Know-How Exchange : Career/Training

What a great question! I suspect many/most of us have been there and dealt with a similar dilemma ... but I'll bet very few have actually come up with a real solution.

Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), you've trained your internal customers to expect the fast-turnaround, top-quality solutions that you're now wanting to restrict -- not because you don't want them happy with you, but because there is a systemic decline in quality thinking when you're rushing from fire-drill to fire-drill.

One approach I've used in a similar situation is for YOU to meet with each of the department heads (one-on-one) and explain that you'd like to be able to plan resource requirements and need to understand their likely projects and timing with enough lead-time to make a thoughtful contribution. If you can get them invested in your goal, they might be able to help.

It might also be nice if you can come up with an example of how you could have served them better if you'd had more time ... and explain that this is why you're meeting with them to better anticipate their needs.

mgoodman's answer is excellent, and I too can empathize from my own similar experiences.

I would add one specific tool recommendation: basecamp or zoho projects or a similar online, inexpensive (even free, depending on the number of people), project management system. A spreadsheet is confined to a desktop (usually), but an online system can be more visible--if staffers use the web regularly. It can often be set to send emails for status changes. Beyond that, I would use a whiteboard with a grid to track projects, and show people how many things are going on simultaneously and how many have simultaneous deadlines (marked in red, maybe).

The other important thing to do is start tracking ROI, v isibly, and in a way easy for dept. heads to understand. ROI, of course, includes costs as well as revenue. So you can track hours (at some average of the salaries plus benefits, plus corporate overhead --otherwise known as profit, if you were an independent agency-- say 20%. Not higher, because you are getting services back from the company-- rent, etc.) But this way, you can probably show that some services you're providing are much more valuable to the company than others. (Of course you have to watch out for managers who will say their project has a low ROI only because you're not doing a good job. But if you are prepared for the defensive counterattacks, you can sink that one pretty easily.) Some sacred cows will no doubt be gored, so you may have to see if you can get buy-in from the very top and/or from the most powerful dept. heads first (sales, perhaps?).

Anyway, once you can show different ROI, then you have a fact-based argument for lowering priorities for some things and raising it for others.

One last thought: if you assign man/woman hours to tasks, then you can prepare a pie chart for each week that shows the total number of hours available: 4x45 (granting that you all will work overtime to get the job done) -- and then color in pieces of the pie as each project is added to your plate.

Hope some of this helps!

I aplogize for the length upfront, but with 15+ years of experience, I have learned a lot! I, too, have been in this very spot in the past, and through experience have learned how to do serious multitasking to best utilize staff, vendors, talent, and other departments to help themselves.

A few things I've come to accept: you will have to give up some level of autonomous control over some aspects of what you do. And you will never get everyone in line; different egos, different styles, different personailities all contribute to an organization, and everyone thinks they are the most important "whatever" at the company. So with these two things in mind, here is my shortlist:

Plan, plan, plan, plan, plan. You have to take control, which means initiating those meetings with department heads on at least a monthly basis. (Since your office is small, it could be as easy as taking a walk with your pad and checking in with everyone. I do this at least once a week to stay ahead of the game.) If possible, ask to be included in Executive meetings to find out what big projects are on the horizon. This will give you a heads up for time-consuming "emergency" directives, and also gives you an opportunity to let everyone in the room know what you're doing. Execs tend to do tactical things last-minute, so if you can get the ball rolling ahead of time you'll be driving instead of trying to keep up. Since most of what you do is event-driven, acquire event schedules from everyone, then compile a master event list. This will allow you to see what the busiest times of the years are, enabling you to fill in less busy times with smaller projects, training, or organization.

Streamline what you offer, and automate as much as possible. Create templates for repetative things (flyers, announcements, other creative items that perhaps only require date or venue changes) so the departments can take some of this stuff off your plate. You don't have to design everything in Illustrator or InDesign; using Word is not only accepatble but in an office setting sometimes more convenient. Use technology for database and list management.

Outsource as much as possible, using internal and external resources. Do you have a mailroom? Have them help with direct mail, mail merge, labels, etc. Develop excellent relationships with your vendors! Your printer can also help you with tasks that you couldn't imagine.

Tell everyone, even the CEO, that there is a 2-week lead time on requests. Be firm, be consistent. There is no "ASAP", and there are no special favors. If you happen to delivery ahead of schedule, great, but set the expectation upfront that everything takes 2 weeks. Period. The Excel spreadsheet for open communication is a good idea, but I'd go a step further and move to a huge whiteboard hung where anyone can see it that shows your production schedule; what job, what department, what deadline. It puts a quantifyable and qualitative visual on the volume of requests you are dealing with.

Lastly, build in some "rewards/recognition" money into your budget for your staff. Once a month, or at least once a quarter, treat everyone to lunch or happy hour as a "thank you". You can even invite the CEO, so there's a touchpoint in a more relaxed environment. It may give him/her the opportunity to give that "atta-boy" you guys truly deserve. End of the day, you keep your staff happy and give them praise, they'll keep doing an excellent job for you and create synergy to work as a team. It will alleviate alot of the tactical things you have to do and keep you in a more strategic position. This WILL get you praise, but more importantly down the road more staff and salary and position advancements.

Good luck!

From someone who started as a designer and has worked the opposite route of travel, YES, you do have to put your foot down!
If you're in charge of the department, and you're in charge of your people, then you're in charge of how your departmental time and resources are allocated to assist the needs and wants of everyone else for the best outcome of the organizational goals. Your staff may be adults and professionals, but there's a reason departments have structure and assignments. If everyone just worked on what they wanted, you'd never get anything (or at least the right things) done.