1. Slide 1: We all know what compromise is and
how it works. It’s the settlement of a dispute.
Mutual concession. But it also means “To
weaken a reputation or accepting a lower
standard.” That’s part of the actual definition.
And in our industry, we’ll often find ourselves
having to compromise. Why is that? And how
do we overcome it?

2. Slide 2: We compromise as the result of three
things. One, we’re constantly being asked to
deliver our work faster than ever before. Two,
our clients, managers, and benefactors want
that work done at decreasing costs. And three,
they want it done a certain way with a very
specific outcome. And so, we must
compromise, either on time, budget
constraints, or the end product itself.

3. Slide 3: It’s impossible to have all three. I refer
to this as the twelve lemon problem.
Remember this movie, the Breakup? She
needs 12 lemons to get the centerpiece done,
but she’s being asked ”why?” Why Jennifer do
you need 12 lemons? Let’s just use the three.”
You don’t get it, I need 12 lemons, Vince! By
the way if Vince is the name of your boss or
client, this analogy works perfectly, doesn’t it?

4. Slide 4
Slide 4: So if we can’t control these demands
in asking us to complete projects faster,
cheaper, all while negotiating on some of that
work, then there’s only really one thing we can
control. And that’s ourselves. How can we
adapt? What do we change to be able to
deliver great work while still having the
opportunity to resources to do so? The
answer, I would argue, is efficiency.

5. Slide 5: Becoming effective and efficient in our
work is key to trying to achieve the balance
between all three when we have no control
over external factors such as cost, timing, and
pre‐determined decisions. Take as an example
the sport of Formula 1 racing. F1 is arguably
the world’s most optimized sport; teams are
obsessed with improving their cars by tenths
of a second.

6. Slide 6: In F1, Efficiencies have to be gained
continually in order to win in this sport. To put
it in perspective, the difference between
fastest lap times are anywhere between one
and three tenths per lap. And when a race is
the over, that difference in the championship
is about 40 million dollars in winnings. Drivers
need to be efficient in their driving in order to
achieve their goal of winning a Grand Prix.

7. Slide 7: Take a look at the heads up display on
the left. F1 drivers using 22 controls from the
steering wheel, some of which include sub‐
menus. Sub‐menus! He shift gears hundreds of
times during a race you can see his fingers
hitting the paddle shifters and adjusts the
brake by using left hand to reach down near
his leg dozens of times. This driver is very
efficient and effective at handling the car.

8. Slide 8: Races entirely aren’t won based on
who’s the fastest driver with the fastest car,
but also teams who the most efficient in
achieving the perfect pit stop to change out a
cars’ tyres. As you can see here, the pit crew
works like clockwork. The footage here is in
ultra slow motion. There’s a specific job for
every individual to do. It takes about 20
mechanics to change out an F1 car’s tyres.

9. Slide 9: Using this as inspiration, we should ask
ourselves: Are we as efficient and effective?
What can we do better? It our team in synch
on this project? Is everyone gaining and
maintaining skills equally to provide the best
outcome possible? It’s rather inspiring to see
how the Infinity Red Bull team works together.
And just as they, we too should commit to
improving, even if marginally, as much as we
can.

10. Slide 11: So, in the F1 example, we
understand that efficiency translates to speed.
Here’s another thought. Build something that
makes you more efficient, a tool to make you
better at what you’re doing. Right now, I’m
using a very cool app that’s designed for 20x20
presentations. Because of it, I’m now more
efficient in delivering my presentation. If you
can build or make something that makes you
more efficient, go for it.

11. Slide 12: Nowadays, automation reduces the
amount of time we have to complete
something. As an example, our team uses
simple but effective automation to clean up
reporting across multiple sources and
hundreds of data points reducing the time to
compile by as much as two days. And we’ve
shifted from static reporting to provide more
insights through interactive dashboards
delivering twice as many insights. We
reinvented our reports.

12. Slide 13: Granted there will continue to be
external factors outside of our control. But
internally, I think we can become more
efficient in trying to understand what could be
driving things such as timing. Skill, scale, and
scope. These can effect both internal and
external factors as well. If one of these clashes
against the other, it essentially creates a
storm. As they say, “when it rains, it pours.”

13. Slide 14: We need to be more effective about
understanding the objective, and not just the
job. What do I mean by that? I mean, do we
see the job as generating awareness through
campaigns, developing advertising, and
building websites? Or do we see an objective
to creating an engaging experience for
customers, ask them to participate, an
building something that’s useful to them.
What’s the objective?

14. Slide 15: When we don’t understand the
objective and only focus on the “job” then you
get checkbox marketing. Ads concepted.
Check. Website built. Check. Banner campaign.
Check. It’s less about doing good or bad work
and more about just going through the
motions. Let’s ask ourselves, is this an
opportunity to develop another campaign, or
to actually provide an new, more engaging
experience that the last?

15. Slide 16: To avoiding checkbox marketing, we
should strive to become more POV‐oriented.
We should always deliver a formal point of
view when we feel we can deliver something
better than the original ask. Lay out the pros
and cons. Show the gives and gets. Help your
client, manager, or benefactor understand
what’s at risk if we don’t slow things down
when the need to. It means showing what we
gain vs. lose by compromising.

16. Slide 17: When fast happens, we tend to react
the same, fast. But when we do, we run the
risk of not paying attention to detail, and
things can slip. To prove my point, I only spend
10 seconds making this very point. So I have
10 seconds left. I slowed it down. Now its just
a little weird while I wait…

17. Slide 18: To summarize, a constant problem
we face is that the industry will continue to
demand more for less, and that really won’t
change. So what do we do about it? Well,
mitigate compromise and become more
efficient. We can become better strategists,
planners, negotiators, and communicators to
achieve balance between the forces driving
timing, cost, and consensus on the output we
create.

18. Slide 19: And so how? Build something to
drive efficiency. Automate and reinvent. Seek
to understand the internal and external
factors. Understand the objective, not just the
job, avoid checkbox marketing, and become
more POV‐focused. These are just a few
things, but important ones that I wanted to
share with you today.

19. Slide 20: Ending with my passion for the sport,
F1 thrives on teams’ obsessions with
becoming more efficient in improving their car.
They look to self‐optimization to produce the
best product, that car, to win championships.
Similarly, when we’re faced by tighter
deadlines and budget constraints, let us work
towards becoming more efficient and
maximize our ability to achieve greatness.
Thank you.