Enhancing marketing department efficiency – Part 1: People
The five areas that should be focussed on when enhancing marketing efficiency are people, thinking, creative, process and commercial.
In the first of five short articles we will focus on #1 people – what do you need to look for in the behaviour of marketing people to make the best department? In order to get under the skin of this we first need to look at the key drivers behind efficiency in workers’ behaviour.
For us, workers’ behaviour can be placed into two broad categories – is the work urgent, important or a mix of the two? Many years ago, these two categories were combined to deliver the following 2x2 grid –
Each quadrant was given a label to differentiate the behaviour of the workers within it, as shown, and these behaviours can be described in more detail.
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Hi-Per – high performing individuals who focus on important and urgent tasks above all else. These individuals are motivated and get things done with very little down-time. They tend to err on the “Lone Wolf” typography investing limited time in team-building or cultural activities.
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Busy being Busy – always active, these individuals tend to worry about urgent over important. Emails are routinely answered promptly and processes are adhered to. However, this is often misguided with important tasks being neglected over more immediate but less important “urgent” projects. Can be very useful in administrative roles, but less effective as leaders or managers.
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Deep Thought – perfect for applying themselves to the important tasks, but often not demeaning themselves to the more time-critical “lesser” projects, these deep thinkers can very useful in strategy and planning but far less effective in managing teams or projects. Too often they can get bogged down in perfection without anything to show for it.
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Cruising for Novelty – hard to pin down, and often even harder to locate some team members are always looking for new and interesting projects, but neglecting both important and urgent tasks. Great to chat to while waiting for the kettle to boil, but the least productive group. The less said the better.
Of course, like any other typographies the skill is to recognise who you are dealing with and ensure that you get a good mix of all four in the team. Even better coach your team to be able to switch from one quadrant to another as the required by their workflow.
