Notes from NAMP #3

At the Table: Making Marketing’s Voice Count in Organizational Leadership
Speakers: Jerry Yoshitomi, MeaningMatters, Port Hueneme, CA; Brian Jose and Susie Farr, Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland, College Park, MD

1. At the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, they implemented several organizational changes after their staff turnover got to be really high. First they learned that a director’s loyalty needs to shift to the success of the organization and the leadership team, rather than being with their individual departments. This meant that each director needed to become more expert in other department activities. The director of artistic initiatives and the director of marketing shifted to become joined at the hip. Decisions were made together by those two and the executive director, and the offices of those two staff members were moved to be right next to each other.

2. Always challenge the prevailing organizational wisdom and make improvements because the world is changing quickly and you must adapt. Try to draw attention to issues without drawing attention to specific individuals. Gather the people in the organization who can influence change.

3. As a strong team member, you can’t just be an expert in your discipline—you must now know about other departments. If the finance director wants to know why you aren’t hitting the ticket sales goal, then work with him to develop an understanding of the problem so he/she better understands marketing. Overall knowledge about all departments by the leadership team will promote better understanding and therefore better decision-making. This understanding has to be a two-way street—invite questions. Questioning is liberating and genuine, constructive conflict can be very good. “Artificial Harmony” can destroy an organization.

4. Strive for complete clarity and transparency in the organization.

5. People who get defensive about questioning can inhibit growth and can support a stagnant environment. The idea of running your department as an entity by itself is detrimental—be open about your process, invite questions, work with your peers. They all have different strengths.

6. Maybe some questions we should be asking: What are we doing that is ground-breaking? Are we setting an example for the rest of the country? Are our processes outdated? Are the practices of the American regional theatre outdated? Where are we stagnant? Where are we dynamic?

7. Two to One ratio – you have two ears and one mouth so listen twice as much as you speak.

8. Suggested reading: “Five Dysfunction of Team” and “Death by Meetings” by Patrick Lencioni and “Leading with Limited Authority”

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thinking about creating a blog (Part 2)...

If you are thinking about creating a blog for your organization, there is one thing I cannot stress enough: make sure those who will be contributing content have bought into your idea! I have created a couple of blogs for different organizations, and I must say that I have learned this the hard way. Don't get me wrong. I think that blogging is very effective if done right, but that is a really big IF. Many organizations launch blogs and don't do it right, and when the blog fails they blame it on the ineffectiveness of the technology. Readers of a blog don't want to get hit with your marketing messages! If you try a hard sell technique with every blog, of course your readers are going to start tuning out your blog. You need to offer your readers a reason to read your blog, and a way to do that is to offer exclusive content that they can't get anywhere else. This is the reason that while at Virginia Stage Company, I started to post video clips of rehearsal and "behin...
Read more

Marketing Awareness.

Modern marketers tend to get very excited by ideas of conversation and engagement with customers. Given that they are aware how many images and messages each of us receive every day, they have become less impressed by the more basic aim of generating awareness. This, I think, is why this pun-based campaign has received such criticism from within the advertising world. Some complain that the imitation of Morgan Freeman is a deceitful hijacking of the actor's gravitas while others just deem it trite, shouty advertising disguised as something else. But that is to overlook context. It's an ad for insurance. Insurance stubbornly remains a commodity business where price trumps service because we buy it before we need it. The engagement with the product/service occurs at a time of distress and not at a time of purchase. In a commodity business, awareness is key. You want your customer to have your name come to mind when they consider the purchase. It's brutally simple. A differen...
Read more

Thinking Inside The Box.

Image
A combination self-help and business book, Michael Port's Beyond Booked Solid focusses on scalability issues and how to expand a small enterprise. It is filled with pragmatic tools and techniques designed to grow a business via innovation and leveraged income, but the key message is that of developing a mind-set that works on your rather than in your business. To some extent that's just a reframing of the old adage of keeping one's eye on the big picture, but it's something that can't be repeated too often. Constantly reminding yourself and your colleagues of why you're in business (and specifically what customer needs you meet by doing something better than anyone else) is crucial to evaluating everything that you do day to day. If your marketing tactic du jour, your latest product development or your inter-departmental meeting isn't centred on that, they're not worth your time and resources.
Read more