Russell Davie’s “Creative Directors Are Boring” post got me thinking. Specifically this part of it:
“Creatives are in charge. Planners aren't supposed to have ideas, just create space to have ideas."
Could it be that Russell has experienced working in “Silo environments” where he wasn’t allowed to have ideas because that hasn’t traditionally been part of his job description?
It got me thinking because I am currently working with an amazing team on a large site re-design project that is fairly high profile. The team I am working with contains lots of layers of folks right up to the top including several Creative Directors. The thing about it is that no one is getting territorial about their contributions. In fact, we are overlapping many of our our skills. Designers are writing copy, Copywriters are influencing nomenclature, and Marketing is providing some Creative Direction. It’s not perfect, but I have to say everyone is open to each other’s thinking and “playing in each others sandbox”.
To be honest, a good portion of my professional career has worked this way. Especially in the past three years. But I have to guess that there is still a healthy amount of “Team Silos” out there. Silo teams have clear and well-defined responsibilities. Work is passed on from one discipline to the next. Actually, I did see some work process like this even in interactive space where certain projects were planned, architected and then “skinned” in almost an assembly line fashion.
I know I’m oversimplifying with the Silos and Overlaps categories, but in essence the way we work with each other sometimes leans more toward one of these directions over the other. The question is—which way will we strive to lean?
