Rocks Are Hard

Acknowledge Feedback and Direction

I always say the purpose of communication is to end it.  Meaning, write the memo, the plan, the email, make the case, pitch the idea in such a way that the reader/listener is not required to ask any questions to get a relevant, full picture.

This does not mean re-write War & Peace. But be succinct, appropriately illustrative or instructive and give the context the reader needs to gleen the information you want them to.

At the same time, it's important for the reader or listener -- particularly in a 1:1 dialogue or exchange to ACKNOWLEDGE receipt of said message. Otherwise it requires the sender to have to re-say, re-send, and/or wonder "did s/he get it?" "does s/he understand?" etc. etc. etc.

It's pretty simple. Say what you mean, well. Acknowledge that you got the message AND/OR get clarification so everyone's on the same page.

It's good protocol. More importantly, it's good etiquette.

The end.

Everything Is Feedback

Controversy always surrounds performance reviews -- to do them at all? how to do them? 360? top-down? self evaluation comparison? What does the form look like? and it goes on and on and on.

One thing I think is universal is that no review should be a surprise - your employees should have a good sense of how they're doing, what needs to be worked on, where they are excelling and how they can keep improving in that area (does a coach ever say - great job, no need to work out today over and over again?), and how their overall presence is perceived.

They should know this because we should all be having a constant stream of feedback, positive and constructive, throughout our day-to-day work lives.

The challenge is that everyday feedback is not necessarily heard - the positive or the negative.  I'm struggling with why this is true, but I know that it IS true. (Hell, one of the reasons we started Double Forte with a 10-year experience minimum was to remove ourselves from the constant barrage of social-promotion-conditioned inexperienced people who thought that they should all advance regardless of performance just because the calendar turned over.)

I don't believe we should stop providing feedback ALL THE TIME -- and hello, no feedback should mean that you're doing good.  But I do think we need to take the time to make sure the feedback is felt as seriously as it's intended. I'm not happy about it, but I know we need to shift something so that everything is HEARD in the way it is intended.

Feedback must not be given to tear down, but to help someone improve.  Really. If you don't want your staff to improve, go sit in a closet with a phone and a computer.  At the same time, we all need to LISTEN and ABSORB what we're told.

Everything is feedback. Everything counts. And if you're listening, nothing should be a surprise.

It Is What It Is. MOVE ON!

It's Been A While.....

After self-imposed but not declared moratorium on blogging, I'm BAAAAAACKKK to talk about all things Communications, Agency, Service and common sense.

Labor Day has passed and with the newly sharpened pencils, new backpacks and lunchboxes, comes a deluge of email that apparently was sitting in people's outboxes just waiting for the first full week of September to happen.

Common threads: optimism, frugality, purpose, urgency.  Well you've come to the right place, because that's where we live.

However, I do want to know when the inquiries starting with

"what media do you know?"

"When can you get us on Oprah?"

"we don't have a lot of resouces and no internal person but we need you to ramp up fast and announce with a big splash next week" are going to end.

Really? Really.

Big breaths. Common Sense will prevail, good work will be done, reputations will be built. But maybe not by us for those people. :)

Lots of Stories But No Action

"Well, sally said to fred that jackie was going to do it, but no, jackie didn't do it, but I knew jackie wasn't going to do it and here it is 8pm and now I have to do it, and then sally said fred was going to get his part done, but I haven't done my part for fred yet and sally, well she's a piece of work, and now I didn't respond to that email because I'm so busy that I can't even look at it, what did it say - oh that jackie is out this week. well now I'm going to really have to do it, but I have no time."

Or.

Stop talking and start doing.

Done.

Check.

Next.

Just Because Your Butt's in the Seat.....

Doesn't mean you've showed up for work today.

Showing up is not about a physical presence, it's about The Force -- YOUR Force.

Do you matter? Are you making a difference in someone's day? Are you moving a ball down the field? Are you making something HAPPEN? or HELPING someone else make something happen? 

Or are you just taking up space? Breathing someone else's air? Have your butt in the seat but are invisible otherwise?

I'm always amazed (i need to stop saying that, i've seen it so much) when I go into a company and find so many people who are just passing through -- work seems to pass right through them but they never seem to raise a hand or the bar or actually pick something up and move it to the other side of the room. 

I know you've been in that meeting. Where you wonder "what exactly does she do?" or "Why doesn't the person on the project chime in here?" or "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?" 

Why bother? Really. Are you passing through time just to get to the other side without a ripple of impact? Find something new to do. 

No points here for just being in the room. You have something to offer - OFFER IT! If the people around you don't appreciate it, then find some other people to offer your stuff to.  

All I want to do is wave my hand in front of these people's faces and say "hello!? anyone in there?" but of course, can't do that at the Client. 

Really you don't have an opinion? Really you don't have a thought on your day? Really? 

No Way.  

And Sometimes You Can't Win....

You can do everything right and still be wrong.  Really. On time? check. Good work? check. Responsive? check. Excellent results? check.

Wrong? Check.

One of the most difficult things in a service business is knowing that you can line it all up and still fall down without a net. Expectations aren't set right, aren't managed as circumstances change, or so outdistance reality that they can never be met.  Or a small mistake, no matter how quickly corrected, negates all work before.

That is the way of the world. And it sucks. But it is.

The key is how you move forward. And it's important to rise above the anger and disappointment, because tomorrow is another day.

Stop Talking, Start Doing

Drama Drama Drama

Blah Blah Blah

If you stopped talking about something over and over again, and started actually addressing the issue at hand, perhaps you'd solve the problem.

Just saying

And We're On a New Path - Power of the Upside Down Isoceles Trapezoid

When Dan and I started Double Forte in 2002, we were in the last downturn and the business we set up was in reaction to the condition of PR firms in San Francisco after the bubble burst and some personal things that my life required - mostly, the flexibility to travel to Wisconsin to be with my dyng mother (who outlived her prognosis by 3 1/2 years - yeah mom!).

So we decided that hey we LIKED, no LOVED the work involved in PR and Consulting, were tired of having to make stupid moves based on NYC home office demands, and really really tired of training young staff to show up on time, and learn how to dress and how to actually finish something before they went to Yoga class.  Double Forte was born with an upside down model -- 10years minimum to qualify + you had to like to work + you had to be a good person.  Oh and we didn't use the term PR anywhere, because we didn't like what PR had become in San Francisco.

It was destined to be small. We thought 10 max.

But no, the special sauce that is our special brand of service helped us grow to 18 last fall. 

 
Around us, boutique firms with experts only had grown to about 8-9 and traditional model firms and media-company-owned firms had swelled -- staffed by a plethora of 1-4 year experience people learning the ropes.  Last summer we started hearing more and more in pitches that clients were tired of the bait and switch, and not getting experienced people on their accounts, etc. It was deja vu to 2001 all over again. Actually it really pissed me off -- how could this be? How come no one was shifting to ensure that the one thing that brought us all down before wouldn't bring us all down again. 

At the same time, it was getting increasingly hard to find qualified good people at the 10 year mark, and the 5-8 year experience pool was looking shallow (because no one hired between 2001 and 2004ish).

And then on September 15th as the Dow was falling 900 points, it was clear that our world was shifting again. We knew that several clients wouldn't get the funding they needed to keep us. We knew that spending would tighten up quickly; we knew that many people in our field would lose their positions -- in house and at agencies; we knew that big firms would slash their minimums; we'd seen little onesy-twosey firms hit the skids earlier in the year, so that was drying up too.

So we cut expenses immediately; we re-oriented the staff on what to expect and how we needed to react and act, and despite our moves and great work we had to downsize by 3 in January.

And then the hard work of reconfiguring to ensure that we THRIVE in today's market and in tomorrow's market started. Because now, with no one getting hired NOW, there will be a really small talent pool in the 10 year experience mark in 18 months - 2 years. Our business model has been made obsolete.

And frankly we're not that encouraged by the caliber of the training that has happened in agencies in the last several years. So what to do?

Well it's clear we need to shift to this situation. And we need to train our own staff now to fill out the ranks. And we need to get them early so that they don't learn bad things.

So we're going square -- if the typical agency model is a pyramid with 1/4 at the top and 3/4 under 10 years billing 95% (so on the client dime to learn the work), and we were a long, flat rectangle with everyone with 10-20 years doing everything, now we're going square, well actually it's an upside down isoscles trapezoid  - where the experienced staff will outnumber the junior staff.

This of course is heresy. But since 25 cents isn't going to NY then we can do what works. And what works is people who know what they're doing, doing the work and more junior people just billing the time for real client work not Learning work. 

But we can't revert to the old tried and untrue - because IT'S BROKEN PEOPLE! We've all proved over and over and over again that the pyramid doesn't work, is not sustainable, and creates client conflict.

Now is the time to shift so that you are in a stronger position on the other side of this downturn. Join the upside down isosceles trapezoid!

Revisionist History Hurts Everyone

You know how it is. You're cruising along and BAM! you make a mistake. Maybe you don't see it, maybe you do, but you keep on moving because there's so much to do.

And that mistake gets bigger and bigger because it requires fixing. 

And if you don't fix it right away when you know about it then it becomes a thing, a thing that other people need to deal with.

And if you don't say "sorry, won't happen again" then it's even BIGGER. And if you tell a story that bends here and there with exactly what happens then it gets even BIGGER.

Here's the deal. With email and twitter and facebook and recording devices of all kinds, telling a revised story will bite you in the behind. Just don't do it. Eventually you will lose (could be in 2 years, could be in 2 minutes).

Recognize, aborb, apologize, fix if you can and MOVE ON. This is what builds trust. This is what builds a career.

Everyone makes mistakes....EVERYONE. Just don't revise (or, ps, deny) it.

And while we're on the topic of acknowledging, apologizing and moving on: here's a story my friend Liz O'Donnell wrote on the topic How To Remove Your Foot From Your Mouth.