Start-ups are the laboratories of the economy. Doing things that established companies don’t do, won’t do, or can’t do.
Disney, famously, calls their employees “cast members,” recognizing the role that they play in creating the experiences in their theme parks, in their movies, and in their stores. The job of “casting director” has been long considered a key one in the movie and entertainment industry, where these experienced professionals have the tough job of finding people who fit the director’s artistic vision. This could be finding someone with the right look, the right voice, the right celebrity, at the right price, with availability, to bring the vision to life.
Avoiding unethical or illegal discrimination of protected classes or physical characteristics, of course, all of us who hire would do well to think about our own vision for our team and consider some of the things that casting directors might when they fill their cast list. Beyond the experience that might be on the resume or the work samples or portfolio that the candidate might represent, there are other aspects that can be key to the hiring decisions that borrow from the casting director’s playbook. I call these the Four P’s of thinking like a casting director.
Personality: The energy that people bring to situations can help them succeed or fail in certain roles. Sometimes described as “presence,” casting directors look for people who can successfully play the characters they are seeking to fill. Does the person command respect? Can the person play the quiet, supporting role? The same is true of hires in industries outside entertainment. Too much energy and restlessness, can spell disaster for more detail-oriented roles. An introvert might be exhausted by a position that requires constant interaction with team mates or customers. Even the amount of team work required in a role might differ. A cameo part might not require the actor to be that “coachable” or “easy to work with” when a role on an ensemble cast might require a lot of those characteristics. Judging for this in an interview can be incredibly difficult, but is immensely more so if the hiring manager has not identified the ideal profile for the candidate. “What are you looking for?” and “How can you test for that?” are great questions to ask. There is a host of resources available on behavioral hiring, like Effective Interviewing! (which is an elearning, book, and classroom style training program in competency-based interviewing) which may be of use.
Purpose: The “job objective” has long fell off the professional resume, but it is good to understand the career objectives of the individual before hiring them. The casting director might inquire as to why the actor famous for stand-up comedy is looking to read for a serious role. Or why a Hollywood blockbuster actress, might choose to do an independent film. Knowing the individual’s career goals and aspirations can allow their career path to align with the companies goals for many years. When Anne Hathaway was cast in the movie Les Miserables, she was tapped not only for her acting skills, but also because of her personal passion for the cause of disenfranchised women, something that she spoke of regularly in her press interviews for the film. The more candidates can relate and be excited by the purpose of the company, the mission of the firm, the content of the job, and the promise of the career path, the better for all parties.
Platform: Some actors are cast for roles because adding their name to the marquee or to the project, brings along a fan base and connections that would be unavailable for an unknown actor. The same is true for hires outside entertainment. Companies are often looking to bolster their reputation or brand by hiring a recognized expert well-known in the field. Even new college grads might bring with them networks within their university, club affiliations, or community service connections with value to their new employer. Experience sales people, certainly, are valued for the long-standing customer relationships that they can bring with them to their new employer. Candidates looking for new roles in any discipline are well-served by thinking about their own reputation and network in their industry, their city, or the like and how that might benefit their company. Hiring managers, or casting directors, are well-advised to think about the platform that their new hires represent and how to best leverage those for the good of the individual and the company.
Price: Of course, there is an economic element to hiring as well. Can the budget of the film afford the actor with the biggest fan base? Can the more senior, experienced candidate be afforded? Can the organization afford the onboarding and training investment required in a more junior, early-career candidate? There are trade-offs on both sides. Casting directors are working within a budget. So are hiring managers. And that budget not only includes the expense of the employee, but the value of the work product to the organization. A casting director could come in under-budget and help produce a failing film by not having the right caliber of talent. Likewise, any hiring manager can overpay for candidates as they try to find the right fit. I recently saw a Leonardo DaVinci exhibit at the San Diego Air and Space Museum which recounted a letter he sent in 1482, at the age of 30, to Ludovico il Moro, Duke of Milan, where he indicated his knowledge of bridges and weaponry. An early resume or cover letter, it has been called. I think it does a great job of creating value for the kind of thing DaVinci brought to his future patron. It is good for hiring managers and candidates to keep in mind the economic value of the role and to make sure they are finding the right fit on that front as well.
There are many other things that casting directors must consider when making their determinations. It is a hard job that is fraught with controversy at times and I imagine the ones who are good at it make it look easy. Those of us tasked with building high-performance teams, can learn from the examples of great ensembles who work together to deliver great performances and the professionals that work behind the scenes to ensure the right people are in the cast.
This article was posted on LinkedIn Pulse.
According to USA Today, the millennial generation (which is from 18-34 today) spends 10% of their day creating content. What is the impact of this as they come into the workforce and into leadership?
Who designed the now ubiquitous wireless logo? The one with three curved bars above a dot. You know the one. Someone surely was the first to sit down in Illustrator or with a pen and paper and draw out the picture. The ones that the world now uses. One of our most powerful and universal icons and it’s anonymous and unowned. Perhaps that is a metaphor for some of the new, powerful technologies and ideas that will be as disruptive as wireless internet.
Without power the economy and our civilization as we know it falls apart. This is why wide scale power outages are always part of the plot of post-apocalyptic movies and strike fear into our hearts.
But now, connectivity is our new electricity. We simply do not accept that we will not have connectivity. I just texted pictures from on top of the Great Wall of China.
Jennifer Davis' promotion was covered by AV Network.
I wrote recently about Google’s efforts to provide the whole product in my article Y is for You: Google's Alphebet and Personal Branding. I learned recently that one of the founding father’s pioneered some of these strategies himself: Ben Franklin
Ben wanted to be a printer. His biographer (Isaacson) talks about the lengths to which he went to procure a printing press from Europe. He wanted to own a communication machine.
He started printing things for his friends and customers.
So, to use the machine, he started a newspaper, the Pennsylvania Gazette. If one flyer was good, then having a weekly or daily publication was even better. Those who wouldn’t afford to print a flyer, could afford an advertisement in a larger publication.
He printed books. The most popular book was the Bible. But most people only bought one of those in their lifetime, so how could he get people to want to buy a book every year. He started the Poor Richard’s Almanac which would have repeat customers every year.
Then he began to think bigger. He wanted people to read his books and magazines, but many people were far sighted and had trouble reading. So he invented bifocals.
He noticed that in the cold New England winters, people weren’t reading as much, so he invented the Franklin Stove.
He wanted to broaden his distribution channel to allow people outside of Philadelphia or the region to read his books and publications. So, he championed the US Postal System.
And realizing that it was inefficient to print things in Philly and move them around the country, he franchised and shipped the plates to a friend in the Carolinas so she (yes, she) could build a business serving that community.
A man with Ben’s broad curiosities and diverse background pursued these and many other ideas in service of his main themes and principles. What are your main themes and principles that are worthy of the height of your creativity, enthusiasm and focus?
Jennifer was listed in the "People on the Move" section of the February 26, 2016 edition of Portland Business Journal.
My son just finished up his junior high basketball season and watching him and his patient and passionate coaching staff, I made the following observation: the game isn’t won or lost just by the skill of the players or even by the teamwork of the individuals, but also by the momentum or pace of the game. Even in professional sports, in leagues like the NBA or FIFA, games are often won or lost for reasons that have little to do with player capability, and everything to do with player performance, which has a context on the court or field, and in the minds of the players. Just like anything, there is a balance between speed, quality, and scope and in sport, as in business, pace can account for a lot.
Sometimes you must speed up. When the other team needs time to set up their play or you want the kids to keep the head in the game, I observed how useful it can be to speed up the game play. To pass the ball more. To run a play quickly to take the other team off-guard. Our local college football team, the University of Oregon Ducks, made a strategy in the last few years of the “hurry up offense,” which played the athleticism of the team and could effectively wear out opponents by not giving them time to rest or set-up.
Staying ahead of the competition requires some hurry up offense in business as well. Sometimes the spoils go to the company that is first to market with an innovation, who out maneuvers their competitors in devising winning channel programs, or who establishes a new category, positioning their products as the benchmark to which other offerings are compared. Although the idea of a “first mover advantage” is often-overstated (as market pioneering is a high-risk strategy), there is something to be said about being first to do things well. Marvin Lieberman and Steven Blank have both written that what is often attributed as a “first mover advantage” is often a “fast follower” advantage instead. In any case, it requires a speed and responsiveness to take advantage of market shifts, technology changes, and customer insights to deliver sustainable advantage.
Sometimes you should slow down. My son’s coach would often counsel the boys to slow the game down when their play because too erratic or error-filled. Sometimes they’d let the game get the best of them and make simple mistakes. Just slowing down the game, improved their ball handling, their passing, and their shooting percentages.
Sometimes this is true in business as well. As a person with a well-developed sense of urgency, I want to rush into new ideas or start experiments without all the information. Sometimes this works well, but often if you take a moment to bring other team mates on board, to plan for contingencies, or to research alternatives, you can arrive at a better outcome. “As fast as possible, as slow as necessary” can be a much better approach.
Momentum affects your perception of the outcome. Of course, “momentum” is a physics concept describing the ability of an object to continue moving because of its mass and velocity. But in sport, psychological momentum is the effect that preceding events have on the perception of the probability of winning or losing. Sports commentators will often comment on momentum changes in a game and credit momentum with changes of energy or confidence. A team on a “hot streak” will inevitably win the game, it seems. Teams that are on the losing end of a change of momentum, can appear to do nothing right.
Whether momentum actually affects the outcome or simply the mindset of the players (causing them to get flustered or make simple mistakes) can be debated and has been the topic of articles in the Journal of Sports Behavior, Perceptual and Motor Skills, Journal of Applied Sports Psychology, and Cognitive Psychology, to name a few. The consensus appears to be that the concept of a “hot hand” is a fallacy. In fact, a study conducted by Jonathan Koehler and Caryn Conley and published in the Journal of Sports and Exercise Psychology sought to find evidence of sequential dependency across shots and in general they found that no shooter they studied had significantly more runs that would have been predicted by chance. Yet, there is a perception among fans and players alike that momentum can change the confidence of the players and the energy of the game.
The same is true in a business context. If a sales person is rejected three times in a row, they are a bit less confident the fourth time. If a marketing team perceives that the customer has launched a winning innovation, they can begin to doubt their strategies and might pre-maturely abandon what would have been a better approach long-term. Companies with strong brands can leverage their reputation to a string of successes which are made easier by their valuable brand or history of innovation, but it hardly guarantees product success. If the scale of the risks matches the appetite and capabilities of the company, nothing in a business context is truly final or fatal. If you treat your customers with respect, you nearly always have time to course correct and make changes. But only if the leadership keeps their problem-solving wits about them and applies what they have learned in failure to their next opportunity for the win. No company has a “hot hand” forever. And no company is a chronic loser, if they are taking advantage of the learnings along the way. And they remember the things that are within their control and seek to maximize their choices along the way.
I have spent my career in technology, where the pace of change and innovation is high. This has illustrated to me vividly the importance of controlling the pace of the game you are playing. Going quickly when the circumstances allow. Slowing down with the circumstances warrant. And keeping your head in the game, in good times and in bad. And with great teamwork and customer engagement, the record can show great results!
This article was posted on LinkedIn Pulse.
“We must shift from an asset business to an audience business.” – AdNews, November 2nd, 2015
Advertising networks, like those with ad spots or billboard locations to sell, have long been an inventory business. More inventory (thus, the invention of the 22 minute TV show) and higher value inventory (ie, Times Square billboard) has been the recipe for growth. But in today’s multi-channel world with mobile and multi-tasking consumers, it may be less about inventory than it is about audiences. They may be able to quantify how many people walk through Picadilly Circus each day or would pump gas at a particular gas station during a particular month, but those aren’t audiences. Those are statistics.
“Feedback…it’s the breakfast of champions” – Dharmesh Shah
On February 13th, Jennifer was honored by her alma mater, Warner Pacific College, as the distinguished alumni of the year for professional achievement. The award was given by Dr. Andrea Cook.
Jennifer was interviewed by rAVe at the Integrated Systems Europe tradeshow.