Full Speed Ahead
Posted by: Carl Smith on Thursday August 13, 2009
nGen Master Plan Checklist:
- New team in place and kicking ass… CHECK
- Great work has clients stoked… CHECK
- Pipeline of new opportunities is overflowing… CHECK
- Everyone is having fun… CHECK
- Now what… ????
I know what you’re thinking, SHUT UP MR. “AREN’T WE AWESOME!”
The reason to bring this up is we all have an important question to ask ourselves no matter our situation. Why are we showing up to work every day? Is it the paycheck? Recognition? A sense of importance? It’s probably different for each of us. The main thing is to ask the question. And, if you’re a business owner, to ask your employees.
I think this is most critical when things are going well. Because that’s when you realize it may not be enough.
Recently I went back to the original creative brief we wrote for nGen Works in 2003. We wrote this having never run a company of any kind and without the first idea of where we’d be six years later. Here are some excerpts:
We need to be experienced guides to the interactive world… we need to be a break for our clients from their everyday lives and feed them a shot of energy every time we get together… we need people to think “these guys are the shit!”
So that was then, and a lot of what we said in the beginning is still so true. If we do our jobs right everyone has fun and the work rocks. Of course, there will always be exceptions, but who cares as long as we know we did our best. And while I still think those ideas from 2003 are important, six years has taught me there is a deeper level of understanding to keep us healthy and happy as individuals and as a company. Here they are.
nGen Works will:
- Understand what we want personally and align company and individual goals as much as possible
- Discuss issues openly and honestly
- Admit mistakes and fix them
- Take the high road in grey areas
- Consistently recognize good stuff and hold people accountable for bad stuff
- Support each other through successes and failures
You can look at this list and say, well yeah, that’s the right thing to do. But most companies don’t do this. They constantly go behind closed doors and decide how to spin things. To clients, to employees, hell, even to themselves. They are quick to look for a scapegoat in a bad situation instead of rallying to support a member of the team who may well have screwed up. But if instead of following the “cover your ass” mentality so prevalent in business today you adhere to these guidelines, everything becomes easier. This isn’t to say people won’t get upset at situations; it just means you did what you could as a company and an individual.
So why am I showing up at nGen Works every day? Because I’m having fun doing what I love with people I care about and respect. Plus, I need the money. (See #2 above.)
Ultimately, I think we all have a need to be moving towards something. It’s engrained in us as kids when we start pestering our parents on road trips. “Are we there yet?” The answer for nGen Works is no, and hopefully we never will be.
Comment RSS Filed under: Interweb
Christofer Sandin
08.15.09 at 9:26am
Thanks for an interesting read. I think a lot of people underestimate number one on your list above. If you like to run a business where everyone enjoy coming in to work every day, I think you really need to think about that one.
About a year ago we all sat down and wrote a list of things that we were looking for at the “perfect work place”. A great office? A lot of money? Flexible hours? It’s up to you. Then each one arranged their points in order of importance.
After that, sitting down together, we ticked off every point that we agreed upon was all ready achieved. That left us with a pretty good picture of what to work on the next year and, maybe even more important, highlighted each individual’s ambitions. That way we could try to incorporate these into our business plan.
It’s about time to reevaluate our lists – and hopefully tick off a few more points. And, as you write, we might never tick them all off, and hopefully we never will, but we’re getting pretty close.
Carl Smith
08.16.09 at 8:42pm
Glad you liked the post Christofer. I love the process your team followed and will recommend it to my fellow nGeneers.
All the best!
Ryan Dunagan
08.17.09 at 8:02am
Great article! This is a good reminder on remaining transparent with clients as well as getting things done no matter what. I think it’s easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of a situation and remind ourselves of how much fun we are having in this industry. Keep the awesome posts coming!
Carl Smith
08.17.09 at 4:37pm
Thanks Ryan. Transparency is always important, especially when things aren’t going optimally. Glad you like the post.
J. Cornelius
08.26.09 at 1:39pm
Well said my friend.