Everyone has some sort of New Year’s resolution… until they have to maintain it.
Like exercise: I will get up at 5am and go to the gym five days a week. It takes 40 days to create a habit. And commitment is easier because I have a partner to motivate me.
How does this relate to your agency or department? A commitment to getting organized, creating a process that everyone follows is like a resolution – with benefits. You just have to do it, stick with it, and get over the grief you will surely get in the process.
I have been hired by firms and worked with clients that were in the midst of chaos. I proposed a logical process solution, built it, trained and rolled it out – they loved me.
Let’s face it, a CEO, VP, partner, owner or manager hates it when simple things go wrong. Things that should have been routine. I completely agree, and when I see something going sideways, my first reaction is to fix it. I am a hero and they love me.
So, fixing it requires a process that is workable for the organization; tools that are solid and collaborative; people who are willing to put forth the effort to become the solution; and management who will NOT BACK DOWN.
That last point is for you – the C-level guy or gal, owner, partner – because someone (or more than someone) will complain.
You now have a choice:
- Give in because complaints (whining in my book) are too much trouble, and
your team is so brilliant
- Tell them to buck-up, and a little structure won’t hurt anyone
I have been on the other side – when the complaints come in, they hate me. Then management wonders why they hired me.
So the bottom line is this:
What do you hate more – expensive errors, missed deadlines, creative that has
gone off the rails and requires complete rework over a (holiday) weekend – OR –
a bunch of whining (but brilliant) staffers who don’t like to follow some basic
structure.
For my paycheck, profit sharing or bonus, I’ll take the second choice and tell them all to just do their jobs. Culturally (and I’ve heard this just about everywhere I have worked) structure just doesn’t fit them. They have to be free to create, collaborate, and move as fast as possible, and logging into a central system to note something, or notify someone (not in email!), what’s going on is…too hard. (All this, and timesheets too?)
I can guarantee that when you have a little structure, and a centralized place for everything related to a job, things will actually run smoother. You can find stuff, you know what’s coming up, there’s a budget, and a schedule! No one will admit it, but they will love me.
It can be done in forty working days. I am the partner to motivate you.