Dot Joining and Puzzle Solving

Thereamp8217s a myth that dots were painlessly joined in the old fullservice agency era As someone still walking and talking who remembers those days I can assure you the painless bit is largely a myth Certainly popping into an adjacent office was easier than setting up a Zoom call or hopping in a taxi but dot joining was always more about a frame of mind than the practicalities of sitting in the same spaceIf you wanted to do it you did it If you didn39t you didn39tTo quote from the great Dave Trott in this week39s Campaign quotReal creativity came from account handling the planning department the media department and the creative department all working together amp8230 we donamp8217t do that today because thinking now just means following a trendquotI spent 14 years of my life working for Leo Burnett back in the days when it was an agency 100 owned by its staff We were in a perfect position to join the dots at least those within our remitEventually I reached a level where I was allowed out to attend global meetings in Chicago to discuss matters of great import Like developing and offering ICS quotintegrated communication servicesquot This was our version of dot joining Donamp8217t laugh the YampampR version was something to do with a whole egg amp8230It was at one of these gatherings that I learned a lesson in how networks workPeople attending these things take on one of three personasThe corporate bully whose authority comes not from hisher particular knowledge or expertise but from the fact heshe works in a large often HQ officeThe silent expert probably from a small office who almost certainly has valuable experience to bring to the discussion but who wonamp8217t speak out for fear of being mocked by the bullyThe smartarse loudmouth who thinks heshe knows the answer to everything who almost certainly knows less than the silent expert but who goes for it anyway if only to goad the corporate bullyI was without question in this last group Probably still amWhen it came to dotjoining the small Leo Burnett offices were genius They had to do everything inhouse and collectively to survive against their larger local competitors If they didnamp8217t work out how to join the dots they would failMany of my counterparts in Chicago like so many HQ staff the world over were corporate bullies Personally they were and are delightful people But professionally they had titles to justify departments to protect budgets to fight for internal arguments about status to winThey werenamp8217t going to join up any dots for anyone unless they designed the dots held the crayon and wrote the instructionsTo be successful in the dot joining business everybody concerned needs to want to do it to believe in it and to be prepared to work hard to deliver to itIf you work for a large organization which has been offering multiple services over decades and whose management suddenly starts talking about joinedup thinking almost certainly as a precursor to job cuts fewer people to think disjointed thoughts youamp8217ll failIf joining the dots is another way of saying certain people have to give up status in the name of collaboration youamp8217ll failIf you can see that there is too much siloed thinking that thereamp8217s a value to the client in collaboration and that that value has the potential to lead to higher fees youamp8217ll succeedThe client wants and expects a finished jigsaw as per the picture on the front of the boxMore often than not what he actually gets is a box full of pieces that donamp8217t fit together and were shoved into the box at random when a load of other jigsaws fell on the floorBest to go with those with the picture not with the guys forcing pieces together with a hammerSelfpublished at MediaVillage through the wwwAvrioB2Bcom platformClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet

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