Call for an Agency School

Or: Five things you will learn on the fly that you would have been better at if someone just taught you.

I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start at the beginning.

Maybe it's Agency Speed. That pace required to fill the gap between goals and resources. That clip that leaves teams bootstrapping relatively crazy solutions at ungodly hours of the morning. That speed that rewards the people who "get it" and bedevils those that would actually like to follow a "process."

Or maybe it's the Immigration to the Industry. Agency types are from all over. Journalists. Corporate Marketers. Work-in-their-jammies Freelancers. Artists. Photographers. Fundraisers. Developers. Economists. Cat Herders. A messy hodgepodge of talent, experience and know-how.

Whatever the reason, most of us end up learning a lot of the basic skills of the business on our own. Traveling down the same road of self education ... only to very different ends.

So this is my call to any industry vets or educators who might be reading. We need an agency school or a creative industry bootcamp that teaches these five core skills of the business:

1. Managing People. The natural path of success is from doer to manager. But the skills required for each are completely different. Hence the fumbling weeks / months / years of grabbing work back to redo ourselves, of delegating just the grunt work, of being unable to inspire a team.
   
   Teach us how to teach, mentor and manage. How to give meaningful feedback and pass on our best skills.


2. Taking Notes. We're natural stenographers. Writing down every word we can capture. Brains racing just ahead of our scribbles. Our notes are the transcript of a meeting. Until one day - far too late in our careers - when we meet someone who has actually learned the art of notetaking and we realize we've being doing it all wrong.
   
   Teach us about synthesis. And creating frameworks from the dump of data. About hierarchy and selectivity and gathering those salient quotes that bring not just the content but the tenor of the feedback. Teach us to think conceptually and write briefly even in the real-time conversation of the meeting.


3. Giving presentations. Or, even, hell, creating them. PowerPoint has shouldered us with clunky, fragmented thoughts. It's taken away our natural interaction with the room. Our ability to stir passion and set up the big idea. Click, click, click goes the noose.
   
   Teach us what it means to present an idea. Give us the power to run a room. Go all the way back to the setup. Where it should be, who should be there, what should be in the room. And through the meeting itself - how we build the right foundation for an idea, unveil creative, inspire the client. Teach us how to get the room back with stodgy-mc-stodgerson declares the work crap, when the Big Boss nods off in the corner, when our creative partner embarks on a startling  monologue about  the sensuality of the font.


4. Tracking time. We bill by the hour. Well, some of the hours anyway. Maybe the right ones. As well as we can remember. In an office of 100 people, how many bill for the time it takes to get to the meeting? How many cross off a .5 for the what-did-you-do-this-weekend tangent at the end of the kickoff? How many really log the weekend hours we donated? What aboutthe time to get a new staff member up to speed? No?
   
   We're not number crunchers by nature. Not suits with rulebooks. Give us some guidelines, some help with the details. Teach us what that "we bill by the hour" phrase really means.


5. Managing our own schedules. Oh, the lucky few with a traffic coordinator. Someone to prioritize, negotiate and balance. The rest of us are either racing to catch up or boldly scratching off one meeting to slide in another. Listening to a conference call while typing up a new strategy. Stacking commitments three deep in hopes that nothing is lost in the balance.
   
   Teach us how to mange it all. When to say when. How to see the big disasters coming. And plan time not just for the deliverable, but for its iterations.

AgencyU? Ad Camp? I'm in.

Comments

[Jen Neumann]

Wow. How true, how true. I went from VP of Mktg for non-profits to owning my own ad agency - a "boutique ad agency" if you will, and these are things I struggle with every day. And the creative partner monologue about the sensuality of the font? Um, I'm not even going to show that to my biz partner because she will laugh and point her finger at me.

I am going to take this all to heart and make sure that as our little agency grows we manage to teach these things to staff. It's not too late. I'm going to forward this to those on board now and we're going to start with ourselves.

Thanks for putting in writing something I've never quite put my finger on - at least not in an articulate way. And that first commenter was sooo condescending.

[myob]

Great post!

[Bryan Jones]

Over the last month or so, Advergirl has become part of my required reading list. I really dig your perspective, and i really appreciate the insights that you pass along.

I'd add a course to your degree plan detailed above:

6. Crossing Over. Moving from a corporate Marketing Communications role to an Agency job.

[HighJive]

Apologies in advance for the length of this comment. Also, excuse all typos.

This post is both positive and disturbing. Positive because it’s nice to see people honestly seeking to improve and enhance their skills. Disturbing because some of the statements indicate you may be at a shitty agency. (Note to Todd: all big agencies don’t suck at management, and all digital agencies don’t excel at it.) Professional development has always been—and will continue to be—a two-way street in our industry. You have to actively seek guidance and mentors. Conversely, agency management must show real commitment to the professional development of its staff. Being super busy never has been a good excuse, although it’s often used. If your agency is using it as an excuse, take a close look. Is it really true, or are they simply neglecting the responsibilities because they can’t teach? If it’s true, work with management to find ways to find the time—again, they should be committed to development, so your proactive nature shouldn’t be viewed with negativity. If they can’t teach, get the hell out asap.

Not too sure about the feasibility of creating an AgencyU. But only because all agencies are so different (and agencies within different disciplines operate via different business models). It should be the responsibility of your agency leaders to create an AgencyU for the staff.

Additionally, all good agencies have budgetary allocations for professional development. You should have asked about it during the interview process. But it’s not too late to inquire now. Most local universities have courses and seminars to help. Additionally, there are seminars through organizations like 4As and AAF (and your local ad clubs and organizations). You should proactively try to find some and present them to your leaders.

First, I’m not going to directly address the “Taking Notes” query, but only because I’m super busy right now. Plus, it really demands a full post, if not a full AgencyU course.

Regarding “Tracking Time,” I must say again that this inquiry is disturbing. I’ve been insisting lately that the next big idea in our industry will come from the accounting department. I don’t mean account management, but rather, the money folks. Someone has to find a way to make everything we do profitable (and do it legally, versus cooking the books). Anyway, I find your inquiry disturbing because it’s the responsibility—perhaps among the top five responsibilities—of your agency leaders to clearly define this for you. If you’re unclear about it, your leaders are failing you—and they’re potentially getting the entire shop in financial trouble. Things will ultimately vary from agency to agency—and even by account and role—based on your shop’s compensation structure (e.g., fee versus retainer, etc.). It gets tricky, especially for creatives. For example, if you’re in the shower coming up with ideas for a project, in my shop, that’s billable. If you’re seeing a movie for creative inspiration or reading the latest book on planning, well, it varies based on the agency’s financial agreements with each client. Again, this really must be specifically defined for you by your boss, and probably the CFO of the shop. If you do not have at least a casual relationship with accounting people in your shop, and you’re in a managerial role (regardless of your department), you and your shop are probably in trouble. If you’re moving up the corporate ladder, make it a goal to ask your supervisors to explain how your shop makes money—and start developing relationships with the accounting people with the same end goal in mind. This directive is for creatives too!

Now, in regards to the specifics of filling out timesheets, I have a few comments.

From the leadership side, every effort should be made to create timesheet processes that are clear, simple and efficient for the workers. Don’t expect people to regularly and correctly submit timesheets if the process is complicated and stupid. If you have to ask if your current system is complicated and stupid, it probably is. Additionally, it helps if the leaders are open with the workers about the agency’s finances. If people understand how the place makes money, and they see how the agency is doing financially (by quarter even), they will be more inclined to deal with their timesheets correctly. Leaders should also be very clear about when timesheets must be submitted. If certain workers are consistently negligent despite all your explanations and directions, and it’s adversely affecting the agency profits, those certain workers should be dealt with fast and professionally (fired, if necessary). Of course, leaders should lead by example and deal with their own timesheets properly too.

From the worker side, you must submit timesheets promptly and accurately per your agency’s guidelines. If you don’t or can’t, you really need to find another career. Timesheets are not yet going away, and it’s part of being a professional. You should get in the habit of filling them out daily. If you do it daily, it will never take more than 3-5 minutes, and it will be accurate. If you wait until the end of the week, it will take much longer, and you’ll likely fuck things up. I can’t remember what I did yesterday, and I don’t expect you to be able to remember either. Show professional discipline. When confronted by a consistently neglectful worker, here’s what I tell them: “Think of yourself as a freelancer. As a freelancer, it’s imperative that you promptly submit an accurate invoice in order to get paid. If you can’t figure out how to promptly and accurately submit your timesheet at our agency, you will ultimately find yourself becoming a freelancer.” I’ve only had to make such a statement a few times over the years, incidentally.

As previously mentioned, professional development is a two-way street. There are easy things you can do to develop yourself. I noticed this blog’s sidebar features lots of books. None of them are management related. Why is that? Books are a great source of insights—plus, you can get them on tapes, CDs, digitally, etc., so you can “read” while commuting, eating lunch, exercising, etc.

HighJive’s DIY AgencyU: Open to all and totally FREE—except like most colleges, there are books and materials fees (but maybe your shop will foot the bills, so ask). Some books are out-of-print, but are still relevant and available via online booksellers or abebooks.com. Also, consider this the freshman-level course—visitors can probably supplement with more titles and ideas.

LEADERSHIP

First, Break All The Rules
By Marcus Buckingham

How to Become a Great Boss
By Jeffrey Fox

All I Really Needed To Know In Business I Learned At Microsoft
By Julie Bick

Getting Things Done When You Are Not in Charge
By Geoffrey Bellman

Difficult Conversations
By Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, Sheila Heen and Roger Fisher

Re-Imagine
By Tom Peters

The First 90 Days
By Michael Watkins
(For leaders moving into new agencies)

MANAGING AN ADVERTISING AGENCY

Creative Management
By Wm. A. Marsteller

The Simple Art of Greatness
By James X. Mullen

The Art of Client Service
By Robert Solomon

Advertising Agency Management
By Jay McNamara

Creative People at Work
By Edward Buxton

Advertising’s Benevolent Dictators
By Bart Cummings

MANAGING A DIVERSE WORKFORCE

Beyond Race and Gender
By R. Roosevelt Thomas

Proversity
By Lawrence Otis Graham

Managing Generation X
By Bruce Tulgan

Managing Generation Y
By Carolyn A. Martin and Bruce Tulgan

Beyond Generation X
By Claire Raines

The Xers & The Boomers
By Claire Raines and Jim Hunt

In a Different Voice
By Carol Gilligan

PROCESS AND ORGANIZATION

Working at Warp Speed
By Barry Flicker

Getting Things Done
By Edwin C. Bliss

PRESENTING

Enroll in a Toni Louw Seminar
http://www.louwsmanagement.com/

Never let ‘em see you sweat
By Phil Slott

Life’s A Pitch
By Don Peppers

How to Not Come Second
By David Kean

How to Become a Rainmaker
By Jeffrey Fox

I Can See You Naked
By Ron Hoff

Again, I apologize for the length of this comment. Hope some of this was helpful.

[michelle marts]

It's called Second Wind - a network of small to mid-sized agencies and they teach you how to be an ad agency ;) http://www.secondwindonline.com/

[Todd]

The first point is the most important, I think.

I grew up in the Agency biz only to go to the Internet world later on. Suddenly I'm being managed by people who actually know how to manage people. It was so cute how they wanted to help me grow in my career and have weekly one-on-ones and discuss my "areas of opportunity." Then I went to another Internet company and worked for a guy who grew up in the agency world too. The sudden return to non-management management bullshit was very jarring - but at least I understood where it came from.

Honestly, if anyone from a big agency is listening...YOU GUYS SUCK AT MANAGEMENT!!! It could save you soooo much time, improve productivity, retention, etc. It's not a big investment...really.

[Liz McFadden]

I laughed so hard when I read this post. As a former big-agency person, now the owner and president of a boutique ad agency, all this is SO true. Hey, why not an AgencyU? Schools exist for our friends the Creatives.

[Kevin Amter]

Great post. I found it very true and something that even the most seasoned Vet needs help with.