At Photolink we have finally launched our own blog, it's making mine look worse each time I view it! Rather than droning on about myself this blog looks at what's interesting out there on the Internet and what's interesting at Photolink. Take a look if you get a minute.
If you were wondering about me I'm just back from 2 weeks in Florida, what a place! One week of crazy theme parks and Disney characters and one blissful week of Clearwater to recover. I love America!
Wednesday, 18 November 2009
Saturday, 3 October 2009
Your inbox can't handle it anymore
I cannot believe it's nearly 12 months since I published my last blog. It's been emotionally, physically and mentally exhausting this year as Photolink continue to survive and prosper. The highlights include the recent opening of our own studios in India and the 200% growth of our digital team. As a board last November we concluded that we simply had to invest heavily in digital to allow us to move the Group forward over the next five years. This has become my main responsibility and over the last 12 months we have defined our core services and recruited some of the best people in the industry, to make sure we can offer exceptional creative solutions.
I have to say as we have built the team I've felt a little like Mark Hughes at Manchester City, identifying the best people in the business and hunting them down until we got them. The transition from a relatively small 'new media' team into a digital team that can compete with any other has been painful, but I'm glad to say that we are nearly where we want to be. If you get a minute have a look at our interim digital website http://www.photolinkdigital.co.uk
The key to our growth this year has been communication, as we define our offer and manage expectation through a period of major transition. As clients also feel the heat of the recession Photolink as an agency are expected to be on hand for at least 15 hours of the working day and now across the weekends. Unfortunately as we all feel the constant pressure to clear our desks each day, email has become the dumping ground for communication and the dreaded 'cc' means that we spend huge proportions of our day observing discussions that only have a passive relevance to our working day.
The structure of my day has fallen into spending an hour in the morning addressing emails that have arrived outside of my working window yesterday, emails throughout the day build up with me responding to the urgent ones, then two hours each night catching up on the rest of my daily inbox. Last Monday resulted in me receiving 412 emails in one day!
For me that was the final straw. Not only does email slow down your working day but it fundamentally has a negative impact on the way we do business. 'cc' emails encourage a view from everyone included and the nature of email prevents immediate dialogue. The result is that the most simple of decisions are dragged out for days.
After finishing work at 10pm on Monday I decided that Tuesday was going to be a new day. With the majority of my previous days emails coming from 8 or 9 clients and staff. I called all of the clients, requesting that rather than sending email after email they simply call me if they wanted to chat and that I would make a point of calling the most active clients once a day for a catch up. I also made the point of telling the Photolink team to not email me but to come and see me or at least pick up the phone.
As a social experiment I have to say this has been a resounding success. Firstly my inbox has reduced to average 50 emails per day. Yes I have spent a lot more time on the phone but this is a positive not a negative. Decisions have been made quicker and relationships have got better. As for the staff it's been great to see them venture out from behind the computer screens and to actually talk to people. Finally, it's meant that I've not had to go home each night put the kids to bed, have tea, then sit with the laptop on my knee for the next two hours, I've actually been able to stop thinking about work, well for a little more time anyway.
So, we all know it's a problem, we all say we should send less emails, now put it into practise. You will be surprised at the effect it has on the prductivity of your day and it does wonders for communication.
I have to say as we have built the team I've felt a little like Mark Hughes at Manchester City, identifying the best people in the business and hunting them down until we got them. The transition from a relatively small 'new media' team into a digital team that can compete with any other has been painful, but I'm glad to say that we are nearly where we want to be. If you get a minute have a look at our interim digital website http://www.photolinkdigital.co.uk
The key to our growth this year has been communication, as we define our offer and manage expectation through a period of major transition. As clients also feel the heat of the recession Photolink as an agency are expected to be on hand for at least 15 hours of the working day and now across the weekends. Unfortunately as we all feel the constant pressure to clear our desks each day, email has become the dumping ground for communication and the dreaded 'cc' means that we spend huge proportions of our day observing discussions that only have a passive relevance to our working day.
The structure of my day has fallen into spending an hour in the morning addressing emails that have arrived outside of my working window yesterday, emails throughout the day build up with me responding to the urgent ones, then two hours each night catching up on the rest of my daily inbox. Last Monday resulted in me receiving 412 emails in one day!
For me that was the final straw. Not only does email slow down your working day but it fundamentally has a negative impact on the way we do business. 'cc' emails encourage a view from everyone included and the nature of email prevents immediate dialogue. The result is that the most simple of decisions are dragged out for days.
After finishing work at 10pm on Monday I decided that Tuesday was going to be a new day. With the majority of my previous days emails coming from 8 or 9 clients and staff. I called all of the clients, requesting that rather than sending email after email they simply call me if they wanted to chat and that I would make a point of calling the most active clients once a day for a catch up. I also made the point of telling the Photolink team to not email me but to come and see me or at least pick up the phone.
As a social experiment I have to say this has been a resounding success. Firstly my inbox has reduced to average 50 emails per day. Yes I have spent a lot more time on the phone but this is a positive not a negative. Decisions have been made quicker and relationships have got better. As for the staff it's been great to see them venture out from behind the computer screens and to actually talk to people. Finally, it's meant that I've not had to go home each night put the kids to bed, have tea, then sit with the laptop on my knee for the next two hours, I've actually been able to stop thinking about work, well for a little more time anyway.
So, we all know it's a problem, we all say we should send less emails, now put it into practise. You will be surprised at the effect it has on the prductivity of your day and it does wonders for communication.
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