Work

So there have been a whole lot of changes lately on the work front. Moved into a new office and pretty much have a new staff. For the last two years its been like that. As my department has been taking on other departments “new employees” is a thing we have been getting used to. I’m actually really excited about the people I’m working with. We had a great first week. It has almost been a changing of the guard sort of thing. People who didn’t have an office now do. Positions that didn’t exist now do. Now we have to deliver and deliver well. Not too exciting for a return to blogging but here is a picture that maybe will help. Heading back to here next month.

How many trees had to die?

Let me first say I know nothing about mailing or the habits of people when it comes to mail. I have no expertise in how it should be done and can only tell you what I’ve read and what I can imagine.  I got an email from a colleague  that sent me a tweet of someone who is part of the shock and awe campaign that is going on right now.  They asked is it necessary to receive a tree a week? That’s a hard question. If it didnt work would we do it or if we had other methods would it work better. Just the fact that we were able to track you down through twitter should give some indication that there may be a better way, one that allows us to know you.  Why don’t we add that field to our data. Yes, I’m suggesting we add a twitter field along with our email field.   This person follows around eighty people that may follow another 90 people wich may follow 300 people and so and and so on.

On the cover of fastcompany this week is Ashton Kutcher also known as @aplusk Great article on new media advertising. Everyone is talking about it but not all are doing it . I think it may be fear of losing the gray haired dude  who calls it some type of mojo. But how may trees have to die?I’ve actually been thinking a lot about this.  But how do y0u concentrate on the product along with the means of letting people know about it? If I ask that question does that mean we are doing too much? I’ll let  my boss figure that one out.  What am I supposed to do?

Peace

Drew

Adversarial Partners

How do you work with conflict? Some of us are really good at it and some well suck.  It seems more and more that I’m in a constant state of conflict. This doesn’t mean that if they were about to go over a cliff i wouldn’t grab them. It does mean that I can be pretty exhausted at the end of the day.

When dealing with this I try not to do a couple of things. One I try not to chalk it it up to a personality trait there by giving them or me a bye.  I try to understand how they are feeling. That I think is pretty important.  People are people and conflict can have some happy surprises.  We’ll see how this partnership turns out.  Happy monday to you.

drew

Body Language

What does your body language say about you. I have a couple of tells that I know of and probably 100s that I don’t.

1.  When I’m frustrated my face relaxes and I speak slower.

2. I have a forehead rub that i do when I’m done with a decision I just don’t know how to tell someone.

3. I force a smile when I’m when I know a conversation is not going well and I want to get out of it.

I tend to size people up from the first time I  meet them. We all kind of do this.  If I work with you I make a pretty quick decision on whether I can work with you or not.  If I can’t work with you or I know that the relationship will be a rocky one I make one of these two decisions.

1. I use an intermediary no use in causing a ton of conflict if I can still get the job done. If I can’t well….

2. I point out the problem and plow through.  I sometimes make light of it.

I’ve gotten to the point in my life where its just not worth the hassle. I actually have fun at work whether its arguing over some video or laughing about the huge mistake I just made.  Why have a job where you hate going to work everyday?  Is it worth that much to live in misery? Money? Your body language is a tell and we can all tell when you hate it.  So how do you change that? You either change your body language or you change your job.  I’m sure your coworkers don’t like it either.

We all work for someone

The older you get I think the more we all realize that we work for someone.  Even if you own your own business you work for the client, the customer, the eh.  It can be some what demoralizing when you come to that realization. I work for someone.  When you work for someone your realize that your’s and the person you work for may have different goals, dreams, aspirations.  You may have complete different philosophies about life, politics, family and yes even church.  I’ve tried to make a happy balance between the two.  Me and the person I work for.  I try not to answer emails on the weekend unless it affect what happens Monday at 8:30.  I try after 8 o’clock not to exchange calls and emails.  You bought my service not my life, right.  It’s not easy. You find that the longer you work for anywhere the more parts of your life are intertwined with your own.  Sometimes I succeed sometime I don’t.  But I am trying. This philosophy if you call it that works great when you are doing some thing you may not agree with. We all work for someone. This seems like a bit of downer but its more of a “Take your life back”  You work so you can live you don’t live for your work.

Peace in the middle east

Meetings (persudae or defend)

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.

Peace

Resume Reading

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.

Praise Creatives

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.

Peace