Dear Agencies: Build Teams, Not Departments

twenty seven That’s how many times I proposed a brilliant freelance creative director a full-time job when I was head of creative. Twenty-seven times, they said no.

It drove me crazy. They already freelance with us regularly, loved the team, crushed the slips, and (apparently) tolerated me well. The money was great. What was the problem?

When we finally got to the bottom, his answer illuminated everything that is wrong with how agencies develop talent: “I don’t want to deal with clients. I don’t want to do a deal. And I don’t want to manage anyone” .

In other words, they just wanted to do what they did best – cook a great job.

In agencies, we’ve built these rigid departmental structures where career advancement means taking on more responsibilities that often have nothing to do with what made someone exceptional in the first place.

We’re obsessed with getting everyone to do everything. Do you have someone brilliant in cultural activations? Great, now let them lead a creative platform 360. Do you have a writer who can create the perfect script? Awesome, put him in charge of managing 10 people and attending status meetings. Excel at brand identity? Here’s a stack of banner ads to watch out for.

It’s not just wrong, it’s a waste. We take our best specialists and turn them into mediocre generalists. And the solution is not complicated: Build teams, not departments.

Think of any major sports team. They win because they have players who excel in their positions and complement each other. He doesn’t force his star quarterback to play defense. They don’t ask a guy who hit 50 homers and stole 50 bases to pitch. Wait, bad example. You get the gist.

So why do we keep doing this in advertising?

Instead of building hierarchies where everyone has to be a jack-of-all-trades to get ahead, we should be creating flexible teams of specialists who are beyond brilliant in their craft. Want a massive cultural moment? Bring it in earned media virtuoso. Do you need a platform that will define your brand for the next decade? Take the strategist who has done it twenty times. Looking for innovation? Touch the person who launched billion dollar products.