The Eighth Month

And suddenly the end is in sight.
There comes a day when the Silence breaks and your telephone rings. It is the General Chairman.
"We've come up with a bunch o£ Ideas we like' he says. "Can you come in sometime and talk about them? Tomorrow? Good. And meantime give a few minutes thought to production, will you? You know: How do we begin? Which Idea do we take first? That sort of thing."
A few minutes thought!

Well, nobody needs to know how much thought you've been giving to production, nor even how much thought production requires.

Production isn't just a word. It isn't even just a single opera­tion. It embraces the entire complicated process of getting the group of accepted Ideas off paper and ready for public presenta­tion. It includes research and investigation not yet begun. It re­quires what you have already asked for: the establishment of channels whereby the move from theory to actuality may be co­ordinated and completed with as little irritation, upset routine, overlapping authority, and duplication of effort as possible.

Despite the repeated warnings that have been issued to the effect that production of this celebration will cross most usual lines of company authority, practically blotting some of them out, there will be angry shock here and there when it happens. Establishment and publication of channels will soften the blow.

Production means arranging for the fewest possible frayed nerves and disappointments, and the smoothest, fullest, happiest possible development of a successful, impressive anniversary program. It means clarification and supervision o£ countless details; co-ordination of the efforts of many people and departments; and the ultimate public presentation of the program with as little avoidable stress, overtime, and hurt feelings (both emotional and artistic) as possible.

All these thoughts, many of them very difficult to put into words, are in your mind when you report to the General Chair­man's office. Weighing heavily too is concern for what may have been done to the program you assembled out of the shambles left after the last Progress Meeting.

When you finally see the "bunch of Ideas we like," you'll be relieved to find that it's not as bad as you anticipated. The Anni­versary Program—the "bunch of Ideas we like"—omits some ac­tivities you have felt imperative from the very beginning, and includes two or three which make your stomach roll over slowly. The budget you're going to get is not all you hoped for, and it isn't going to do the dazzling job you'd like, but it will serve. All in all, there is enough of the original vision and version left to make your past efforts worthwhile and to fill the future with exciting work and accomplishment. In short, you're going to have a good celebration.

A GREEN LIGHT FOR PRODUCTION

"Did you think about getting this thing under way like I asked?" queries the General Chairman.
You have thought about it, of course.
"All right, then. Where do we begin? Which Idea do we take first?"
You give the obvious answer: Begin with the Idea (activity) which will take the longest to produce.
"Seems to me," he says, "that we're going to need a production calendar."

You couldn't agree more. Obviously, once an acceptable sched­ule of events has been agreed on, the next step is to determine when each one will take place (the date, or season, or time of month or year), and when production on it must be started so that it will be ready for presentation on time.

For example, if a brochure is planned for release to suppliers in (we'll say) July of the year preceding the opening of Anniversary Year, then production should begin on the brochure six months ahead of that, or just about a year before the anniversary opens. Again, if a big civic banquet has been approved, on what date will it be held? And where? And who will be on the guest list? Where will production responsibility be centered? When you settle the date, then work backward and allow about three months to set up the banquet. If a program of institutional ad­vertising is planned, it is never too soon to develop a schedule of content (both copy and art) and sequence. Get at it immedi­ately.

Yes, a production schedule is important, and we'll help you prepare one. But for a while yet there is legwork to do.

So explain to your General Chairman that you have a number of details to clear up first (they are outlined immediately below) and that you'll bring him a final draft of The Anniversary Pro­gram, along with a production schedule, in a couple of weeks or so—along about the end of this eighth month, say.

If he's read this book, you'll have no trouble. He knows what you still must do. Or if he's sharp as he ought to be for the posi­tion he holds, you'll have no trouble. But even the most reason­able man in the world, excited over the prospect of putting a once-in-a-lifetime celebration into production after long months of planning, can be impatient and want things to happen NOW.

Don't be pushed. Stick to your guns. Things are happening now. Every moment is filled with activities designed to create a climate of success for this venture. They just don't all happen to have Roman candles tied to them.

So you return to your desk with the remnants of the first draft you submitted to the General Chairman a couple of weeks ago. And you rewrite a fresh draft. Group the "bunch of Ideas we like" once more. Group them department by department just as you prepared them for the first draft (see pages 156-159), and care­fully incorporate all the recommendations made by the Policy Committee.

This time don't make any copies.
When you are finished, each page will again represent a com­pany division or department and will contain all the Ideas (re­vised and annotated with the Policy Committee's strictures) which could be considered the production responsibility of that division or department.

AGAIN THE LONG, LONG TRAIL

Then you take this sheaf of pages and start out to visit per­sonally the head of every division or department represented. For best results, these visits should not be hurried. If you do not set them up ahead of time, at least do not try to crowd one in if you see that your man is busy or inattentive. Return at another time.

You see, each of these visits is intended to accomplish eight things with and for the department head visited. You are visiting these supervisory persons

1. To expose them to The Anniversary Program which has been accepted and let them see what is proposed for the celebration. This is a basic courtesy, and you should have it understood as such. You do not want these persons to have their first glimpse of The Anniversary Program in finished form, with no opportunity to review or discuss the contents beforehand. So you bring it to each one personally. Let each review the entire program. There is nothing secret about the plans now, especially so far as supervisory personnel are concerned. And leave each free to dispense information about the program as far down his own chain of command as he likes.
2. To explain to each of them, and discuss in as much detail as is wanted, the part the division or department is expected to play, and how it will mesh with the responsibilities of allied or overlapping departments.
3. To pick up any questions, suggestions, corrections, dele­tions, additions, recommendations they may have regarding the Ideas assigned to their department, before the final draft of The Anniversary Program is typed, duplicated, and distributed.
4. To try to make each of them understand that The Anniversary Program cannot be produced with business exactly as usual. In other words, there will be sacrifices involved for everyonenot many, probably, but let's dispense with the pained surprise when they arrive.
5. To seek their opinion of the potentials of their own depart­ments and what additional help they may need to produce—with a nominal amount of guidance from the Co-ordinator—their share of the program.
6. To get their recommendations for a committee chairman and committee members to work with the Coordinator on al? anniversary matters touching their department. Often the de­partment head will serve as chairman. Equally often he will name an assistant and promise personal aid on request.
7. To discuss the amount of additional funds each is scheduled to receive, over and above the regular annual budget appropria­tion, to carry out their portion of The Anniversary Program. This amount is shown in the Estimated Net Cost column.
8. To request their help, and their knowledge of their depart­ment's time and personnel factors, in the construction of a pro­duction schedule.

Once you have completed the above, lose no time in incor­porating into your workbook, as well as into the draft of The Anniversary Program, the fund of diverse and priceless informa­tion you've accumulated.

And if this amount of explaining and compromising and sell­ing and checking and smiling and listening and commiserating looks like a pretty exhausting job, you are right. It adds up to a lot of legwork and a lot of telephoning and maybe even a cer­tain amount of abuse. But you are fighting for a program to be proud of, and you'll have to shoulder a lot of blame if it fails to light up the sky. On the other hand, if it goes over with a flare and a flair despite the restricted budget, do you take the bows? Not on your life! The General Chairman and the Policy Com­mittee get the applause. You get your pay check, which is all you were promised when you took the job.

A DASH OF ICE WATER

Your visits with the neighbors probably proceed harmoniously amid repeated assurances of full willingness to co-operate on the part of the men and women you talk to. But a word of caution:

Delightful though it admittedly is to bask in a heady atmos­phere of approval and encouraging offers of assistance, it will be just as well to accept this eager enthusiasm calmly. Because it has been our experience—and unless you are aware of the possibility, it may be yours—that such unruffled acceptance of an increased load of personal and departmental responsibility for the term of the observance is not to be trusted. The inspiring (to you) way these people appear to take it all in stride is very apt to be because:
1.     They are—and, lacking your watchful eye, will so continue to the bitter end—proceeding on the comfortable theory that "There's nothing to do right now. There's plen-n-n-n-nty of time!"
OR
2.     They are relaxing in the false security of having you to lean on. The truth is that you'll be far too busy keeping all aspects of program production untangled to grant a disproportionate amount of time to any one person or department.
OR
3.     They just plain don't recognize the nerve-shredding mul­tiplicity of details in the assignment they've just accepted.
OR
4.     They do recognize them and have gone numb.
OR
5.     They are saying in their hearts, a little resentfully: "Okay.I'll take care of this stuff in its turn—and after my regular dutieshave been taken care of. In fact, quite a bit after."
These attitudes are not unknown and, individually or in com­bination, can throw a lot of crippling sand into the meshing gears of any anniversary program preparation.
So keep your eyes and ears open and be prepared to provide such leadership as is necessary to bring less effective departments, through their committees, to the highest attainable level of pro­gram contribution.

Meantime proceed with the writing of the final draft of The Anniversary Program, with the drafting of a production time­table, and with establishment of a production organization.

The next chapter is designed to

Are You Ready To Move Onto The Next Lesson? Click Here...