The goals of the team (or leaders) should be clear, known and be talked about. The individual player should compare them to his own and make sure they match. If not, you’re better of by withdrawing respectfully than getting frustrated over an inconvenient partnership.
Individual change and creativity should be accepted or tolerated but it may lead to re-evaluating the personal and the teams goals, the individual’s position in the team and ultimately the membership itself.

TBH, I really feel I can relate this topic to my work. When I have a meeting with my manager about my carreer path and development, he would go beserk if I’d change my mind and preferences on every meeting. Needless to say: the meeting and team-feeling will lose a lot of value. If I would lay out a set of clearly defined goals (including those exact same changes, for example) and discuss the team’s goals, then I would probably get a very productive meeting. We could discuss what can and what can not be accomplished or if he can find a new assignment or project where my goals can be met over time. I’m happy because I get a cool job and meet my goals. He prefers it like that because he can plan me “as a resource” in advance and he’ll have a motivated worker that will work for the team’s interest by achieving his individual goals. The key to a good cooperation is knowing where you want to go to, and negotiating these goals with your leaders.

This application guide comes to mind:
http://www.worldofmatticus.com/2008/12/15/reader-question-how-do-i-find-a-quality-raiding-guild/
This feels like a good system to avoid such problems in the first place.

I was thinking about all the same analogies, leave jobs, not going to work, changing departments. Everything has consequences.

For Matt,
Be careful, or you may end up with a lot of bolts when you need screws. I’m sure you know you are setting a huge precedent for the lifetime of you guild. LOKI blew up and reformed twice, and a major reason we blew up was all the dead weight (casuals, “retired”, friends, respecs, main changes) we were trying to carry around. It did bad stuff to us. Maybe we have become tough love type people, but I think we have a really stable, happy guild now.

Aertimuss last blog post..1 Drake and Malygos Down!

Our guild is really casual, so we often enough have hybrids bouncing back and forth upon request (not forced). But we do have a set-in-stone policy in regards to Main Spec and looting. If your main spec is Resto Druid, thou shalt get priority on Resto Druid loot, but get much lower priority on Moonkin loot, for 6 months at a time. If, after 6 months, you get the dps bug, or the tankin’ bug you want have a change you can re-announce your main spec, and earn your spot back. Switching in between those times does not guarantee you a spot in any raid.

DO WHAT THE HELL I TELL YOU TO DO

things work out from there

Critical QQ @ http://criticalqq.wordpress.com/ is a decent blog I think.

But it is free. True freedom is being free to make decisions. It has nothing to do with whether or not to accept the consequences. The consequences happen.

I am free to smoke, but once I make that decision I’m no longer free to be immune to the prospect of lung cancer.

I am free to drink and drive, but once I make that decision I am not free of the increased chances of getting into an accident and/or going to jail.

I am free to change my spec, but once I do I’m not free of the increased chance of losing my spot in the raid.

The point is that we limit our own freedoms by the choices we make, but in WoW we’re always free to leave and start over.

kyrileans last blog post..How Do You Motivate Members?

On a side note: Almost every mage blog I looked into linked to World of Matticus somewhere on their front page.

On another side note: Any suggestions on a good Mage blog out there (I think it’s in the best interest of the WoW community that I find one, so I don’t end up writing my own…lol).

Basically, she’s telling these people in her guild that you can do whatever you want, but if you don’t do it her way, there may be repercussions. And if you don’t like that – /gquit. At least that’s how I read it.

And, I kinda agree. When you apply to a serious raiding guild, most likely you filled out an application. You told the guild leader what your spec was and what role you want on their team. You were accepted on those conditions. Now you want to change everything up. That just doesn’t fly when you are trying to reach a goal as a group.

It’s like applying for a position in the accounting department and then after you’ve been working there for awhile you decide I’m going to switch over to the IT department. You can’t just do it because you work for the company. Many questions need to be answered first: Does the IT department have room for another person? Can the accounting department afford to lose an employee? Are you good at IT related tasks? Is the company willing to pay to bring you up to the level the other IT employees are at? Sure, you can leave the company and look somewhere else where you can do IT, but if your not skilled or don’t have the right tools to get the job done, don’t expect to walk into a 6 figure role. Your going to have to work your way up.