1. A body at rest will stay at rest.
2. A body in motion will stay in motion.
3. To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
I prognosticated that 2011 would be all about content and I think that is proving to be true in general but for me personally the first 5 months of the year have been all about workflow. Yes, collectively we have the content and yes we have a digital plan and yes there is a digital infrastructure BUT what about the workflow? Is progress being made necessarily the right progress?
Momentum is a powerful force in nature and also a powerful force in a workflow. How many of us have come to workflow conversations and encountered productive groups blissfully plowing along and demonstrating timely and ever-growing productivity at a task at hand but without any sense of context to their place in the workflow and more importantly their impact on the rest of that workflow?
I have no beef with productivity per se…but have an issue with this unchecked productivity that continues on for the sake of process. The phenomena is peppered with common catchphrases like, “that’s how we always did it,” or “that’s how I was told to do it,” or "but our daily goal is to process X # of files," but the bottom line is they within this bubble they are blindly rolling along, “I do therefore I am.”
This can be a problem in any environment and especially so in a media archive and DAM environment. Disparate groups possibly in different locations are working on different parts of the physical to digital workflow and production pipeline. With a lack of context this separation can cause those working within these silos to overlook what I like to think of as “the key moments of question” that could / should arise as processes mature and evolve.
Some of the questions should be:
- Does the output from my workflow and the results still meet all the requirements of my neighbors in this workflow?
- Has anything changed in the production and user cycle that affects how / why / if at all certain tasks are performed or prioritized?
- Is there a better, smarter, cheaper way to be doing what needs to get done?
Once you have identified and addressed this issue it can be kept in check with good communication and collaboration and with good management and team play. Shared knowledge across department heads creates opportunities for them all to be empowered and better leaders of their teams and better players among their peers.
Remember, every step matters and success is not measured just by the individual steps but by the overall sum of the result.
Lastly, I will be attending the Henry Stewart DAM NY 2011 event at the NY Hilton on June 8th and 9th. It looks to be a really interesting program with lots of great speaker...see you there!
Comments