Tag Archives: teamwork

The Forest And The Trees

Forest

Image via Wikipedia

We went to the movies over the weekend and saw “Unknown.”  It’s an interesting film in many ways although it won’t be up for Best Picture next year.  Like me, it’s entertaining for the most part!

I bring this up because there’s a great visual at one point.  Imagine yourself in a forest (birch trees in the movie) and you’re walking.  The trees are somewhat impenetrable – a solid wall with very few gaps in between.  As you move forward, suddenly the trees line up – they’re in perfect rows.  You realize that you’re actually in a forest which has been planted by man and what seemed so impenetrable a moment before was, in fact, very accommodating as long as you found the point where everything lines up.  Isn’t that an executive’s job? Continue reading

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Filed under Helpful Hints, Thinking Aloud

Idiot Proof

I was on a call this morning with the tech and ad teams from a client of mine.  We’re spending a bunch of time trying to reconfigure the ad system to be more target-able (is that a word?) and flexible for sponsors.  As we discussed a number of options for changing the existing content management system the discussion kept coming back to the change in work flow that the changes would mean for the editors and producers.  The tech guys, who are very good at what they do, were trying to figure out logic which would prevent a CMS user from categorizing a piece of content incorrectly which could mess up the ad targeting.  Given that these changes are kind of pressing and also given that the logic they were building would take a lot of time to implement, I felt a need to comment on that incongruity with some excellent advice I was given and which I’d like to pass along. Continue reading

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Filed under Consulting, Helpful Hints

Ripped Off

I got a note from a former colleague of mine the other day.  They were kind of ticked off because they felt as if someone had ripped off an idea of theirs and the thief got the proverbial pat on the head from the powers that be.  I guess I’m not painting myself in a very flattering light here because I know they wanted a lot more sympathy from me than I gave them. I mean, I wasn’t a total d&*k about it – I did let them know I knew how they felt – but having had my fair share of ideas ripped off over the years I learned a few things which I’d like to share with you as I did with them. Continue reading

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Filed under Growing up, Helpful Hints