Facing Feast or Famine? (Part Two)

If you feel like you’re facing a feast or famine, there are things that can help make both a lot easier on you.  I have already posted thoughts for those facing famine, since it is the more likely of the two in “this economy” as everyone is saying; however, facing a feast can be equally daunting.

Think of the terms as they literally apply to food: feast or famine.  This means we have either too much or not enough.  Neither is a very good thing, I think.  When you have too little, obviously you’re starving.  When you have too much, you’re either (a) wasteful because you can’t eat it all or (b) gluttonous because you want to eat everything in front of you.  Just like Goldilocks, you don’t want to aim for the extremes but the option that is “just right” because it is best.

Unfortunately, we have the phrase “feast or famine” for a reason.  All too often, we experience it.  So, if you are facing a feast right now, there are ways in which you can prepare to better handle it:

• Don’t overeat.
  Overeating, in the figurative sense, can be painful for freelance creatives and agencies alike.  It means staffing up, stressing out, or simply working too many hours in a week.  This leads to a diminishing level of quality because you race to keep up with all of the details.  Juggling so many balls in the air inevitably leads to something being missed.  We all have our limits, and knowing them will help us be much healthier.  Just like health experts recommend drinking water to fill up so you eat just the right amount, or using a smaller plate so your portions are smaller, find a way to make sure you and your agency don’t overeat during a feast.  One simple way is to share the wealth when you recognize that you have too much work coming in.
• Share the wealth.
  At Thanksgiving, you send loved ones home with to-go plates because you know you can’t eat it all yourself before the food goes bad.  The same can be true in a client-creative relationship.  Personally, I would much rather a designer tell me they are too busy to help me right now instead of taking on the work, missing the mark, and leaving me disappointed later.  Take heed to prepare sharing when you know you can’t handle it all alone.

  When you’re sharing the wealth, it can take on many different forms: passing work onto a peer, delegating to someone else on your team, or simply hiring employees at your agency before everyone gets overworked.  If you know you have too much to do, find a way to share the wealth in a way that works within your organization.

• It’s not quantity, it’s quality.
  Know that the quality of work often goes down when the quantity goes up.  It is possible to ensure that the level of quality work going out is maintained, but during a feast this can be tough to do.  Focusing on those quality assurance processes during a famine is a good idea, but that does little to help those already facing a feast.  If you see your work load getting heavier, be careful before taking on too many more projects and remember that it’s not quantity, it’s quality.

When you’re facing a feast, be just as strategic as if you were facing leaner times.  It’s always possible to have too much of a good thing.  That balance in between the two extremes is the goal, and if you can reach that with a few slight variations, you may find yourself (and your agency) to be much healthier.

Have suggestions?  Please feel free to add them!

Facing Feast or Famine? (Part One)

The phrase “feast or famine” keeps getting thrust at me in many conversations lately.  The first time I heard it, I thought, “Yes, I know what you mean!”  The second time I heard it, I thought, “Yes, I was just talking about that the other day.”  The the third time I heard it in the past few weeks, it lingered in the air.  It hung in the air like thick haze.

Why do we assume that it is one or the other?  Can we, as clients and creatives, not prepare in some way to keep it balanced between the two extremes?

I like to think of the ant and the grasshopper from Aesop’s fables.  (Don’t remember it?  Read it here.  It’s super short.)  The moral of that story was preparation for times of necessity, something which seems to make sense but can be quite challenging.

Many of my friends find themselves without jobs these days.  I imagine that a lack of gainful employment can be incredibly difficult, and count my blessings each time a friend tells me they are still looking for a job.  I have had the opportunity to speak with so many people lately who are feeling famine instead of feast.

To the unemployed, or the creatives/agencies feeling that work is slacking off right now, I recommend these few quick tips.  These are mostly targeted at individuals but can also be applied to your boutique agency.

• Keep yourself busy, even if it doesn’t pay.
  Volunteer.  Get crafty.  Reorganize a room in your house.  Do something nice for someone else without expecting anything in return.  No matter how you found yourself with some down time, keep yourself appropriately busy.  Don’t get so busy that you can’t cope with what is happening, mind you.  But take the time to stay active so that you won’t get lazy.  Inspiration comes from unexpected moments.  And something you’re doing may just lead you to a lucrative entrepreneurial business idea or two.
• Don’t retreat.  Keep meeting with family, friends, and professionals.  But don’t ask for something unless you’ve earned it.
  It’s easy to hibernate when things get tough.  Take the time you need initially if you’ve just gotten laid off, but don’t spend too long wallowing.  Self-pity gets you no where quickly, and leaves people feeling sorry for you instead of energized to help you.  Instead, spend your time focusing on the positive.  You now have more time to catch up with family, friends, and professionals you’ve met throughout the years.

  Go back to the people you konw and tell them you remember how kind they were to you.  It can take a matter of minutes on the phone, or an hour getting coffee–choose what works best for you both.  Just be sure you’re connecting with others in a very genuine way.

  Be flexible when you meet up with folks, too.  Don’t get irritated if they only have a few minutes.  Remember, you are now the one with more wiggle room in your schedule.

  Don’t ask for something unless you’ve earned the opportunity.  Making connections is important, but no one wants to feel used.  I remember an old contact met me for coffee, and within minutes she was trying to sell me something.  I felt duped and irritated, and wanted to leave immediately.  Feel out the situation, and don’t abuse it.  If you feel comfortable in the conversation, ask them to think of you if they see a fitting opportunity.  Make it easy for them to remember what you need: a job, new clients, etc.  Give them one word to hang their hat on.  They are busy thinking of the things in their own lives, so you want a trigger word to help them remember you when the opportunity arises.

  Say thank you.  Always.

• Save like you may never get another pay check again.
  If you find yourself on the famine side of “feast or famine” then you can make great things happen simply by being conservative with your spending.  I’m Clark Howard,  but I was known as a tight wad as a kid because I kept such a tight fist on my wad of cash.  Rarely spent a dime on anything that wasn’t absolutely necessary.  This practice has taught me how to be a better entrepreneur.  If you save and spend wisely, you will find just how far your cash can go.  It takes some adjusting if you have been living in feast mode for a while.  But the lean times teach us great things about our spending habits.

Do you agree / disagree on any of these tips?  I welcome the conversation.

More for those facing a feast in Part II, coming soon.

Reducing Waste Within Your Agency

This morning, a new acquaintance of mine got me talking about how agencies and clients work together.  He keenly observed problems I have recognized within the agency-client world: processes that fail and the costly waste that creates for agencies and clients.

It is a subject I have long enjoyed studying.  While working at an energy nonprofit, I listened to building science expert John Tooley talk passionately about process.  I like John.  He is an avid reader, tells a great story, speaks with great conviction about the ideas in which he believes, and has devoted his life to improving the complex building industry.  By listening and observing him for four years, I learned a lot about process and quickly became obsessed with it.

There is a process for everything.  For example, what process do you use to wake up each morning?  An alarm clock?  Your dog’s cold wet nose on your hand?  Or do you have no need to wake up each morning, and simply wake up when you wake up?  No matter what method you use, there is an existing process in place–no matter how simple or complex it may be.

Quite often, we fail to recognize a process until it fails us.  Within the past month, a handful of people related stories about failed alarm systems that caused a domino effect.  One person missed a morning meeting, and apologized profusely about it.  Another person was two hours late to work, causing her coworkers to panic and think the worst, calling everyone to find out where she was.  There are countless stories like this…

John Tooley always preaches that systems fail, and not individuals.  He talks about a blame-free workplace, where the focus is on improving systems and not blaming the people using the systems in place.  (Should that utopia exist, please let me know.)  According to John it was the process of waking up, and not the aforementioned individuals, that failed.

Where these failed systems exist, waste can be found.  By seeking improvements to the processes we use, we can reduce waste.  Waste reduction has many great benefits such as cost reduction, profit improvement, and quite often a healthier client-agency relationship.

Waste reduction can come in many forms within an agency.  While there are thousands of possibilities, I have listed a few to help exemplify these thoughts:

• Improve internal communications between cross-functional teams
  Can you walk down the hall or call instead of taking a time to describe something in great length via email?
• Improve external communications between account managers and clients
  How often are you meeting with clients?  How well do you know them, and their decision-making process?  The better you know one another, the easier it is to move forward together.  Communicate regularly, but don’t over do it.
• Improve efficiency in meetings
  Are you meeting about meetings?  Do your meetings last a full hour, when information could be shared in fifteen minutes instead?  There’s merit to face to face time in terms of building relationships, but be sure you’re not over scheduling when it comes to meetings.

Remember, changing processes has side effects. Most people resist change initially.  It can be seen as threatening, or time-consuming.  So go about studying processes within your agency carefully and strategically.  Change management takes time, patience, and planning.  Sometimes the same advice you offer is more widely accepted when it comes from a paid outsider.  And depending on your role within an organization, you may be seen as rocking the boat; don’t be discouraged if you see opportunities for improvement, though.  Anyone can become a leader.  In the words of Seth Godin, “Anyone who wants to make a difference can.  Without leaders, there are no followers.  You’re a leader.  We need you.”

Change takes time.  But by studying existing processes within your organization, waste can be reduced and client-agency relationships can be vastly improved.

Have thoughts or suggestions?  Please share.