Perhaps one of the biggest things that people in the gaming industry should learn is communication. After all, when you got a production team you have to be able to understand one another. The lead designers, lead programmers, lead artists, lead QA's, and the producers are the ones who must learn communication the most. The team looks to them for their guidance and orders in making the game. It's up to them to make sure everybody is well informed at all times. Even the slightest of changes are important and if they aren't talked about, it could lead to some nasty aftermaths.
In an age where communication is possible through multiple means (Email, forum, Twitter, Skype) it shouldn't be hard to inform changes and new ideas to the team. Even if you have a few people missing in meetings for various reasons, you should also have a backup meeting for those people or give them the news personally in order to help them get back on track with others.
Now there are two kinds of communications I believe are important for any production team.
The first is team communication. This is when the team is communicating on matters of who does what, what needs to be done, who is working with who, and updates on the production. It's important that the production team has daily meetings, but it's also important that each field also has a separate meeting for themselves. Programmers should have a programmer meeting, artists have a artist meeting, designers have a designer meeting and so forth. This way everyone stays on top of what they are doing while also dealing situations with people who understand what they are talking about. That isn't to say that the others groups can't know what the other groups are talking about however. The team must work as a unit to make a game successful.
If the QA's find a bug in the game, they must tell the programmers. If the designers decide they want to make the game a more dark and gritter tone, they must tell the artists. So and so forth.
The second is personal communication. There are many kinds of people who work in a production team. Some people you might get along with and others you might not. What's important is that everybody respects and understands each other so they can work together. You should try to interact and talk with as many people in not only your group, but also other groups as well. Understanding each teammate helps you communicate on a better level of professionalism. Now of course there will be people you won't get along with, but the last thing anybody wants is to have the team divided over an issue. It's better to be the better man and just only speak business with that person while trying to deal with them. If the issue is too much, you must speak with your lead to find a compromise that works for everyone.
Picking fights and grudges will only make the production suffer and nobody wants that.
The reason I am speaking of communication now is that last year during my production class, my last team and I had communication issues that lead to some disagreements and stress. Granted, we managed to fix those and get our game out in time yet I feel things could have gone better.
Another example is in the group I am working with now over a visual novel. Some of us don't communicate and that leads to confusion on who does what and when. Thankfully, were dealing with the issue right now and we've improved, but this is the second time I've seen communication being such an important deal.
And if Thomas Aquinas was right about anything it's that "The best way to learn is experience."
And in my opinion, the best way to work with a team is through communcation.
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