*** From the Archives ***

This article is from January 31, 2005, and is no longer current.

The Art of Business: Managing People and Processes

If you haven’t yet, take a moment to read last Wednesday’s column on creativepro.com, "Industry Analysis: Welcome to the New World of Print Production" by John C Dunn. John makes a great point: Creative professionals should market their ability to manage processes as effectively as they market their creative skills.
After all, the nature of work these days requires you to work with a wide range of co-contributors — in effect, to orchestrate a result. Chances are you’ve been a player many times in this virtual game that includes client, colleagues, and vendors.
Where’s the Water Cooler?
But managing process isn’t easy. Virtual workgroups are notoriously messy affairs — members often are contractors with their own agendas or, worse, employed by the client, making them both your charge and your boss. And, of course, teams these days are geographically dispersed — an illustrator in Atlanta, a writer in San Francisco, an art director in New York, and a Web designer in New Delhi. Different cities, different cultures, different mindsets, and no water cooler to create a gestalt or de-ruffle feathers.
Creative pros who shun process management have no choice but to surrender creative authority to someone who can mange the process better. Ask yourself, do you want to wind up sitting in front of a computer assembling individual elements, or would you prefer running entire campaigns?
The Virtual Conference Table
Here are a few suggestions for mastering the art of process management:

  1. Master your collaboration tools. Whether you are working with a high-end content publishing management system or seat-of-the-pants e-mail, start by understanding the capabilities and limitations of your tools. How will you implement version control? Assign user access? Share information? Monitor progress? Coordinate workflow? Set up and communicate among multiple workgroups? You’re probably already using your tools to some degree, but each project offers the opportunity to extend and automate processes for faster and more efficient turnaround. Become a tool master.
  2. Know your team members. Spend some time, preferably by phone, talking with each team member, even if only for five minutes. Create a human relationship, not just a professional one. Find out a little about each contributor, their strengths and weaknesses, goals and desires — often you’ll hit upon little revelations that can help you avoid problems later or maybe you’ll discover cross skill sets that can come in handy down the road. Make sure that team members working together are properly introduced. Determine who will be on the decision-making team and define the decision-making roles of each member. Learn what each contributor needs in terms of creative time and workgroup parameters. And make clear what each member is being asked to contribute and what they are not responsible for. Technology be damned, it’s all about human interaction.
  3. Use your communication skills. You may have a crystal clear idea of what you and your client are hoping to achieve but that doesn’t mean every team member does. The last thing you want is a bunch of talented people working cluelessly about the critical objectives and challenges you face. Take the time to communicate and post in exacting detail, if necessary, project goals, parameters, audience demographics, technical capabilities and any other information that may help someone, somewhere do a better job. Alert members to potential project glitches and sensitivities. Be absolutely clear about milestones and deadlines. Most importantly provide feedback early and often throughout the project to keep people on track and on board.
  4. Define workflow parameters. Since most workgroups are not linear, workflow is a major challenge and often the difference between project success and failure. A well-constructed workflow will help ensure that all project segments are built the same way, that new team members can come on board quickly, that new material can be added easily, and most importantly, that redundant or unnecessary work is avoided. Hence, spend time early on defining file names and organizing conventions. Set up a system to save versions so you can see the evolution of a document and return to an earlier version if necessary. Implement a system for annotating work for tracking the process of individuals. And guard intellectual property by determining who will receive what files.
  5. Be flexible. Projects are dynamic by nature and projects created by virtual collaborative teams are wildly dynamic to put it politely. Be prepared to troubleshoot early and often, and be willing to abandon your well-laid constructs to accommodate the needs of the project as it takes shape. But make changes only when there is a clear need to do so. Often a disruption is more damaging than the original problem.

When working collaboratively, pay as much attention to process design as to creative design. The latter won’t take shape without the former, no matter how talented you are as a creative professional.
There are additional benefits to developing good workgroup management skills; after each workgroup disbands, you’ll benefit from a fresh cadre of professionals singing your praises and recommending you the next time they find themselves forming a workgroup of their own. And, hopefully, your client will understand that your skills as a process manager make you indispensable as a creative professional.
Read more by Eric J. Adams.

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