April 25, 2016
To say that attending last week’s IHAF Leadership Summit was exactly what I needed is an understatement. You see, over the last three years, my in-house agency has reached our max ability to do projects quickly in large quantities. Projects that have the potential to be great, but rarely are. And …
August 31, 2015
The Art: Communication is an art. You have to be skillful, intuitive and nuanced; and you have to learn the different strokes to use with different folks. Effective: If you're not effective, what's the point? Effectiveness is the barometer of any successful exchange.Communication: Ah, the key. What …
August 24, 2015
The overused and somewhat cliché phrase “doing more with less” has never been truer. Clients are demanding quality output in a lot less time and at a much lower cost than ever before. As an in-house agency, this means balancing who you say “yes” to and who you avoid in the lunchroom. With proper …
August 17, 2015
Raytheon’s in-house creative-services team, Advanced Media, consists of over 120 design professionals working from several different cities across the United States. We’re involved in the company’s proposal efforts, marketing campaigns, facility branding, employee and customer meetings, and …
August 10, 2015
When we were younger, team building happened all the time—without us even realizing it. As children, we learned how to get along in the sandbox, to share and play nicely with other kids. I’m reminded of an old folktale: The Four Harmonious Friends—Bird plants a seed; Rabbit waters it; Monkey …
August 11, 2014
The year 2025 is a little more than 10 years away, right? Ten years doesn’t sound like that long. But think about it—in technological years, 10 is several generations. Ten years ago was 2004, and if you’re like me, your cellphone was just that, a cellular telephone. You may, or may not, have owned …
June 16, 2014
Relationships between creative team members and clients can be good, bad or downright ugly. Whatever it is, your goal should always be ongoing improvement of your client relationships.
The interaction between clients and creatives during projects often invites opportunities for conflict. When …
May 19, 2014
A number of years ago, when I was at Bose, we embarked on a transformative journey—a journey to eradicate 51/49 thinking. What is 51/49? It’s a term we used to characterize the balance of power between the in-house agency and its clients. On one hand when you’re in house, you all work for the same …
December 04, 2013
Nothing serves an organization better…than leadership that knows what it wants, communicates those intentions, positions itself correctly, and empowers its workforce. —Warren Bennis, Author
I came across this quote early in my study of leadership. In one form or another it has guided my work as a …