Silos and Overlaps

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?

Comments

[Sean]

Sorry David, I'm not sure what Russell described was about silos at all. (though siloing is probably a bi-product of it)

I think what he was describing is the constant internal struggle in large agencies for the ownership of "the big idea."

I've seen an awful lot of friction from all sides on this debate at more than a few agencies (not to mention when you add media to the mix) and it's almost always more about ego than silo.

However to quote Rob@Cynic over at Scamp's blog "I know this may sound like a piece of hippy-shit, but all the agencies I've worked at [HHCL / Mother / Crispin's / Cynic] have produced famous work because the planners and creatives worked together rather than against eachother." ( http://scampblog.blogspot.com/2006/07/blogclash.html )

[DA]

Sean:

"and it's almost always more about ego than silo."

Your probably right in the case of it coming down to egos given the context of the quote. I mentioned ego in my previous post about Russell—but his post got me thinking about silos as well...

[makethelogobigger]

You can have an environment of ‘overlap’ that works when the creatives and other team members first and foremost, know their stuff.

It's then that they can trust the other person enough to let go some of the control, because they know that person is going to take care of business and not drop the ball.

[Scott Weisbrod]

Its funny - I think we're all getting used to telling our clients, "give up control to your customers" in order to let the brand and relationship evolve, yet as agencies we are unable or unwilling to do the exact same thing internally.

Give up control already!

[DA]

Good comments on this. Maybe it's less ego + less control + more trust + more professionalism = the walls coming down.

[Clay Parker Jones]

It's funny, some of the things we (agency people) do best for others we do miserably for ourselves. At least that's the experience I've had.