History of kaiZen

Definition: Japanese for continuous and incremental improvement, a business philosophy about working practices and efficiency; improvement in productivity or performance

kaiZen on the PVP server Gurubashi was the first serious guild I ever joined in WoW. Back in those days when killing Onyxia was cool and Blackwing Lair didnt exist. kaiZen to me was an amazing guild full of many people I simply loved playing warcraft with. Unfortunately due to timezone issues I had to give up this server as I could no longer play and raid with these people, which lead me to Feathermoon, where a University friend in the timezone I was moving back to played with a number of other Brisbanites.

Unhappy with the state of Aussie raiding, a bunch of us wanted to start an Aussie timezone raid that really focused on progression as opposed to casual raiding, and this came to fruition a couple of months after the first WoW expansion. We borrowed the kaiZen name because it felt like it represented what we wanted to achieve: continuous improvement through constant change.

Our raid prospered despite a few setbacks, we managed the server 3rd Nightbane and Magtheridon kills from relative obscurity, before the setbacks overcame the raid and it broke down under the pressure.

Why beat a dead horse?

For me personally, I have gravitated towards admin type roles in raids usually because I get frustrated if the i's arent dotted and the t's arent crossed, and figure if nobody else is going to do it, I probably should. Unfortunately for me I find that admin type roles in raids whilst definitely having perks (I can wipe the raid and nobody seems to mind, or I can convince people I know what im doing even when I have no idea) that can be a lot of fun, usually the work of such roles take a lot away from the gameplay itself. WoW is a game and its about having fun. There are a lot of ways to find that fun, and even recently I have found new ways of doing that myself. This is probably why im prepared to look a bit further into how this might work out. I see it mostly as a lot of fun for many of my WoW friends, but I do worry that it might fail dismally again due to the workload, downsides and setbacks we experienced with our last stab at it.

What will be different this time?

One of the biggest challenges we faced was consistency. We had amassed an impressive talent pool really capable of challenging the content, but on any given day we could be at 50% capacity or waiting around for a raid to start or waiting around for replacements to be found during a raid.

We really struggled to maintain a consistent group.

I figure now, everything is a lot easier, challenging the content level we are at doesnt require as elite a talent pool and doesnt require as high a level of preparedness. Rigorous attunements have been removed, fights have been nerfed, strategies and dealing with varied scenarios are widely known. With everything being easier, it may be possible to be successful enough with an inconsistent raid to make it worth the effort, and also that effort is lessened.

On top of that I have an idea to design the raid around a core group of healers and tanks whose availability should hopefully solidify the chances of raid success. Because everything is pretty nerfed, DPS benchmarks are a lot looser until part way through T6 content, but the solid grounding of healers and tanks is always going to be neccessary. Im going to have to be a bit mercenary in depicting who is a main and who is a sub, but this is neccessary to ensure that we can get the bums on seats required to attempt and complete content.

tyxl wrote:Why beat a dead horse?

For me personally, I have gravitated towards admin type roles in raids usually because I get frustrated if the i's arent dotted and the t's arent crossed, and figure if nobody else is going to do it, I probably should. Unfortunately for me I find that admin type roles in raids whilst definitely having perks (I can wipe the raid and nobody seems to mind, or I can convince people I know what im doing even when I have no idea) that can be a lot of fun, usually the work of such roles take a lot away from the gameplay itself. WoW is a game and its about having fun. There are a lot of ways to find that fun, and even recently I have found new ways of doing that myself. This is probably why im prepared to look a bit further into how this might work out. I see it mostly as a lot of fun for many of my WoW friends, but I do worry that it might fail dismally again due to the workload, downsides and setbacks we experienced with our last stab at it.

I've almost always been a raid officer in some capacity in the raids that my hunter has been in. I can tell you from my own experience - and I'm sure that this is nothing unfamiliar to you, as I remember you in a leadership role before in SMD - that viewing setbacks as a fun challenge and delegating authority are the two best ways to keep your sanity.

I inherited Mutiny after the expansion. We had lost our raid leader, and I was the only one willing to pick it up and move ahead, primarily because I wanted to raid and no one was hiring a hunter. Much like you, I wanted to raid with my friends with a mind towards progress, etc. (and I really, really wanted to see if they'd tolerate raiding under the name PrettyPrettyPrincess for any length of time). It was a very slow start. A lot of our original players had left the server because there was nothing going on, they were frustrated with the new content, etc. We've also never been able to massively recruit, class composition has never been ideal (when we started we had no shamans and 6 paladins, and now we have shamans but not a single shadow priest), and we have never exceeded more than 30 on our total roster of mains and subs at any given time. We additionally have the insanity of raiding in 3 hour blocks 4 nights a week, which leaves us with very little time to get involved in a new fight after trash clears (and if we start raid on time it's a miracle). Despite those odds, we've managed to claw our way into Tier 6 content and continue progressing at a moderate pace.

But oh, the leadership lessons learned! When we first started, I tried to do everything myself. It was burning me out so fast that I didn't think I was going to make it through the month of August after we started regularly 25-manning mid March. I was ready to murder my healers, string up the warlocks, and had a few daydreams about firing tanks and using hunter pets instead. It was at that point that I reinstated the raid officers, delegated authority, and created some new leadership roles. Many of our old core members returned, and eventually we even received a transfer from another server who had led a raid slightly more progressed than ours, and he became my second in command. Life is much better now because I have people that I can ask to do certain things or deal with certain situations, and I've found the fun in raiding again after all this time because of that.

That being said, and I apologize for the long story above to illustrate my points, I am confident that in the group you've chosen for the raid so far that there will be enough connections and enough support to make this a successful raid with minimal leadership trauma. I'm pretty sure that all you have to do is ask for help in getting things up and running and you've got it.

Wise words and well said