About the author
KochiYoko (こち横) is a creator known for his love of Z-Kai, Blue Archive, and Koushinya (a ramen chain in Japan). He has hosted a large number of popular collaborations related to his interests in the past several years.
Originally published in Japanese. Authorized translation by Brando.
I repeat: Any delays to collaborations are the responsibility of the host.
It’s late at night. The collab should be posted today. Discord keeps ringing as one notification comes after another. It’s almost time to post. The final deadline has passed and people are still sending in files. The organizer keeps re-encoding through the night.
This sort of thing happens every day, and we cannot keep glossing over it using sweet-sounding words like “culture” or “enthusiasm,” or likening it to us being one at a school festival.
Participants miss deadlines. Participants stop communicating after the deadline has passed. Negligence happens, of course, but can we lay the blame entirely on them?
No. Late submissions, disappearances, and failure to meet the quality standard in collabs are all the fault of the host.
This sort of behavior among participants is due to a flaw in the management of the collab and negligence on the host’s part.
This article is intended as a protest against the commonly-held opinion that a collab’s tardiness is the fault of its participants, and to express in no certain terms the responsibility all collab hosts must bear.
Foreword: Lack of Vision
These tragedies all begin in the mind of the host, long before they even set up the Discord server, with the fundamental reason the host is starting a collab. Let’s ask ourselves: Why even hold a collab in the first place?
Collaborations consume a precious resource: An Otomad creator’s time.
Despite that, far too many Otomad collabs are produced with the childish desire for people to casually work together, like in a school festival.
A collaboration isn’t some sort of party. It is a sophisticated creative act that brings together the talents of the community to bring a unique ideal that exists in the organizer’s mind into the real world. It needs to be the product of the organizer’s ego, their obsession, the very vision they wish to impose upon the world
Can you perfectly portray the image in your mind? Do you have the passion and mindset to capture the hearts of the participants and drive them to complete the task?
If you, as an organizer, cannot show them a clear vision and purpose, the participants will not be able to maintain their motivation. If you cannot answer these questions immediately. You are not fit to be a host. Meaningless collabs are a sin.
Chapter 1: Dysfunction Caused by the Host’s Negligence
1. Abandoning Responsibility in the Name of “Trust”
Many hosts simply assign parts, set deadlines, and then sit back and wait for submissions, essentially abandoning the collaboration. They justify this behavior by saying they trust the participants, but this is absolutely foolish.
This isn’t management: It’s avoiding responsibility. It’s as if the host is dropping the participants into a deserted island called “trust” and telling them “good luck,” handing all responsibility to them. It’s no wonder deadlines become a mere formality under such irresponsible hosts. This is because the hosts themselves treat deadlines as nothing more than submission dates, completely abandoning the establishment of a process to get there.
Sadly, even the habitual latecomers will eventually submit their (often high quality) work. This doesn’t mean they lacked an ability to meet the deadline in the first place, but rather that they deemed it not worth meeting in the first place.
2. An Unnoticed Distress Signal: The Truth Behind “Being Busy”
During progress checks, many participants tend to respond with the same thing: “I’m busy, so I haven’t started yet.”
Incompetent hosts may take this at face value and respond with something like “Well, okay. Do your best until the next progress check, then.”
Have you ever noticed the distress signal the participants are sending when they say “I’m busy?”
In many cases, “being busy” is an excuse to hide their true feelings. Things such as “I’m struggling to come up with an idea,” “I’m having trouble getting the part to look like I want,” or “I’m lacking in motivation.” Participants are afraid to voice such issues because the host has failed to foster a psychologically safe environment where such issues can be announced early enough.
If you announce a delay, you might seem unmotivated. If you ask for advice, you might seem incompetent. This sort of fear keeps the participant silent until the very last moment.
“I’m busy” can also mean “Please help me.” Failing to notice this and taking the report at face value is negligence on behalf of the host.
Think about it the other way around: Imagine you received a (obviously copy-pasted) bureaucratic message from the host saying “Hello everyone, please submit your progress.”
Would you dare to admit “I’m sorry, I’m really stuck trying to come up with an idea”? Of course not. At best, you’ll answer “I’m too busy, sorry” to dodge the current check and try to figure out what you can do by the next one. Maybe you can buy yourself some time by saying “I’ll post something next week.” Once again, it’s the host’s negligence that forces the participants to fix the issue themselves.
So how can you figure out the true meaning behind the participant’s response? The answer is obvious: The only way is to conduct thoroughly personalized progress checks that are tailored to each individual participant’s progress, as well as their personality and temperament.
Chapter 2: Aggressive Micromanagement
Let’s ask for a moment: What is the host’s job? Setting up a Discord server? Gathering participants? Combining the submissions and posting the final results? No. Those are simple tasks anyone can do in their stead.
A host’s true role should be that of a project manager who can guide a collaboration from its beginning to the very end and ensure its success.
An incompetent host will panic and try to respond after tardiness occurs. A competent host will take actions to preemptively eliminate a risk of such issues arising in the first place.
Simply put, the host must ensure all participants submit their parts of a specified quality by a specified time. The optimistic belief that, “well, if only one person is late it should still be fine” is the root cause behind all these issues.
By envisioning realistic progress and building a system to allow early detection of such problems, we can achieve our goal of making sure no one is ever late without relying on some assumption of inherent human goodness.
Micromanagement is a management style in which the project manager becomes heavily involved in the work of those under them and controls even the smallest details. In creative collabs, the host must exercise meticulously calculated micromanagement in order to maximize participants’ creativity and ensure the project’s success.
Let’s now discuss what kind of aggressive micromanagement a host should practice.
1. Proactive Problem Solving (Providing Ideas and Techniques)
When participants are stuck working on a creative process, it’s usually one of two reasons: Lack of ideas, or lack of skill needed to create the part they want.
If participants are struggling to think of ideas, the host should provide them with reference materials and act as a sounding board, presenting a direction for them to pursue. Alternatively, they can engage in back and forth discussion to shape a more coherent image of the participant’s idea. Where the participant lacks creative resources to draw from, the host must compensate.
To participants who believe they lack the skills to realize the idea they have for their part, the host should utilize their knowledge and connections to provide technical advice or find someone who can assist the participant achieve the desired result. Some would say this is precisely the value the host brings to the table with their network.
2. Individual Roadmaps and Frequent Meetings
Simply asking “How’s your progress” every once in a while is meaningless. As soon as the project starts, the host should gather with all the members and build an individual production roadmap for each one. From there on they should conduct regularly scheduled meetings in order to identify any risk of failure in the roadmap. Specific issues are identified through guiding questions such as “What are you stuck on?” or “Which part are you struggling to make?”
3. Motivation Management
Hosts are also required to maintain the motivation of each participant. Providing specific praise when participants submit is essential. It is also important for the progress of the whole project to be visible to all participants, so as to foster a healthy sense of competition and solidarity with each other.
Chapter 3: Project Structure That Prevents Failure
Saying “we’re not making it” after the deadline has passed is an admission of total defeat on behalf of the host. A good host can detect project risks in advance and eliminate them before they become actual problems.
Hosts should implement an early warning system in their projects to ensure there won’t be a “we’re not making it” moment.
1. Defining Triggers
A lack of response to meetings or activity on the server are clear signs or triggers of collab delay. The problem is no longer a personal issue, but rather a risk to the entire project.
The host should monitor the participant’s activity on social media as well as activity in other unrelated communities in order to have a clear picture of how active they are. This somewhat stalker-like behavior is the type of determination to succeed a host needs.
2. Immediate Intervention and Additional Resources
Once such a trigger occurs, the host should take immediate action and intervene. If as a result of this intervention it is determined that the participant cannot complete the part by themselves, the host should bring on additional helpers with no hesitation to complete the part. This is not punishment for the participant, but simply rational risk management designed to mitigate failure.
If this system functions properly, the worst-case scenario of participants asking for help after the deadline has passed can be eliminated on a structural basis.
Conclusion: Collab Hosts Should Be Prepared To Take Full Responsibility for Any Project Delays
Being late is not simply a matter of personal quality. It is a phenomenon that occurs because of flaws in the system the host had in place. You could even say that those participants are victims, forced into being late and thus branded as “incompetent” because of the host’s negligence and failure to act appropriately.
A true host is not one who simply places their trust in the participants and waits. They are someone who builds a system that will prevent failure in the first place, and is determined to see the collab succeed by putting their whole body and soul into it, no matter how personally difficult.
If a participant is late, blame the host. They should be ashamed of their negligence. Before they blame the participants, they should reflect on their own failures instead.
You are the one who organized the collab, so you must bear the responsibility for it.