Ok. Nothing about work here. Today starts my get some stuff done day. In honor of that I’ll start by talking about my new favorite show. Modern Family. What i like about it is they way it looks at our messed up family lives and say “you are not alone” I was an avid watcher of Married with Children and what I liked about the family was that no matter how much you saw them go at it they truly loved each other. (yeah I know its a show but you get my point) Kind of like the Osbourne family.
This show came out of no where for me. One day while flipping through some hulu stuff I thought I should give it a try. I ended up watching all the episodes they had. Here is what the show consist of a : A father that divorced his wife to marry a Latin princess who already had a quirky kid. His daughter is married to the typical american dad persona (he’s made to look stupid but has a big heart). Her brother is gay and is married to a dude and they just adopted a kid. Typical huh. Give it a shot you may be surprised.
So I’ve noticed that I have spoken about pop culture in about a week. There will be a new music Friday this week but it seems I’ve been on this work kinda kick lately. Maybe its the added responsibility. I dont know. Its just where I am right now.
So yesterday. I was asked about a week ago to come to a meeting and pitch along with others some ideas for a new project we are working. With this being part of my job I gladly accepted. That was about the end of me thinking about it. We had a follow up email to ask about what time. I gave what time I could attend and said meeting was even reschedule to accommodate me. That was my second opportunity to engage. There were follow up emails giving instructions. I once again did not read. Then came the day of the meeting. When we are talking about lesson ideas I sometimes like trying to think up with those right before the meeting. This though is different. You have to search and look and dream. I blew it and it showed. Never throw that kinda stuff together. This goes back to how a meeting should be run. From the moment I started talking I knew I was in trouble especially when you see people who had thought about it working. I suck. Because of my guilt I bought the staff breakfast. A kind of hey please like me and because they are pretty awesome . They continue to take up my slack. I have a list for being ready for a meeting.
I think its hard to actually get anything accomplished in a meeting. I don’t know if that’s universal. NO. I think it is. Here is what happens in a lot of meetings I’m in. Ever person has a certain agenda. We don’t always know what that agenda is. So we spend most of the time trying to persuade or defend our agenda. That happened to me recently. Two people were engaged in discussion where I do think they both were speaking different languages. It was like the tower of babble you know. Right after the fall or Pentecost. So, the rest of us also not knowing what language this was just kinda waited until the dust cleared. Two people trying to persuade and defend. The funny thing is I don’t think either person was necessarily wrong. Both had great points and both wanted the other person to understand.
I don’t have a list of things to remember. Well I do have one. Let your agenda be known. You may find that when each person does that you start with what you all hope to accomplish from this meeting. I do work with one guy that is very good at that. He starts his meetings with “here is what I hope to accomplish with this meeting” From the start we are all on the same page. Good job you. I may bring you a cookie today.
So we are in the hiring process here at the old office. It’s a process I hate being in just as much as I hate having to do. I try not to take out my aggression on applicants. They are in the same boat that I was once in….You send in your resume hoping that someone on the other side picks you to look at. When you are in the business filed I would think you look at where they worked before and what school they went to. In the creative world its a little different. Yeah I could look at your school maybe if you just graduated but lets say you’ve been out a couple years. Do you think I care where you went to school or your G.P.A? Not so much. I’m going to look at your body of work and what people say about you. So if by chance you are applying here and if by chance its for something in my department here are a couple of hints or suggestions.
1. You’ve got about three minutes of my time. [edit] Oh I will watch a DVD of you
2. If you send me to your portfolio site… do me a favor. Make sure I can download your resume and your portfolio. If I can’t make sure I can find it easily. Nothing frustrates me more than an overly creative site where I can’t find anything.
3. On your resume… in the objective line… if its too generic I assume you don’t want to work here you want to work anywhere.
4. Yes we are a christian org. but you actually have to have skill in what you are applying for. You can’t just want to do anything or just be interested in the field.
5. Related experience should actually be related.
6. You can actually find out who is hiring. If you type in “creative director” “Student Life” andy blanks comes up third.. who works here at student life who wrote a post about me. There you will find my name. Ta-da
Seems simple enough. We also post our stuff on employment sites so we get people who aren’t so much interested in us as they are a job. I know times are tough and it sucks but I wont give it a second look if it seems generic to me. Well that’s all I got. Happy hunting to those out there looking for work. Keep at it. Stay in the fight.
Something that we have to do here in the creative department is try to discover new ways to entertain people. Well not so much new ways but new expressions. This past year we created a character. Well not so much a new character but a new expression on that character. There was some nervousness about that character. I had my reservations but this was one of those instances where I don’t “legislate from the bench” I encounter many ideas that I may not be a fan of but I think its my job to also read where I think the public is. This could also be prime example of where market research would be a very good thing. We don’t really do some much of that here its more of a gut feeling or we use our experiences or we ask one dude. The one dude thing doesn’t really constitute a sampling but hey we are still here. Anyway in honor of thanksgiving I now present to you Edwin.
Praising creatives. Doesn’t seem like something you should have to do…. Aren’t these the people that have so much energy and ego that they don’t need some halfhearted thank you. I’m starting to find out that they are the most in need feedback. I think whether its positive or negative they need something.
I tried something the other day in a meeting. It’s something I’ve done with my boss about the people I work with and I’ve done just for my own satisfaction. I came in before a meeting and decided to make a top ten list of the great accomplishments that we had last week. Well because of my tardiness in starting this project I was only able to get out six. I know we had more but I wanted to be specific and I didn’t want it to look like everyone got a participation award. When I was a program director I used to do something called a game ball. It was done pretty much in the same manner. Anyway I went around the room and talked about the great things we did last week. I did take some shots at THE MAN which isn’t always the best thing to do but I was on a roll. So how do you praise a creative? I’ve got three ways for that.
Way #1 Try to be specific. Don’t just give a hey you did great last week. They would probably ask, “With what?”
Way #2 Be immediate. You don’t have to wait until some special moment. If you think they did great on something that you are looking at say it.
Way #3 Believe it. Don’t just do it out of rote learning where you don’t really know why you are doing it. Really believe the things you are saying.
I took a small break to collect myself. That’s only part of the story. The other part of the story is that I went through a pretty stressful week before that and for some reason I continued trying to keep up on my self-imposed writing frequency. Anyway I figured I should regroup myself. Well I’m regrouped.
I ask that question (The one in the subject line) because I work around people who say that all the time “I’m not creative so can you come up with something.” I don’t think that’s their fault. Here is what I think, creatives have long ridiculed the so called non-creative so much that they feel that their opinion doesn’t matter. I am here to apologize to anyone who’s been told “you’re not a designer or you’re not creative” You can be the ultimate creative in the business world and the only place your stuff will show up is in communication arts magazine and be the most uncreative (hope that’s a word) person and have a product line like the snuggie and have it take off. You never know where inspiration will take you. We also do create for the non-creative world. If they can’t understand it what good is it? I could be wrong on this part. As I wrote that I questioned myself.
