July 5, 2016
Building a team that works together
Let’s face it. We all know that working in silos won’t fully leverage the talents of your staff and agencies. As I write this I am flying home from an all agency meeting for one of our clients who brought us together to learn about the details of the upcoming business plan and what each of our agencies—Advertising, Public Relations, Experiential, Digital–was doing so that we could further synergize our efforts.
Here’s what were some of the keys to the success of this meeting:
Give Advance Notice with an Agenda: This allows everyone attending to plan accordingly. Making sure this is set time aside so attendees can focus on what is happening at the meeting and not answering emails on their laptops.
Invite Broadly: Allow for not only those who daily service the account but also agency leadership so they can hear directly from the client what the goals are and what we all need to do.
Choose a Central Location: If you have people flying in, everyone enjoys and direct flight and it optimizes the time in the office and time for travel.
Plan for Enough Time….But Not Too Much: We all know that everyone is time strapped these days and taking your agencies out of their offices is also taking them away from working on your business. In this case, the schedule allowed for a late arrival on a Tuesday, a full day of meetings and group breakfast, lunch and dinner to “bond” on Wednesday and an early flight back home with time to get back to work.
Content is King: The agenda for this meeting was well thought out. The CEO presenting a crystal clear setup of where the business was, where it was going and an overarching set of strategies to get there. All backed up by the research he presented to support the plan. Then the rest of the day flowed with more research support and details for the specifics of plan execution presented by the talented staff heading up each area. The audience was riveted as we watched and listened.
Don’t Skimp on Hospitality: Given the meeting content was very engaging and “meaty” the breaks and meals were welcome. The venue was obviously selected not only for the facilities (which were nice but not pretentious) but also for the great food and abundance of it. This made for a fun and relaxing atmosphere to meet other team members and learn where we can collaborate and build respect within the team.
So as I am soon to land back at SNA, I reflect back on yesterday and think everyone left the meeting, as I did, with excitement about what we are all apart of and a continued respect for our client and all of the other members of the team.
Integrated Marketing