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Personal Development Workshop: Creating Real Solutions |
Facilitator: Ken Lowden, marketing and industry relations manager, DuPont Color Proofing
Conference notes prepared by: Gretchen Kirby, editor-in-chief, Publishing & Production Executive magazine
At a repeat performance of Spectrum 1999's personal development workshop, DuPont's Ken Lowden returned to Spectrum 2000 to continue the exploration of how our industry can scale our common hurdles. Lowden's session consisted of a two-part exercise.
First, he instructed the attendees to gather together in groups of four or five. Each team's first objective was to identify the top five challenges they face in their daily professional lives. The groups put their heads together and within a quick 10-minutes, they were asked to share their list with the others. In a few cases, the teams expressed common concerns with communication (both inside their own companies and with vendors), troubles developing a better understanding of what their colleagues in other departments do and what their challenges might be. Still other teams expressed problems with continuing education and related staffing concerns.
Once each table had a chance to voice their concerns, Lowden instructed them to pass their list on to the table beside them. The recipient table was charged with taking the top item from the list and creating five best practices for solving the problem. Once this second list was prepared, Lowden asked a member from each table to share their solutions with the others. The exercise inspired a lot of dialog and some sympathy, as printers, prepress professionals, ad execs and publishers soon began to realize that many of them face similar challenges, and they were eager for new perspectives on how to solve them.
Nan Gelhard, advertising manager, Summit Racing Equipment, acted as her team's representative and offered several suggestions on bridging the communication gap with the interdepartmental environment of a corporation. Among her table's simple suggestions were to:
1. Hold monthly status meetings at which each department is represented. Here, establish individual department goals and deadlines for each project. Then, follow up with scheduled status meetings, at which time achievements may be announced to the entire team, or, if deadlines are missed, repercussions on other department's responsibilities can be addressed.
2. Create cross-departmental mentorships, whereby staff is scheduled to spend some quality time with members of other departments. For example, it may be very valuable at a publication to have sales reps spend some time with production, to get a better understanding of what happens when an advertiser misses its materials deadlines.
3. Forego the finger-pointing; it's a waste of valuable time. When every member of the team doesn't have a good appreciation for his/her teammates' daily responsibilities, it's easy to get carried away with finger-pointing when something goes awry. Instead, trust your teammates, and assume they're doing their jobs to the best of their ability.
In closing, Lowden suggested that simple solutions, like those suggest by Gelhard, can often solve very complicated problems. He encouraged the Spectrum crowd to consider sharing this exercise with others within their organization, for it may first help them to identify their problems, and secondly, to embark on a strategy to attain their common goals.
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