dealing with the problems, or working with the people who are fun, active, and working towards your cabal goals?

You can't just ignore the people who are dragging you, and your cabal down.  If you've got someone that is consistently a thorn in your side, then it's time to consider parting ways - it's best for you, and it's best for the people who are depending on you.

By the time you get to this point, you should have had several heart-to-heart conversations about what's not working.  It's unfair (in most circumstances) to just kick someone without making a sincere effort to try to get them more settled into your cabal culture.  There are exceptions, but they're usually cases of extreme malfeasance that we're not going into here.

Let go of your pride - the mistake is yours, not theirs.

If you get to the point where you need to ask someone to leave your cabal, you need to admit that YOU were the one that screwed up the recruiting process.  Putting aside your pride, and owning the blame for the situation should be high on your list. Consider apologizing to the person that because 1) it's true and 2) it may help them decide to move along voluntarily.

Let it be their decision to go.

The key to letting someone go with dignity is to help them realize that they are better off somewhere else. It's much less embarrassing to move on than to be gkicked. Try to lead them to the discussion.  Even a simple set of questions can be useful. "Are you happy here? How do you feel your role in this group is working out? Where do you see yourself going in the future?" Focus on where the person wants to go - and point out that this is the time for this person to go do that thing. Maybe they want to start their own group. Maybe they want a group that focuses on different things than your own cabal does. Maybe they need more structure - or maybe less! Regardless, focus on this person's "dream cabal".  He or she may decide that it's in their best interest to strike out in a new direction - and it really is. If it evolves into a situation where the person is voluntarily moving on, then that way, the person is still in charge of his fate, and can go with dignity.

Don’t procrastinate.

If you've tried to remediate this person, and you know it's not going to work out, then don't procrastinate. There are few things more demotivational than having someone in your group that is a problem - and for the rest of your cabal to see you (a cabal manager*) doing nothing about it!  In some cases, this can be seen as a tacit approval of the very behaviors that make the person in question a poor fit for your cabal culture.

Be clear about what happens next and help them as much as you can.

Let them know, at the end of the conversation, what happens next.  You might give them some time to say goodbye to friends in your website, but take them out of the in-game cabal immediately (so there are no unfortunate temptations with items in the cabal bank). Do whatever is best for your group.

Also, let them know if you're willing to help them find another cabal. Sometimes, if it's just a question of fit, you might be willing to help the person relocate.

Announce it to the cabal and let them say goodbye.

Hopefully, the person sees this as his or her decision, and sees that (in reality) this is in their own best interests. Ideally, it can be announced as the person's decision.  Sometimes a forum post on your own website is the appropriate medium (so the entire group can see it), sometimes a discussion in game on your cabal chat channel is better. Regardless, find something nice to say about this person if you can. If they've contributed to your group at all, now is the time to call attention to that and thank them - honestly - for what they have done.

When someone leaves, make sure that the cabal managers can be around in your forums/chat and in game to make sure to quell negativity.  People may need time to adjust and/or grieve and you would rather be there than not. Be sure to tell your people the truth - that the split was in everyone's best interests.


* Cabal manager is an inclusive term that indicates a cabal leader, a cabal officer, or a cabal veteran that is widely looked up to even without a formal leadership title.

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Outside comments:

"Whenever someone left my guilds/cabals, I've always cautioned my guild members the same way. "How we treat someone who leaves is going to say more about who we are as a guild than how we treated them when they were here." That is true whether it was a voluntary or involuntary separation.

I always tried to make sure that when I had to /kick someone from my guild, they understood why. They may not agree, but I tried to help them understand. In the best cases, I would ask them to voluntarily leave the guild rather than being forced to /kick them."

Jonray - The Secret World Forums, 12-02-2014

How To Know When Your Cabal Has A Crisis It Can't Ignore

Here's a business tip from the Harvard Business Review: LINK to original article

One of the great truths of the universe - as unyielding as the laws of thermodynamics - is this:

Crises happen.

It's human nature.  Generally, as a cabal manager* you can deal with these as they come up, but then, something happens, and you have a sense of Keanu-like "whoa" as you realize this problem is on a whole new level compared to the others.

Suddenly, this thing becomes a turning point for the whole group. Often these kind of crises may take months to develop, but then are sprung in one spectacular moment. It's when you realize that "the way we do things around here" is suddenly no longer workable, and there needs to be some sort of large-scale paradigm shift in who or what the cabal is all about. This is not necessarily a negative thing (though it certainly may be).

That's something we can't ignore!
(From Funcom's media library)

• Maybe it's a RP thing, where after a months of casual RP, you realize that NOW is the time to take the cabal in a somewhat different direction that makes a lot more sense or provides excellent RP opportunities.
• Or maybe it's an OOC cultural shift that you realize will make your cabal a kinder, nicer place to be, or more appealing to various demographics.
• Or maybe it's a personality thing, and part of your cabal decides to strike out on their own as an entirely new group.
• Maybe it's an organizational thing. When your cabal was smaller, organization was casual. Now that you're bigger, more structure is needed.

Regardless, the big unignorable moments involve a culture crisis within your group.  At this point, as a cabal manager you have a choice to either ignore it or embrace it.

Spoiler alert: Ignore at your own peril. 

Sometimes, these are just the kind of changes that are desperately needed by your community.

Sometimes the crises start making your player-base start questioning what your organization stands for, or what it's really trying to do.  If you ignore it, you're looking at (perhaps) stifling dissent, bickering, and paralysis.  If you embrace it, you're looking at (perhaps) deep change which may lead to a stronger group.

So how do you know when you're at that moment where you have a challenge that you cannot ignore, or treat with the same old methods.  The Harvard Business Review suggests that, given their analyses of business cases, these unignorable moments have four characteristics in common.

1. They are public.
2. They are irreversible.
3. They are systemic.
4. They challenge identity.

They are public.

Your definition of "public" may vary. This might mean it's widely visible to people inside your organization, or even visible to people outside of your organization. Perhaps it was something that snowballed on Twitter or on the public TSW or TSW-RP.com forums.  Maybe it was something that happened in one of the more populated areas in game.  Regardless, there is a large group of people interested in, perhaps invested in, the outcome of the crisis.

They are irreversible.

Once it's said in public, there are no takebacks. No amount of "retcon" of RP is going to fix the way people's feelings have changed because of the crisis.  People might forgive, but they aren't likely to forget.  Whatever happened, it's going to change the way people think about your group, or the way the people in your cabal think about that cabal.

They are systemic.

Unignorable moments are, at their root, based on "the way we do things around here."  Maybe it's the way someone feels recruits are being handled, or the way the leadership of the cabal works, or the balance of the cabal's focus on PvE versus RP events. Regardless, they are a root-level challenge to the way the cabal has been in the past.

They challenge identity.

The unignorable moment - because it is systemic - can bring up uncomfortable uncertainty about the organizational identity.  Are we a light RP cabal or have we turned into a heavy RP cabal?  Are we a RP cabal or have we turned into a more PvE/Social cabal?  Are our characters the bad guys, or are they really the good guys? There becomes a dissonance between what the group was and what it is becoming.

The flip side.

Change is terrifying, and the unignorable moment is the herald of change.  It's far, far, far better to realize that you are in a position where your cabal must change, and to manage it mindfully, rather than to just react to things as they occur.  The way the cabal management approaches the unignorable moment can define the future course of the group - for the better!



* Cabal manager is an inclusive term that indicates a cabal leader, a cabal officer, or a cabal veteran that is widely looked up to even without a formal leadership title.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Outside comments:

"Crisis management is critical to cabal management. And it becomes even more important for the leadership to identify it and have a strategy for how to handle it rather than playing things "off the cuff". Emotional responses aren't going to help anyone."

Jonray - The Secret World Forums, 12-02-2014

Credit where credit is due!

Here's a business tip from the Harvard Business Review: LINK to original article

The article is short, barely more than a paragraph, but it speaks to something every cabal manager must do, which is to give public thanks and appreciation (credit) to the people in his or her cabal.

The people in a cabal work for for that cabal. They are perhaps roleplayers who create content to entertain the people in the cabal. Perhaps they are PvErs who have set up a dungeon run, or organize some way to get people through the content.  Maybe they're social leaders who set up a fun way to get people into voice chat and who provide a way for people to enjoy the game together.

Regardless, these people are the people in your cabal that you, as a cabal manager, are strongly encouraged to "pay".  Of course, we're not talking about money changing hands, or even in game loot. No, that's not what these people are "working" for. There are far easier ways to get loot than to work on creating group content.

They want credit.  

They want their contributions, work, organization, and planning to be acknowledged - preferably in public.  Sure, the people who were entertained by their efforts are likely to say 'thank you' and that's part of the equation.  However, as a cabal leader or officer, you should be very grateful for these people, and you should make sure they (and everyone else) knows it.

So, say something in cabal chat to thank them.  Consider posting something on your cabal forums. Jump into voice chat and make sure to tell them thank you - and be bold about doing so where other people can hear it!

Sometimes it's complex trying to assign credit when several people collaborated on an event. Make sure that you're appropriately congratulating the people that coordinated on it - AND - make sure you're focusing on group success over individual contributions.

Suboptimal: "Thanks Fred! Good job Velma! I hear that Shaggy and Daphne helped, too."

Better: "Thanks folks, that was a great event! You got a whole lot of people through the Halloween content. People seem really happy.  Nice work!"

In the prior case, perhaps some people feel like their contributions are being marginalized, and you might make the very human mistake of forgetting someone on the team.  The latter example reinforces teamwork, and stresses the results, rather than who did what.

Also, don't forget to recognize the effort that people put into an event or initiative even if it flops. Maybe it was just at a time that wasn't convenient for people, or the event itself didn't appeal to the player base. Some events are just not going to work - people aren't perfect - occasional failure is just a part of life. Be sure to appreciate the attempt - this encourages people to take risks AND it encourages these same people to try again and improve.