Working on a 12-person creative team requires one very important skill—flexibility. At a moment’s notice, you need to be prepared for a wide range of challenges, from making ads to brewing coffee.
We decided to weigh the pros and cons of being an agency full of people who wear multiple hats. Here’s what we noted:
Woo!
- The ability to lean on each other builds camaraderie
- We’ve learned to adapt to sudden situations
- We can accomplish a lot of different tasks with several different combinations of teams
- Our adaptiveness allows us to be open to new ideas and new technology
- We’re able to work with sudden schedule changes
- Able to jump in and help if needed
- The work is never monotonous
- We always have other projects when we need a mental break from one
- It forces us to continually self educate
Boo!
- It can be hard to focus on one thing at times; easy to be distracted
- A team member may be an expert at certain tasks, but not an expert at everything in their realm
- At moments, it would be nice to have someone specific for each task
- Everyone is a finite battery, we only have so much energy to expend in a day
- We’re constantly solving problems, but maybe not the ones that are most needed
- If we have a question, there’s good chance we have to figure it out on our own
As you can see, there are several reasons why working in a nonlinear office environment works, and a few reasons it can be a challenge. But our team enjoys the everchanging activities and projects. We learn a ton, work hard and help out anyway we can.
Here are some tips on how to combat the cons:
- Make a to-do list
- When balancing timelines, make sure to figure out which project is high priority
- Google Calendar is your best friend
- Head to a coffee shop if you need to focus
- Learn the staring-hard-at-sheet-of-paper-without-looking-up way of walking through the office (throw in a few stressed out sighs to keep people away)
- Just keep learning
- Take care of yourself and know when to say, “no.”
In conclusion:
Wearing different hats means you’ll definitely never get bored, but you definitely need to be a time management wiz.
What are your thoughts?