Bucket theory

Editor's Notes

1. Into – me ? Audience – “How many of you are officially in Marketing or BD roles” ? Audience – “How many of you have had a recent change in M&BD” How I ended up in Marketing and Business Development (5 people M&BD people in 10 years) My background (KSA & OWP) Everyone is a marketer! And everyone has a skillset of value to your organization from an M or BD perspective.
2. M & B D
3. I prefer to say “M&BD&D” When done right – they are all integral parts of the same thing. Our work is an integral part of our brand identity – our brand identify is an intrinsic part of the work we do, and we can’t do great work if we cant win the opportunity to do it. ? Audience: What is a brand” – it’s what OTHER people say you are. Think about iconic organizations. There is no delineation between what they do, and how they are perceived. The ARE their brand. Who we are (as designers), and why we do what we do cannot be separated from the work we do, and how we tell our story.
4. So why do we relegate M&BD to one or two people or a misunderstood and underappreciated department. Everyone is a marketer Not just these guys.
5. And the secret to great A&D marketing is our people. We know WHY. Our people are amazing. They are our ambassadors. Every day. With our clients. With our partners. With our community. But how do we empower them. What skills can they share with us. When should they take the lead. Our discussion today will hopefully show you an approach that you can adopt to your needs.
6. So everyone says these words, but what do they really mean. Half the people in our organizations don’t know the difference. Most of those who think they do – probably have it wrong. Do you? ? Audience: “How would you define these words” M = proposals, websites, brochures BD = golf and gifts On the surface you are right. But there is sooo much more underneath if you are willing to see it.
7. Imagine there were a grand theater hosting an amazing concert/show etc… To really make an impact you need a great story, a compelling act, and engaging performance – something worth seeing. Marketing is the act of creating and telling that amazing story. Its how you share who you are and what you are about. It is the story of WHY you have been put on this planet, and the amazing things you – and you alone - are here to do.
8. You need a great story And you need an engaged audience Waiting - with baited breath for the development of each act, anticipating every lyric. Business Development is the act of filling the house with an engaged and participatory audience. Key word – engaged! These people WANT to be there
9. Marketing tells your story Business development fills the seats – not just with anyone – but with loyal, rabid fans. Imagine that same great show with an empty audience, or one filled with disinterested people. Imagine the disappointment of a packed house - with a show not worth watching. Yes – marketing is websites and proposals – but it is also about crafting a compelling story around who you are. Yes – BD involves golf and gifts – but it is really about building POWERFUL PERSONAL relationships with PEOPLE who respect and understand you – who want to see you succeed or be a part of that success. And often it is much more about giving than it is about receiving.
10. The key in achieving this is your people. In your firm right now is an amazing group of people who are serving your clients, and doing amazing work What better spokespeople can you possibly have for passionately telling your story! Start there. Engage your team in telling that story…THEIR story. Even some of the most introverted among us, can become passionate story tellers when we are sharing what motivates us and the “WHY” of what we do.   You may have some staff who are good writers, some who are graphically talented, or involved in social media Involve these people in your marketing.   You may have some staff who are great with people, some with extended networks through civic organizations, clubs, etc… Involve these people in your business development.   But how much time should they devote to this? They have “real jobs” right?
11. So that brings us to the bucket theory. It’s a really hokey analogy – but a very easy one to remember and to convey to others in your own organization - something we can all relate to.
12. What if I told you there was a fire in the center of this room that we needed to put out. That’s our job, our mission, our purpose…it’s the work we have been tasked to do. Down the hall we have a source of water And some buckets Which is more important ….. if you could only do one task. Filling the buckets – or carrying the water. ? Audience: So that’s a false choice. We cannot do one without the other They are both equally important We can’t get the water to the fire without carrying, and we can’t carry without filling So we need a little help. We can’t do this all by ourselves! As M&BD it is our job to fill that pipeline – to keep the water flowing continuously. It is the job of our organization to carry that water – to do the work that supports our clients and extinguishes their challenges.
13. But here is the problem that we tend to see (especially for us small firm guys). We are never going to get anywhere running back and forth – to and from the fire and the water down the hall. The room will burn down before we've made two trips. We should all see this as a somewhat familiar cycle in our own businesses. We go after a project and it gets awarded We move all our resources to getting it done. By the time we get it out the door, we realize we have no backlog. So we focus all our attention to getting the next big project. Etc….. We undulate through this cycle of finding work, doing work, and finding work again. Its really inefficient. We need to flatten this pipeline, to take out the crests and valleys and ensure a steady stream of potential projects.
14. This is why we need as many people engaged in the process as possible, because one person – or even one department (no matter how large) cannot effectively tell our story as well as we can when everyone is a part of the process.   To fill our pipeline… we need a bucket brigade Lots of hands, working in concert, filling the void when projects START to slow, so that we are never at a point where we have little or no work to do.
15. But even better – maintaining consistent involvement every day – so it is less about switching gears between Design and M&BD, but rather just becoming a regular part of what you and everyone in your organization already do. It’s not either or. It’s Both And.
16. EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENS IN YOUR COMPANY EVERY HOUR SPENT IN EVERY DAY BY EVERY PERSON Should either be related to carrying water - or filling buckets This does not mean you can’t have fun It does not mean that you have to overwork your people. It does mean that you have to put intentionality behind how you spend your time.
17. It means that you give purpose to every activity. Purpose towards serving your clients. Purpose towards how each action assists in telling your story, or building strong relationships with your community, clients, and partners.
18. Purpose Mission Passion If your organization does not have a MISSION to fulfill to which you can point everything you do. In the new economy - You will be left behind. We are in the early stages of a NEW generation driven by purpose. This does not just mean the millennials you are hiring TODAY – it means the CLIENTS you are serving tomorrow.   Think of all the activities that occur in the life of one of your team members – regardless of whether you traditionally consider those activities productive and unproductive. (Billable/Non-Billable) Embrace those things BUT find a way to give them purpose for your organization – make them align with your story – make them reinforce your brand. If you embrace this concept - and implement it well – very few activities become TRULY unproductive.
19. So I told you there are only two things anyone should be doing at anytime   Filling buckets – or carrying them. There is one exception however. Professional Development.   Building bigger and better buckets.
20. Bigger better buckets put out bigger and more meaningful fires. Professional development for your team, and for your organization with make you more efficient, it will make you knowledge leaders, it will give more meaning and purpose to your team. Most importantly it opens doors to bigger clients with more challenging problems. You want to change the world – how do you plan on doing that without a team of “world changers”
21. Why bucket size matters.   The bigger the bucket - the more value it brings. Smaller buckets bring diminishing value.   This is one of the most important parts of this presentation. It is easy to agree that we should involve more people in M&BD for the reasons I mentioned. But how do we know how to utilize our team in this process, where should we involve them, and how often? So for the purpose of our analogy A highly profitable role, project, or client is a big bucket! A less profitable one is a small bucket. Apply this concept to people, projects, contracts, clients, etc… When given the choice of which one to carry – (assuming we have the choice) we should always default to the big one. Right? So you start by aligning all your big buckets. Then you fill in with small ones. BUT MOST IMPORTANTLYKeep in mind that what may be a big bucket for one team member - may be a small one for another. That all depends on the cost structure, productivity, and billing rates of your individual team members and their projects. A junior member of your team, and a senior member have very different costs to your organization. If they are equally capable of performing a particular task – which one should you assign it to ?????? We know the answer to that question without me saying it. SO, Instead of allowing a senior member of your organization to take on a small bucket task, perhaps they are better off utilizing that time to engage in an M&BD opportunity, while the junior member carries the big bucket. Similarly, An project that presents you with limited strategic advantages, or poor profit margins is a small bucket. Perhaps you are better off utilizing your time seeking different opportunities. A.G. Laffley would call it making a “Where to play, and how to win” decision. (If time permits tell story of Gillette and Indian Shaving Market)
22. The only thing worse than a small bucket is a leaky bucket.   When senior leadership get over involved in project work – they are not just carrying small buckets, but are likely carrying leaky buckets. All it takes is for them to spend too much time on a project with low billing rates. Potentially costing you money on every task they perform –assuming it is a task which could more cost effectively performed by someone else.   SO let’s make the better use of their time, their knowledge, their resources, network, connections, and experience.
23. The time we spend working on projects in our organizations (billing to our clients) is ONE of the most critical things we do. It serves our clients – it achieves our mission. But as we discussed before you can only be productive if you have work to do. You can only carry buckets, if someone is filling them. Which means we have to understand our productivity, we have to understand our costs, and we have to leverage the time of our most senior team members for the most effective purpose. Sometimes that means being designers, sometimes that means being marketers and business developers. And we have to allocate that time according to the leverage an individual brings to the table. How many of you have productivity goals for your team members. Anyone want to offer theirs? ? Audience: Productivity goals In my previous firm we eventually landed at a model that averaged 80% mean productivity across the company. As individuals some team members with roles on-site with our client had goals around 95%. Others, with various leadership or management responsibilities had lower goals. Ultimately we asked our principals to do no more than 50%, some as little as 25%. When I started there we had no tool for measuring productivity or establishing accountability – beyond trying to cram in as many billable hours per person as possible.   People simply worked when things came in the door, and complained that they had nothing to do when things got slow. If we were lucky we could scrounge up a new project to fill a void when one came along – otherwise people would do filing, or clean the library. But as I started looking at this in more detail, I discovered something. When things got slow - The people with the least billable hours were the most junior members of the organization. The people with the most billable hours were the most senior members of the organization -they were cranking out 100% plus productivity, but leaving their team with little to do.   This was regardless of who was better suited for the task!!!!!!!!!! The senior team members, who typically controlled how projects were delegated, were acting as project managers and designers (the things they were most comfortable with) as opposed to delegating those tasks and leaving themselves the more difficult tasks of leadership and business development. Can anyone tell me the problem they see here? Young team members don’t learn and grow…. Yep. Senior team members aren’t out leveraging relationships….Exactly The biggest problem – we were bleeding money in terms of individual project profitability – and not utilizing our time wisely to grow our backlog.   For us this was a cultural challenge, - but I needed to put $$$ on it to get the point across., Once you know Which team members cost you the least in relationship to their billing rate And which team members cost you the most…   Does it make sense for your least cost effective employees to be doing all the work while your most cost effective ones, and the ones (typically) with the least M&BD leverage are left doing little to nothing?   Or is it better to delegate as much work as possible to your most profitable positions… while leveraging the connections and expertise of your senior members? Does it make sense to spend your time in M&BD chasing projects with low profitability, or low probability of award? Or is it better to issue fewer, better proposals, for more profitable projects? Has anyone here calculated your indirect multiplier?   EXAMPLE math (3.0 assumes profit margin built in) (Operating revenue / direct labor) 100,000 Salary x3 = 300000 / 2080 $48.00 Actual - $144.00 w/multiplier40,000 Salary x 3 = 120000 / 2080 $19.00 Actual - $57.69 w/ Mult.   While it will be important to involve your entire team in M&BD You will want to engage them at different levels and amounts of time. The more senior you are to the organization, the more likely it is that you have the network to engage your community in a meaningful way – creating lasting and insightful relationships.   As well the more senior you are the more likely it is that your experience can help to craft the most compelling story – to have some value to bring to the conversation about why your firm is important and why you are the best as serving your clients. In my previous firm we needed to reverse our equation – junior team members were asked to step up, take on larger and more important projects – while also engaging in as many community events – or “storytelling” projects as possible by posting on our blog, tagging our social media sites, creating graphics for collateral. But their involvement in M&BD would be the least time commitment.as we looked to more senior members – their M&BD involvement would grow and increase – along with their experience or position. The most senior team members would delegate more of their work (stop carrying small or leaky buckets), and utilize their remaining time leveraging their network and experience.
24. Individual empowerment.   If you are going to involve your team in M&BD, handholding them through this process is going to be really painful. You don’t have the time for that.   You need to give them a way to be self motivated and driven - and to make empowered decisions on how they can help the company.   Anyone run a social media campaign? Do any of you allow your team to post – or is it filtered and controlled. What a giant pain in the ass - and waste of time…… I don’t say that to diminish the importance of monitoring your content or making sure it is “on brand” – but an effective campaign cannot be micromanaged. You have to give your people the tools to engage with freedom and purpose!   So I have found a tool to help with this, and with empowering anyone in your organization at any level and in any capacity.
25. I call this the Empowered Decisionmaking Matrix On one axis we have Accountability (Y Vert) - the ability to own something and take responsibility for it. On the other Authority (X Horiz) – the ability to make a decision within organizational protocols or hierarchy. The biggest quadrant I call “Run With It” These are the things that your team should feel empowered to take on at any time. It is within their level of personal accountability and authority to make the decision.   The second is “Build a Team” This is something that requires no specific authority to approve, but is too large for them to solely be responsible for it – they need to share the accountability in order to get it done – they need to build a team and get others involved.   The third is to “Proceed with Approval” – This is something that they are fully willing to be accountable for – they will take responsibility to get it done, but it is outside of their authority to make the decision for. They need to get some level of organizational approval. They have an idea – they will get it done, they just need to run it up the chain first.   The final quadrant is to “seek a higher power” This does not mean to pray that the problem solves itself. It does mean that the issue is too big for someone to take the accountability to get it done, and is outside of their authority. They have identified a problem, they have a potential solution, they need to run it up the chain of command, and if approved, a much larger part of the organization with take responsibility for implementing it.   A couple examples.   At KSA we became deeply involved in promoting wellness within our organization and with our clients. One of our team members determined that there was a marketing and business dev. opportunity here – if we could find a way to truly live what we preached – to tell our story – and to involve our clients.   They began by instituting a 10 min exercise break at lunch time within our main office – where the whole company would stop what they were doing and join in a quick routine of dips, lunges, arm circles, burpees, whatever. It became hugely popular - and eventually grew to multiple scheduled breaks per day and even invites for our clients to attend. This began as a “Run With It”. One of our Junior designers, Gillian, took ownership of the idea – made it happen - and the initial plan of doing this at lunchtime did not require any special approval.   Then she realized we could use this as a tool to grow our client base – so she reached out to the marketing team to develop some collateral, obtain booth space at some local wellness events, and speaking opportunities at local business meetings. This was a “Build a Team” effort– there were no formal barriers to her trying to find ways to grow our business, but running a marketing campaign involved way more people than just herself – to make sure it could be pulled off.   Then another of our team members, a Project Manager named Heather, thought that we should turn Fridays into – Dog days at KSA to promote mental and emotional wellbeing. We would invite our dogs to the office every Friday. (Plus, ever posted a picture of a dig sitting at a computer on social media? Facebook goldmine!) Heather was willing to do all the logistics to make this happen, and own the program, but there were legal issues to consider with the landlord, liability, (what if a dog bites someone, fleas ticks, etc…)etc… Heather needed approval from management - this was a “Proceed with Approval”   “Seek a Higher Authority” issues, came about when a group of team members inquired about a summer hours program, where certain Fridays would be half days. This was a program those employees could neither run nor manage – nor have the authority to give their own approval. If approved it would need to be run, managed, and blessed off by leadership.   Please use this tool in any capacity you deem necessary in fostering empowerment tin your organization.
26. So in closing.   Tell a compelling story (Marketing) Build an engaged audience (BD) Devote your org to Filling AND carrying buckets (everyone can participate in M&BD) Avoid carrying small or leaky buckets (leverage senior level resources) Build bigger and better buckets (Professional Dev) Empower your team (NOW!)