I met up with my old chum Neil Dawson last week who’s just started his new business Neil A Dawson and Co. A business based on collaboration, creative excellence and getting things done. As friends and colleagues are wont to do, we spent a little time reminiscing about some of the successful work we’d done in the past too.
It’s hard enough to be good, but the formula for great is an elusive one. It seems to be a happy combination of various factors: great people, great market dynamics, great teamwork, great thinking and more than a little luck along the way too. On the few special occasions where I’ve been involved in something truly special, there’s always been a unique set of circumstances that are hard to replicate. But one thing Neil and I did agree on was that making great work always felt fun and enjoyable, even if the hours were hard and long.
So rather than aiming for great, I’m wondering if it might be more productive to aim for enjoyment instead. Not in the "‘leave early and head to the pub’ way, but fostering an environment where respect, openness, honesty and an absence of fear abound. Where collective endeavour and individual brilliance both exist in harmony, rather than fight tooth and nail. If having fun was the goal, how might projects be approached differently?
Firstly, get the right people involved at the outset. The kind of people who are instinctively at ease in each other’s company. People who are not afraid to call each other out, and who take no umbrage when it happens to them either. People who you’ve known for years, or just met but hit it off straight away. Going right back to Collins and Porras’ From Good To Great, ‘Get the right people on the bus, and only then figure out where it’s going’.
Second, get everyone aligned behind a common (business) goal. ‘More sales of X’ is not a business strategy, and neither is ‘Win the pitch’. Who are you engaging with, what they are doing now, and what you need them to do in the future are vital questions in any marketing project, but ones often parked when faced with new shiny thoughts, ideas and tactics.
Third, give everyone a voice, particularly on things they don’t naturally feel comfortable with. The best results happen when no-one is afraid to call out something they instinctively feel isn’t right. But then neither is that about beating yourself up either. The best people I’ve worked with were never afraid of trying something again because they backed themselves to come up with something better each time.
Fourth, take time out to enjoy the journey. It’s so easy to get wrapped up in the minutiae of deadlines and deliverables that you miss what’s going on around you. Work can take you to some amazing places, both literally and figuratively, but it’s easy to pass them by. And while the journey is often rewarding on its own, it’s doubly so when the experience is shared with your team. The founders of The Caffeine Partnership realised this when they made a strict rule that no-one would engage in a project by themselves.
Finally, try and have a little perspective. Winning and doing great is hard work, and it hurts always when it doesn’t come off. That’s why it feels so good when it does. But, with time, I’ve always been able to take something away from every project I’ve been involved with. Sometimes, learning what not to do is every bit as valuable as what does work. So I always now try to think of that along the way, and what I can take to the next big thing.
None of that is going to make the pursuit of great any easier. It still takes graft, skill, imagination and more than a little luck. But not only will enjoying it make it rewarding, it’ll help tip the odds in your favour too.