Thoughts on creating disruptive organisational transformations with design thinking.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Going On My Information Diet
I am busily unsubscribing from all of my (quite substantial list of) podcasts. I will not be listening to any of those on my daily commutes any more. I am ring-fencing those hours for MA time. It is five hours of uninterrupted attention every week and undoubtedly will become essential. Hacking all of the distractions out of my content stream is another step in managing my attention. One unanticipated positive impact of the MA Programme shall be that I am going to have to break all of my media-diet habits. I hope to rationalise and manage what content I allow back into my time and attention when (and if) I revisit those next year when the Masters is complete.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
In Training
I am currently reading ‘Bit Literacy’ by Mark Hurst. I imagine that I am going to generate a substantial volume of digital files and data over the next twelve months as I engage in the Masters programme. This book is a good refresher on effective life-hacks for managing your digital deluge.
I may also need to re-read David Allen’s ‘Getting Things Done’ as well, as my GTD habits have gotten more than a little lax. Every spare minute is going to count, and I am going to need to have laser-focus on my objectives and to neutralise as many of my distractions as I can.
I may also need to re-read David Allen’s ‘Getting Things Done’ as well, as my GTD habits have gotten more than a little lax. Every spare minute is going to count, and I am going to need to have laser-focus on my objectives and to neutralise as many of my distractions as I can.
Friday, September 26, 2008
My Thought For The Day 26/09
“Can there be three words more disheartening than: A Leadership Fable?”
Thursday, September 25, 2008
My Thought For The Day 25/09
"Filling out the personality assessment form for my Masters. Gosh, I wonder whether I am a Plant, a Specialist or a Shaper... "
Friday, September 19, 2008
Achieve Better Value From Your Design Spend
In today's market conditions, organisations need to achieve maximum value from their creative agencies. By investigating cost over-runs on design projects, I have identified opportunities for efficiencies and savings. Internal practices and behaviours can add inefficiencies and costs to the relationship between you and your creative agencies. Putting these suggestions into practice may result in superior outcomes for less expense.
Assess current design investment
Review where your resources are being spent on design today. Are all of your current communications materials required? Have any recurring design projects outlasted their usefulness? Evaluate all outputs of those projects and consider which you can abandon.
Rationalise brand identity
Many organisations still use redundant variations within their brand identity, with non-standard variations of logos and symbols developing over time and replication of effort in designed materials; from low-cost items such as business cards, to high-cost investments like websites. Standardise the design and centralise the production of your communications collateral.
Rationalise sub-brands
Organisations succumb to logo-creep, whereby individual units, departments and projects develop their own identities. How much is it costing you to maintain these? Are they detracting from your core brand identity? Which can you dispose of? Of those remaining, have you clarified and standardised their relationship with your core brand identity to manage them most efficiently?
Standardise core design decisions
If you do not have identity management usage guidelines, now is the time to invest in this essential management tool. Think of a concise, relevant document bringing tangible benefits; not a massive folder taking six months to produce. Many organisations constantly re-invent the wheel when using the core elements of their brand identity. Make fundamental decisions about how your brand identity is to be used and then record them. The instant benefit is that this allows your people to concentrate on important decisions about content, rather than discussing logo sizes.
Clarify project objectives
In my experience the single greatest cause of cost over-runs on design projects is additional chargeable hours being added when briefs change mid-stream, often due to differences of opinion within the client organisation. ‘Ready, Fire, Aim’ is too often the mantra. Take extra time at the beginning to organise your thinking and clarify your project’s objectives with all relevant parties. Doing so ensures you get best value from your agency’s time.
Pursue value-added creative services
Are your creative agencies merely delivering on what you asked for, or are they truly adding value? Does their business insight help you to achieve your communication goals? Successful creative relationships are those where the client has the most trust in their agency. Seek out agencies who give you the full benefit of their thinking and experience and offer a useful external perspective that challenges your preconceptions.
Set realistic time-lines
Project time-lines often over-run without planning for internal decision-making requirements. Always factor in your internal reviews, particularly for executive sign-offs. Will your project need board approval? If so, then integrate upcoming board meetings into your schedule. Often an eight-week project can stop dead for weeks awaiting the next monthly board meeting.
Maintain momentum
Review internal decision-making practices. How many layers are in place? Are there any you can bypass? Design projects benefit from focus and clarity in decision-making. Drawn-out review processes can create more heat than light. If a project disappears into a maze of sub-committees, the creative impetus may have dissipated when work restarts months later.
Have your agencies only do things once
Certain definable tasks, such as typesetting, always take a certain number of man-hours. Who gains if your agency has to charge for typesetting a second time because of a rewrite? If people within your organisation will not review text until they see a fully typeset layout, perhaps it is time they review their own practices.
—
My article was originally published in the September 2008 edition of Business Plus magazine.
Assess current design investment
Review where your resources are being spent on design today. Are all of your current communications materials required? Have any recurring design projects outlasted their usefulness? Evaluate all outputs of those projects and consider which you can abandon.
Rationalise brand identity
Many organisations still use redundant variations within their brand identity, with non-standard variations of logos and symbols developing over time and replication of effort in designed materials; from low-cost items such as business cards, to high-cost investments like websites. Standardise the design and centralise the production of your communications collateral.
Rationalise sub-brands
Organisations succumb to logo-creep, whereby individual units, departments and projects develop their own identities. How much is it costing you to maintain these? Are they detracting from your core brand identity? Which can you dispose of? Of those remaining, have you clarified and standardised their relationship with your core brand identity to manage them most efficiently?
Standardise core design decisions
If you do not have identity management usage guidelines, now is the time to invest in this essential management tool. Think of a concise, relevant document bringing tangible benefits; not a massive folder taking six months to produce. Many organisations constantly re-invent the wheel when using the core elements of their brand identity. Make fundamental decisions about how your brand identity is to be used and then record them. The instant benefit is that this allows your people to concentrate on important decisions about content, rather than discussing logo sizes.
Clarify project objectives
In my experience the single greatest cause of cost over-runs on design projects is additional chargeable hours being added when briefs change mid-stream, often due to differences of opinion within the client organisation. ‘Ready, Fire, Aim’ is too often the mantra. Take extra time at the beginning to organise your thinking and clarify your project’s objectives with all relevant parties. Doing so ensures you get best value from your agency’s time.
Pursue value-added creative services
Are your creative agencies merely delivering on what you asked for, or are they truly adding value? Does their business insight help you to achieve your communication goals? Successful creative relationships are those where the client has the most trust in their agency. Seek out agencies who give you the full benefit of their thinking and experience and offer a useful external perspective that challenges your preconceptions.
Set realistic time-lines
Project time-lines often over-run without planning for internal decision-making requirements. Always factor in your internal reviews, particularly for executive sign-offs. Will your project need board approval? If so, then integrate upcoming board meetings into your schedule. Often an eight-week project can stop dead for weeks awaiting the next monthly board meeting.
Maintain momentum
Review internal decision-making practices. How many layers are in place? Are there any you can bypass? Design projects benefit from focus and clarity in decision-making. Drawn-out review processes can create more heat than light. If a project disappears into a maze of sub-committees, the creative impetus may have dissipated when work restarts months later.
Have your agencies only do things once
Certain definable tasks, such as typesetting, always take a certain number of man-hours. Who gains if your agency has to charge for typesetting a second time because of a rewrite? If people within your organisation will not review text until they see a fully typeset layout, perhaps it is time they review their own practices.
—
My article was originally published in the September 2008 edition of Business Plus magazine.
Friday, September 12, 2008
‘Good To Great’ in Spain
1–12 September 2008
I brought four of the books from my Masters programme reading list on holidays to Spain. Which was wildly optimistic behaviour: what with two young kids to manage. In week two of holidays I managed to work out a system of bringing Laoise, my six-month daughter, for a walk mid-morning, stopping at a coffee shop once she fell asleep, and reading 'Good To Great' until she woke up. It is a fascinating read, I can see why it is a perennial best-seller in so many of the business book charts. I have always read more of the Seth Godin, Tom Peters, Marty Neumeier et al, style of business books (strong on the Big Picture, less so on details and the follow-through) so Jim Collin’s über-methodical approach, and the exhaustive research-based apparatus that supports it, is fascinating. Again as my own preference in business reading inevitably gravitates towards advice aimed at the small, nimble rule-breaking start-up or the sole trader, consultant, digital nomad class, it is interesting to be reading outside of that, seeing how the large publicly-traded organisations operate (The Spanish cappuccinos were not bad either.)
POSTSCRIPT
Guess I can skip the chapter on the US Federal Mortgage association ‘Fannie Mae’, as they have totally lost their ‘Good To Great’ mojo and are now being bailed-out by the US Federal Government.
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