"how to werk: tips from collaboration experts.", a dosage collaboration project

How to Werk Tips from Expert Collaborators

Werking is different than working. Werking is the idea that crea3ve, smart and diverse teams can collaborate in the true spirit of “we” — as in “we can do this,” “we’ll help each other out,” “we’ll explore different points of view,” “we’re genuinely interested in collabora3ng” and “we’ll make being together enjoyable.”

Werking isn’t easy though. In fact, we’ve built a consultancy business around helping brand-‐led marke3ng and communica3on agency teams make the transi3on from working to werking. We’ve even created proprietary tools and techniques to help them werk through marke3ng, brand and communica3on challenges with rigor, crea3vity and fun.

During our ten years we’ve collaborated with many expert werkers. We asked them for their top 3ps on how to werk. On the following pages you’ll find what they suggest.

We hope what follows will help you take the first step to become an effec3ve werker too. Do spread this around. The world of marke3ng needs more werkers.

ScoK Lukas Dosage

Ownership. Make sure people have real ownership. That their voice will be heard -‐ and that the buck stops with them on various projects.

Financial Reward. Share the money around the team – make sure it isn't just the top dogs don't get all the money.

Clarity. Make sure everyone knows what is expected of them.

Support. Make sure everyone has the support they need to do the job.

Sally Jones Founder Tangerine

“How to Werk” is a DOSAGE collaboration project. www.dosageconsulting.com

Have a neutral facilitator with no invested interest in the outcome of the mee3ng other than running it. Can be a person from outside or someone at work, not involved with the project.

Agree on sharing credit if it's a mul3-‐agency team before the mee3ng.

Make sure that there are only people who will contribute in the mee3ng, no one can be quiet.

Listen first and talk later.

Be 75% certain of your viewpoint and 25% open to change your mind.

Calle Sjoenell Executive Creative Director

BBH


Before you even ideate, enable mul3discipline aKendance at consumer qualita3ve into the culture and lifestyle of the consumer -‐ whereby the whole team is exposed to how the category and communica3ons in general fit into the lives of the consumers . That way, all ideas that flow are informed by commonly-‐witnessed observa3ons, insights they understand the context around and real people whose lives they got to peek into.

And/or – alongside s3mulus that is mind-‐opening for the category, expose whole team to a cultural and psychological analysis of the content and lifestyle preferences of the consumer -‐ it makes teams think less about the medium or discipline they are a specialist in and helps them ideate around a cultural thought, service or type of content that is likely to be mo3va3ng to the consumer and executed in tune (or stretch) for brand equity.

To avoid wasted 3me in me-‐too ideas, encourage discipline specialists to share their verdict on what is going on execu3onally in their area upfront -‐ what is possible, what is ge\ng 3red, what is cool but imprac3cal for our consumer target, what is under-‐exploited that’s been around for a while, what’s going on in other categories (commentary: too many 3mes you get every discipline wan3ng to be the expert on the category/consumer and be the most strategic person in the room instead of truly represen3ng their specialism for the benefit of the group. Digital is the obvious example of this, but I think the same holds true for PR, broadcast, print, experien3al, customer service etc.)

Nicole Belmont Network Partner, Aegis Media Jumptank


Stay posi8ve. Few things temper enthusiasm more quickly than nega3vity. If you really want to make a collabora3on work, you'll need to do your part to create a posi3ve, suppor3ve, nurturing environment where op3mism and good will abound.

Use tact. Express your honest opinions and concerns, but do so with sensi3vity and good judgment, considering the other person's feelings. Always think before you speak, and you'll find it much easier to maintain your dignity-‐-‐as well as the other person's.

Listen. Don't assume you know what the other person plans to say. Rather than interrup3ng, allow the person to finish speaking before you reply. Make sure you understand what the person is actually saying; and if you aren't sure, ask ques3ons to clarify

Respect other people's ideas. And respect their right to their opinions-‐-‐even when they differ from your own. When you deal with other people, there will always be 3mes when you'll need to "agree to disagree." This is a fact of life if you hope to get along. Being willing to do this shows other people that you respect them, even though you may not always agree.

Work toward win-‐win situa8ons and solu8ons. Instead of trying to "one-‐up" the other person, seek common ground. Make suppor3ve sugges3ons and play up the points on which you agree. Rather than focusing on problems, be solu3on-‐oriented.

Recognize the other person's value. Appreciate each person's poten3al contribu3on to the collabora3on. By acknowledging each individual's unique talent and what it offers the team, you'll find it easier to work together toward a common goal.

Be flexible. Rigid ideas and a\tudes rarely work when aKemp3ng to build collabora3on. Try looking at things in new ways. Demonstrate your flexibility by willingly acknowledging a colleague's ideas and seriously considering their merit, rather than stubbornly defending your own ideas. This will help show the people with whom you work that you're eager to make the collabora3on successful.

Indraneel ghosh Vice President

Mumbai Lowe -India


Answer the following ques3ons in advance.

WHY should we work together?

WHAT should we do together?

WHO should do what?

HOW should we work together?

Establish a common vocabulary, many 3mes we get "lost in transla3on,” words and defini3ons can have a slightly different meaning for every member of a mul3-‐agency team.

Create a project-‐related team-‐hierarchy if it is necessary, don't allow the established hierarchies to kick-‐in (Saatchi's R.A.S.C.I is a good tool, RESPONSIBLE, APPROVAL,SUPPORT, CONSULT, INFORM).

Antonis Kocheilas Managing Partner

LOWE Athens


Focus on the business challenge — Nothing is beKer for breaking down silos than to cast aKen3on first to the big problem. Too oien collabora3on breaks down because we bring our own baggage (e.g. our own exper3se) to the party. Try to push people to forget being planners, crea3ves, digital media experts and ask themselves what they would do if they were running the company or managing the brand? What are the barriers to growth? Then you may find a series of small solu3ons can begin to work.

Make teams small, nimble and accountable — Sociologists have documented studies of social behavior where people among a crowd do not take ac3on to help someone in distress. But when they’re on their own, it’s a different story. Big groups spell lots of bad things for true collabora3on. People don’t feel accountable. Or they get frustrated at the lack of tangible progress. Small teams that are tasked with goals and encouraged by management to perform are only the way to go. If you have a big hairy problem, break it down into some groups and let people fly.

Remove the constraints of 3me — Extra 3me isn’t always beKer, crea3vely speaking. Look at how fast journalists need to work. So set yourself deadlines. For example, right aier a briefing get your team together and give yourself fiiy minutes to crack the brief. Everyone should have a go at the insight, not just the planner. And very quickly stress test the insight by genera3ng a series of tac3cs around it, by thinking of how the customer experiences the brand from considera3on, to usage to referral. I’m a big fan of the :50 mee3ng. Then I have :10 minutes to go get coffee.

John Gerzema Chief Insights Officer of Young & Rubicam and Author of “Spend Shift:

How the Post Crisis Values Revolution is Changing The Way We Buy, Sell and Live”


Have a touchstone in every mee3ng that defines boundaries and goals. Review it at the start and evaluate output against it. Don’t assume that it’s ingrained.

Do your best to know the people who will be part of the process (and their behaviors and personali3es) and make it a priority to be the navigator who will pull the best out of each personality. This requires finesse but someone’s got to do it; you don’t want to look back and admit a collabora3on failed because of Personality X or Behavior Y.

Iden3fy at its most basic level the kind of problem or opportunity you’re facing and, early on, ask everyone to offer an anecdote, even if not directly related to the task at hand. It begins the process by shedding some light on each par3cipant as a person, and at best gets people focused on the heart of the issue rather than symptoms or distracters.

This may sound simple, but ensure the process provides a fair amount of 3me for every key stage. Don’t spend four months developing strategy to reinvent or disrupt, then give crea3ve professionals a week to deliver an equally thoughmul expression of the strategy.

Brian Avenius VP, Marketing , Wireless Generation


Have a financial structure in place that equally rewards all or is something that is perceived as fair by all.

Make sure the financial structure is clear to all and easily implemented.

Have a clearly agreed superordinate goal. Ensure that if people are not mo3vated by money but fame, that by working together there is the best chance of fame. Clarify an objec3ve to work behind.

Top Hat system -‐ Ensure all par3es work together by thinking at least for a few moments about other party issues (see Edward de Bono 'Top Hat System.’)

Managing personali3es -‐ Have a clearly defined repor3ng structure, 3meframe and deliverables (issues of money and fame should be covered in the above).

Stuart Parkin


In my experience there are five key hallmarks of high performance partnerships:

Does the team share a common and compelling vision that they all believe in?

Is the leadership -‐ the core four to five members of the team constructed in a way that will support that vision (diversity of skills if that is important, common personality traits if that is important, etc.)?

Is there a process that is well defined as to how a par3cular problem will be solved, who is on point for what aspects, clear 3meline and accountability against all of this?

Is there frequent, clear communica3on from both the team leader and within the partners that is facilita3ng project management?

Are there well understood, commonly held metrics for success that will be used to determine the how well or how poorly the partnership or collabora3on worked against a par3cular problem of project?

In addi3on to this I think it is oien easy for geographically dispersed teams to fall prey to "listening to corporate/NY/the boss". If a team is geographically dispersed it is also incumbent upon the leaders to engage the teams (physically not just through email, messaging or Facebook) and to display the proper level of sensi3vity to cultures or personality types that may be easily subordinated but have tremendous amounts to contribute.

Jeffrey Wilks Marketing Consultant


Set the vision and get buy-‐in to that up front. Con3nue to work to the vision and when conflict arises, ask how it serves the vision.

Set rules of engagement: This is how we'll work (e.g., "park ego at the door"; "don't interrupt") and then if there are conflicts, this is how they will get resolved.

Post the rules and call people out if they don't follow them. Do this with humor!

Ensure everyone has accountability and will be evaluated by their contribu3ons to the team.

Use tools, etc. that allow everyone do have a voice and then move to a "building" consensus -‐-‐not lowest common denominator.

Develop and adhere to set working procedures, e.g., weekly mee3ngs, updates, etc.

Celebrate milestones within the project.

Marcie Anthone Director Marketing Communications Capabilities Development, The Coca-Cola Company


Stay in contact with your partner companies. Keep abreast of what they are doing and how they may be evolving their capabili3es so you will be up to speed when recommending them to one of your clients.

Agree on who will lead the project from the beginning. When we pull a partner company in, we generally manage the project throughout. If it's the other way around, they take the lead.

Always support your partners. We had a situa3on recently where a client had a problem with one of our partners and wanted to drop them. We got them together and worked it out.

Beware of loose canons. There are 3mes when team members can go off on their own without building consensus. The team must s3ck together and present a uniform front at all 3mes.

Be diligent about establishing a schedule for comple3ng the work, with milestones and deadlines set. Working with one or more partner companies can be chao3c. You must establish order from the start.

Tony Gomes Co-Founder

Our Man in Havana


If it's crea3ve output you are seeking, only allow crea3ves in the room. They cannot help but try to come up with great stuff and will build on each others ideas regardless where it comes from. It is what they do.

Stop using words like "integra3on" if what you really mean to say is "wait un3l we have produced the TVCs and then plop them into other channels", as that is NOT integra3on. Instead create your concepts as if you were crea3ng a TV series. Tell a story and let the brand be a relevant character. Good ideas integrate naturally. Bad ideas don't.

There is this story of an old, experienced theater director walking onto a stage where a novice director was supposed to be conduc3ng a rehearsal. But he just sat there, on the edge of the stage while the actors were idling around in the background, wai3ng for direc3on. “I don’t know where to start”, said the young director. The more experienced director answered, “Do something, so you have something to change”.

Fredrik Carlstrom Great Works

Americas CEO & Executive Creative Director


Embrace Humility. Ask each par3cipant -‐ "How would you approach this mee3ng if you knew you were the dumbest person in the room?" This helps re-‐frame their perspec3ve that 1) I don't expect them to have all the answers and 2) they will learn more from the others than they will teach others.

Pre-‐hearse the Mee3ng. Understand what expecta3ons par3cipants have and then re-‐frame or re-‐direct the expecta3ons towards the collabora3on goal. This step conversa3on uncovers and resolves any exis3ng issues, so our focus is collabora3on, not personal agendas.

Assign Tasks in Advance. Assigning tasks in advance of the session, primes our day for break-‐throughs and gets the par3cipants have some "sweat equity" and personal ownership in the collabora3on session.

Michael Scott, President, FOURTH ELEMENT


Don’t try to combine informa3on intake and idea genera3on. Brief everyone thoroughly before the collabora3ve session, and then allow 3me for the briefing to sink in and ques3ons to percolate before regrouping everyone.

Remove in3mida3ng bosses. This can make for delicate conversa3ons, but you’re not going to get good stuff out of people who are scared to speak up.

Call out the elephant in the room. If people are disagreeing, acknowledge it right away and figure out what the root of the disagreement is. If the product you’re discussing is a dud, talk about why everyone is having trouble ge\ng excited about it before the en3re session is a bust. Usually this role will fall to a clearly iden3fied mee3ng moderator who has tremendous interpersonal communica3ons skills.

An opinion is the price of entry. Resist the urge to fill the room with those who just listen in and don’t contribute.

Lisa Seward Perry Owner, Mod Communications, a connection planning consultancy.


It is important to foster cross-‐fer3liza3on of knowledge In a global organiza3on. We cannot always have the opportunity to see our counterparts face to face. We must think of ways we can con3nue this sharing despite the distance so we are on an equal foo3ng in terms of knowledge and skills, avoiding duplica3ve research and facilita3ng use of best approaches and prac3ces. This needs to happen not only on corporate strategic projects but also on all product category projects.

As basic as it sounds, the art of scheduling regular status mee3ng with counterparts ensures that you maintain a good rela3onship with each so when you do have project specific mee3ngs you are that much more ready to move forward.

Focus on cul3va3ng both the whole team and the func3onal parts – Establishing a sense of func3onal iden3ty and belonging is key to the success of the individuals in any organiza3on. Events like annual summits or quarterly department knowledge sharing foster collegiality, a feeling that we are all part of the same challenges and if we support each other as people first and equally importantly as market researchers we can overcome hurdles; create a sense of organiza3onal pride.

A team united in common corporate goals and language are much beKer suited for success. This is especially true if func3onal collabora3on is also encouraged to ensure each individual has a beKer sense of how best to add value to the broader group discussion and able to operate with confidence as a func3onal expert.

Timothy Stoops Senior Market

Insights Manager Samsung


The most important ingredient of a successful collabora3on is to have one agency lead the group from a branding perspec3ve. In that regard there should be a very well outlined brand posi3on, personality, aKributes, benefits, values and driver for everyone to follow. This happens very rarely in my experience, so the consumer becomes more confused the more they experience the brand, because it is different at every touchpoint created by different agencies.

Regular mee3ngs with all stakeholders need to take place to get the brand posi3oning correct as the communica3ons plan evolves from the planning stage to the execu3onal stage.

Con3nuous brainstorming mee3ngs with all par3es needs to take place aier the execu3onal stage is complete to ensure the brand remains fresh and relevant across all plamorms.

Orson Munn CEO

Munn Rabot


Don't pad the team. While it's oien necessary to have mul3ple people involved in projects, don't add people who are unnecessary to the process. The bigger the team the slower it is to make decisions and the costlier it is to produce a project.

Keep mee3ngs short and to a minimum. Mee3ngs are a wasteful use of everyone's 3me unless clear goals are set beforehand and ac3onable items are iden3fied during the mee3ng.

Project management tools like Basecamp are super useful for big teams. Email chains clog inboxes. A centralized repository of all informa3on keeps everyone in the loop at all 3mes.

Pay people when you say you're going to pay them. There's enough complexity coordina3ng mul3-‐agency teams to add worries about 3mely payment to the mix. This adds distrust to rela3onships, and keeps people from being fully invested to projects.

Don't spend too much 3me talking about what needs to be done. Start producing tangible work that the team can comment on as early as possible in the project lifecycle.

Deroy Peraza, Principal + Creative Director, Hyperakt


Collabora3on is built on trust.

Collabora3on is built on a specific value and need.

Collabora3on is built on established company prac3ces. If a company does not foster an ethical environment, collabora3on will be difficult to implement.

Kevin Amter Founder \ Creative Director

Department 99


Get everybody together early, work for a bit, and then make sure the en3re team gets drunk together, and that no-‐one can leave the party early. Avoid fancy restaurants and strip clubs.

Don’t discuss subject maKer over email and avoid teleconferences before the main problems are solved.

Define “good” as a team. For example, work out the team’s shared top 3 examples relevant to the project.

Avoid saying “I don’t agree” un3l trust in the group is solid – instead use “I don’t understand”.

Have each na3onality/company talk for 5 minutes on the preconcep3ons about their culture/corporate culture.

Oscar Erlandsson, Digital Strategy Director, Lowe Brindfors


Business-‐storm don't brainstorm If marke3ng is about driving business value, then every idea we develop has to be in service of the business problem. Period. Are we looking to get on poten3al customers' shopping lists? Get exis3ng customers to buy us more oien? Or, get loyalists to recommend us? Forensically analyze the cri3cal behaviors that you need to influence through the customer journey and apply your crea3vity against these. It will yield much sharper ideas than loosely defined challenges..

Leave egos at the door In this new world order there is no room for old legacy models of hierarchy around who has the right to conceive the "big idea". Today's big ideas are as likely to be tac3cal as they are strategic. So, relish having new skills at the table like digital technologists and social media specialists, and enjoy true collabora3on. This is the new fron3er and we need new kinds of teams to create the pathways.

Everything is marke8ng. Everyone is marke8ng. In this era of "the social brand" a much broader range stakeholders within companies and their agencies are now having conversa3ons with customers. So, it’s 3me to think more broadly about who we invite to the marke3ng table. What about the PR department, customer service representa3ves, or product developers?

Equally, we need to think more broadly about what are marke3ng channels. In a nutshell, they can now be absolutely anything we want them to be....from paid, to earned to owned and, used in ever more interes3ng combina3ons.

Maria McHugh Y&R

New York


Collabora3on, like a brainstorm, can always benefit from a liKle structure -‐ know your goals, get to know your collaborators, try and create an environment that's conducive to sharing ideas.

To be a good collaborator you need to believe in the magic that can happen when people get together to think imagina3vely about a problem rather than trying to figure something out by oneself.

Don't underes3mate the importance of being a good listener, and being able to keep discussion from ge\ng too personal or emo3onal.

Natasha Jakubowski, Innovation Director, Anomaly


Keep in mind that it is important to share their vision with the en3re team and invite par3cipa3on to shape that vision together.

Strive to find digital renaissance people who can use their mul3-‐talents to innovate, collaborate and improvise when necessary. We call them M-‐Shaped People.

Diversity. Loyalty. Trust. These are three necessary ingredients that collabora3on needs to thrive.

Thinking is a quiet solitary process… yet a form of procras3na3on. Idea3on is different. Idea3on is a naturally collabora3ve process, in which you run ideas past one another, or work together to find them, and respond with excitement to other people’s ideas.

Embrace Failure Together.

Bernard Urban, President, Gigantic (Digital Marketing), Founder, BrandFlux (Brand Collaboration Platform) Victoria Else, Director of Strategic Services, Gigantic


Make the mee3ng more than one hour. Three hours is beKer. A full day is best.

Mix up the teams. Don’t allow people to “gheKoize” inside or outside the mee3ng. Sit planners near crea3ves.

Make sure people know each other outside the room. Make them be Facebook friends. Have lunches.

No assholes. Don’t allow in3mida3on or shou3ng.

Collaborate from the very beginning and aier the mee3ng too. Start a posterous blog where people can post ideas, briefs, things they found interes3ng, etc. Make Collabora3on a lifestyle.

Tom Christmann Executive Creative

Director JWT


Relocate. It's easier to collaborate when you're not on one or the other's turf. And it's beKer when everything around you is about engagement. Inspira3on. Passion. Try brainstorming for a car ad campaign at a car rally. Neutral territory has its place, but it's not always what gets the juices flowing. When you're collabora3ng it's crucial to be open and to not shut down people who might otherwise censor themselves. Take a lesson from Second City improv group: no maKer how oueat or weird the idea, ban the word "No." Instead insist people say "YES, AND..." to every idea. Tell them to go with it. Build on it. Nothing should be rejected out of hand. There aren't just diamonds in the rough. There are diamonds EVERYWHERE.

Very few tough problems are solved overnight. But some3mes 'overnight' is what's needed to get the juices flowing. The best collabora3on session I ever had was a two day offsite. Maybe there's something in the idea of being away from it all, but day one was preKy much a waste. Day two was the total opposite. Was it that we all 'slept on it'? Don't know. But it worked.

Troy Torrison New York based

Freelance Copywriter and

Creative Director


Liberate yourself from your discipline and muscle memory, and from the tyranny of self-‐interest, selfish financial reward and siloed manufacturing output.

Remember the Hawthorne Effect (hKp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_effect). Being invited into the process is as meaningful as contribu3ng to it.

Invite all stakeholders -‐-‐ internal and external -‐-‐ into the process very early.

No si\ng on the fence.

Listen.

Push for priori3za3on of tasks -‐-‐ you cannot do everything on your wish list! Then remember it’s about ge\ng it done. Build an inclusive but clear plan. The 99% rule.

Paul Woolmington Founding Partner

Naked Communications


Stay in touch

We are a consultancy that focuses on how modern marketers collaborate to coordinate their crea3vity. We specialize in making highly talented and diverse teams of marketers more produc3ve, crea3ve and aligned.

Our exper3se comes from researching, designing, tes3ng, using and training strategic tools and processes. We have worked with both marketers and agency teams in over 20 countries.

We do this predominately in facilitated workshops as we believe it is the most effec3ve and efficient way to harness the collec3ve imagina3on and decision-‐making powers of teams. Our services include facilita3on, process engineering, brand strategy, innova3on and communica3ons consul3ng, strategic toolkit crea3on and talent development.

Contact ScoK Lukas, Founder [email protected] +1 212 785 0989 Say hi if you are in New York City.

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