Cooking Through the Crazy

Managing a project is just like trying out a new recipe. You look over the steps and ingredients, compare what's in your pantry with what needs to be purchased, pick an ideal time to cook, take a deep breath, and get cookin'. But no matter how many times you've reread the recipe and rehearsed it in your head, things don't always go as planned.

You planned to bake some cookies, and someone f*cked up

You can make the most beautiful, elegant, and sophisticated plan, but one screw-up can throw everything into chaos. We work in a human industry (erm..for now), and humans make mistakes. There is a time to point fingers, a time to get angry, and a time to drink the pain away, and that time is not now.

People are going to come to you with tons of questions and nervous energy, and it's critical that you don't add to that negativity. Your job is to calm everyone down and get to the best result as quickly as possible. Nothing calms people down better than letting them know that you have a plan in place.

Sh*t sh*t sh*t the cookies are burnt and the guests are arriving

Let's say somehow a design deliverable was omitted, and a designer is needed to produce something ASAP. Cue the worried slack messages, impromptu meetings, and brick-sh*tting. Every concerned party will naturally gravitate to the person who can fix this situation (in this predicament, let's assume it's the designer). That's not helpful for the designer.

Time for another batch of cookies

As a manager, you need to shield the resource from all the noise, collect yourself, and begin working toward the solution. Brief the designer on the task, get their assessment on the quickest feasible time needed to produce the work to spec, and agree upon a check-in time. Unless the designer wants someone to work with them, let them do their job and do not hover behind them. 

Now convey the plan to other stakeholders. Let them know that additional check-ins will only delay the resource. This is especially true with video editors and programmers, as compiling their project is a time-consuming task itself. If they want the resource to work as expeditiously as possible, they'll need to cool their jets and wait for an update.

Make sure the new batch of cookies aren't burning

It's check-in time, and it's time to figure out if your project is tracking properly, or if the deadline needs to shift. As long as you've got the account team's buy-in with your original timeline and situation, they'll have to understand that the designer is working as quickly as possible, and there isn't a cheat code that will make them work faster. As a print producer once told me, "two women can't have a baby in four and a half months."

Baking cookies isn't always fun

There's an annoying aspect to every person's job: the designer may have to work late, you're dealing with a bunch of stressed out people, and the account manager might have to deal with an angry client. That's the nature of a project that's been red-flagged. However, if you're able to keep the crazy at the gates with good planning and communication, the team will be able to focus on their tasks and to the best job that they can.

Enjoy your hard-earned cookies, figuratively and literally (you deserve a snack).