In today’s fast-moving digital, 24/7 business era, we face an entirely new environment for innovation and collaboration. Simply put the best companies are the best collaborators.
Re-Tool marketing follows the old mantra “there is no “I” in team. It sounds cliché but it is fundamental to how our agency and its processes are run. I had a vision when I started RTM that I desired a modest in size but nimble team of strategic thinkers willing to be “all-in”. I also wanted to be able to hand select clients that were looking for the same rich relationship with a healthy dose of “they get me” and the trust that a strategically small but diverse team of change agents could do the work of a larger agency with triple digit staff. In theory that sounds grand, right? In reality it is a much more complex.
Bringing a group of individuals together does innately create barriers to success. People are people after all, and they bring to the table a wide range of personalities, expectations, experience and knowledge. Calling a group of people a team, in other words, doesn’t a team make. Much like the brands we build, finding the correct balance between client and agency interaction takes a great deal of work.
But, at the core, people generally are attracted to people that they like. Which in the brand-building world that I work in every day, developing camaraderie with clients helps motivate and steer the trajectory towards a successful outcome.
It is no joke when I say that it does however take boatloads of collaboration and oodles of patience to see a company, an entrepreneur or start-up brand or re-Brand themselves soup-to-nuts. It is imperative that even before the ink is dry on a contract, that you set aside uninterrupted time with your client (and team) to ensure that everyone is on board and fully understands the scope of work, the timelines, schedules and deadlines that go with it and the objectives of each phase from the get-go. You would think this would be self-evident but I cannot emphasize strongly enough the importance of setting expectations with all parties involved.
Working on projects as a group means sometimes you will have to pick up some slack, or take a step back to let someone else shine, remembering that collectively you all want to reach the same goal.
Issues are bound to arise and if left unaddressed can fester. The best approach is to tackle issues with team members openly working together to brainstorm solutions to problems.
Teamwork does not always come naturally to everyone but with guidance, an established process, and a bit of compromise working harmoniously with clients should be what we always strive for as we generate amazing work product for them.