So I just had a baby. As many of you can relate, this has meant sleepless nights peppered with hours of frustration and moments of boundless joy. And maybe it’s just my baby-addled brain, but this got me thinking about crewing. You’re saying “Crewing … babies … really?” I promise that I’m not suffering from post-partum “video-itis”, so hear me out.

When you first see your child, you’re filled with delight, anticipation, and happiness.  You’re thinking about all the fun things you want to do and how you’re going shape this new person into something special. This is exactly like the start of the production process. When you get a new project you are excited about the prospects and are eager to plan it all out. And then the reality sets in. All of a sudden the baby is crying and spitting up all over you … just like the logistics and details of a video shoot. Where will the crew come from? What gear should I use? Why do I smell like cheese?

This is where the crewing process should be a whole lot easier than being a new parent. Because there are resources out there to help make your video shoot go down for a nap. Trained professionals, like the booking coordinators at Crew Connection, are available to help you wade through the mire of video production logistics and not get bogged down with the dirty diaper details. Like a new parent, you are very protective of this little extension of yourself. You need to trust who is going to handle your baby.

CrewConnection | PayReel has been cleaning up drooling little messes since 1989. Now if only I could call someone to help with all the laundry…

A special thank you to Brent Bowers, Crew Connection Booking Coordinator, for being our guest blogger this week. He and his wife welcomed their first child Zoe (pictured above), earlier this year.

If you had to choose, would you rather own and run a business with A) a partner who is hard-working, brilliant, innovative, and dishonest, or B) a struggling C-student that you’d trust with your life?

While you’re compiling your list of arguments in favor of the C-student, allow me to remind you that we’re talking about running a business here. I’m voting for the smart guy. Honest or not, we’re facing relentless competition and price pressure. Our customers expect a continuous flow of new products and improved service. Our shareholders were not amused with last quarter’s results.  And our kids just got into Yale.

You see, that’s the problem with ethics. They tend to get in the way. They make us stop and examine our motives. They’ve even caused us to turn down lucrative contracts that would have nailed our business plans for the year. Being all goody-two-shoes can wreak havoc on our short-term plans.

If only we had the luxury of focusing our attention on the long-term stability and reputation of our businesses. We could build development plans around our C-students and unleash the potential they bring to our enterprise.  We wouldn’t jump every time the phone rings after 6pm. Instead of getting in the way, our core values could actually light our way. Imagine this little business we’ve just started being around 50 years from now, thriving and holding fast to the ethics we chose to implant. And think of the money we’d save on private detectives!

I think I’d like to change my vote.

News Release: April 1, 2013 – CrewConnection | PayReel Acquires Hostess Brands

“It’s all about extending our reach and, of course, the Twinkies!” commented CC|PR’s top executive. “We could no longer bear the thought of weekly staff meetings without those wonderful little attitude adjusters.”

CC|PR shares rose 1,200% on the news. In a rare consensus, industry analysts all agree the move signals a reversal in the company’s belt-tightening strategy. “This decision will certainly make them a much bigger player,” one analyst offered. When asked for an estimate of how soon the acquisition will impact company results, CC|PR’s CFO explained, “We look forward to digesting as many of the Hostess assets as quickly as possible.  We foresee only the anticipated shortage of milk as an obstacle to our explosive girth … er, growth.”

CrewConnection | PayReel employees expressed mixed reactions to the news. “When I said we had a bunch of Ding Dongs upstairs, this isn’t what I meant!” lamented one middle manager.

About CrewConnection | PayReel

We’re a group of dedicated professionals who have decided to wish our readers a Happy April Fool’s Day!

We’ll be back next time with some useful content … we promise.

Some people thrive on it, most avoid it, some dread it, but change in the workplace is inevitable. It represents a giant opportunity to strengthen teams and make business run more effectively, but this opportunity is seldom realized because managing through change is uncertain, exhausting work.

A trip to the Business section at your local bookstore (yes, they still exist) or Googling ‘change management’ will equip you with endless tips on effective listening, good communication, patience, and a variety of other touchy-feely techniques that will leave you with teams that smile to your face, then continue to seize-up with fear once you’ve left the room.  The reason for this is pretty simple: while you’ve likely built solid relationships with your team and they trust that you’ll do your best to help them through the change at hand, they are no longer in control of the situation. And for most people, losing control is scary.

Next time you’re leading a team through change –or dealing with change yourself, for that matter – give this technique a try. Take a deep breath, and then divide the change process into small, tangible, manageable steps. Give your team members a series of things they can control, and make them active participants in the process. No matter how minor these steps seem relative to the end result, empowering people during a time of uncertainty will automatically change attitudes, and might even make them welcome the process.

OK that might be pushing it. But wouldn’t you feel better about entering a strange, dark room if at least you had a plan for finding the light switch?

The top executives of several major breweries had just finished a panel discussion at an industry conference. They decided to head over to the hotel lounge for some refreshments.

The top executive from Corona sits down at the bar and says to the bartender, “I would like a tall glass of the world’s best beer, a Corona.”

The leader from Anheuser-Busch says, “Bring me a frosty mug filled with the ‘King of Beers’…a Budweiser.”

Not to be out done, the president of Coors proudly says, “I’d like the only beer made with pure Rocky Mountain spring water.  Please fetch me a Coors.”

The CEO from Guinness leans on the bar and says, “Gimme a Coke.” The other leaders are taken aback and ask him the obvious question, “Why didn’t you order a Guinness?” He replies, “Well, I figure if you guys aren’t drinking beer, neither will I.”

As leaders, a big part of our job is to instill a sense of pride in our teams. To help our people assign a higher purpose to their work. Is there a more powerful long-term motivator than pride? Yet, left unchecked, is anything more dangerous? Just ask the good folks at Blackberry, Kodak, Hostess, etc.

Ours is the challenge of balancing justifiable pride and celebration with certain knowledge that your company’s logo is stapled to a dartboard in somebody’s break room.

Harnessing the power of pride is not complicated…Just stay focused, stay curious, and most importantly, stay thirsty my friends!

Swamped? Buried? Overwhelmed? Have any of these descriptions applied to you within the past three weeks? Since we all have the same number of hours available to us each day, how is it that some people seem to get so much more accomplished?

If you’re familiar with the work of the late Stephen (“7 Habits”) Covey, you already know the answer … Productivity Ninjas put the big rocks in first. Now, if you have never heard The Story of the Big Rocks allow me to present a condensed version:

A teacher divided her class into groups of three or four students. She gave them each a wide-mouthed mason jar, several large rocks, a portion of gravel, and a portion of sand. Without preamble, she told the groups they had 30 seconds to place everything into their jars. “Go!” she shouted. The students excitedly started scooping and pouring and stuffing. When time expired, not a single group had successfully completed the task. “That’s not fair, it can’t be done,” several students objected. “But it can be done,” the teacher assured them. Using her own jar, rocks, gravel, and sand, she placed the rocks in the jar first; then she scooped in the gravel; and finally she poured in the sand, gently tapping the jar on her desktop to settle its contents and fill in every open crevice. She then screwed a lid tightly on the jar. “So what does this teach us?” she asked her amazed classroom. “That there is always room for more!” shouted a young man. “No,” the teacher replied patiently. “It teaches us to always focus our attention on the big things first.”

The obvious, but often overlooked question for each of us is what are the big rocks in our lives? For me, relationships, fitness, learning, and community service are big rocks that often get squeezed out of my jar by the sand and gravel of career ladders and brain candy media. I try to blame the day for being too short, but it ultimately comes down to my own flawed focus. That’s my big rock confession.

At the risk of over-using this metaphor, failure to address the big rocks in our jobs makes it difficult or impossible to fulfill our primary responsibilities. We confuse activity with accomplishment. Those of us heavily burdened with administrative duties are at greatest risk of losing our focus.

Take inventory of the demands on your time. Do your best to objectively identify your big rocks … your own big rock confession. Then see what can be delegated, outsourced, or eliminated. That which remains goes into your jar … after the rocks. I hope you find yourself amazed at how much good stuff has fit into your day … and your life.

The U.S. Congress certainly kept things interesting during the holiday season. They wiggled our toes over the fiscal cliff then pulled us back to terra firma just as our New Year’s Eve champagne bottles ran dry.

Cautiously optimistic, we now pass through the portal of a new year. 2013: The year we come to terms with ObamaCare. The year (we hope) our economy finally, fully recovers. And the year that will take us even farther away from the traditional employment model of our ancestors.

Having avoided the aforementioned fiscal cliff, many if not most of us are forecasting revenue growth. But there’s one thing missing from our ’13 business plan … a bigger budget. Once again, it’s about doing more with less. So, we’ll need those contractors that helped us get through the darkest part of the recession to come back for an encore performance. But instead of treading water, this time they’ll be helping us make rain … if they’ll take our calls.

You see, some of us haven’t exactly been model clients. We’ve been late with payments, vague in our expectations, and rarely offered feedback. Any of which, by the way, are great candidates for your new year’s resolutions.  The trick is to fit these management tasks onto our already full plates. It’s probably time to get serious about a process for managing our contractors, freelancers, consultants, etc.

As we stare down our 2013 opportunities, let’s not forget about the governmental challenges we’ll be facing. Namely, you’ve got to get your head around the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. ObamaCare isn’t going away, so if you’ve got more than 50 full-time employees in your company get educated and get ready.

Finally, as you cheer for your favorite sports teams, remember the teamwork that’s occurring between state labor departments and the IRS. They’re sharing data on companies that are known to be misclassifying employees as independent contractors. The number of audits conducted and resultant fines has been climbing steadily since 2010. The risk for those who are non-compliant has never been greater.

Fortunately, all of these challenges can be overcome with the right game plan and the right partners. Here’s wishing you a healthy and prosperous new year. Make it your best one ever!

But in the eyes of the Department of Labor, one of them probably isn’t really an independent contractor (what, you were expecting a joke?). Sure, all three freelancers are free to work wherever they choose and they have the flexibility to pick and choose this project or that. But, unless they can check all the right boxes during a DOL audit, things might not be as rosy as they seem.

The point of this post is not to spread doom and gloom over the growing group of freelancers in the workforce and the companies that enlist their valuable services. I’ve done some reading lately, though, and it appears that the increasing number of misclassified independent contractors is on the DOL’s radar. Try these numbers from Colorado on for size*:

• From 2006 – 2010, the percentage of Colorado workers who were misclassified grew from 7.8% to over 14%.
• From June, 2009 to Dec, 2010, over 14% of all Colorado workers were misclassified.
• During the same time period, the Colorado DOL conducted over 2100 random and targeted audits and found that about 43% of employers were misclassifying workers.

Again, the majority of companies and freelancers out there today would breeze through an audit with flying colors. But if you got a funny feeling while reading this (and you can safely say it wasn’t from the author’s writing style – or lack thereof), it might be in your best interest to check out http://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Small-Businesses-&-Self-Employed/Independent-Contractor-(Self-Employed)-or-Employee%3F. If that doesn’t make things crystal clear, there are quite a few firms in the marketplace that can help based on your industry and a variety of other factors.

Now, how many freelancers does it take to change a light bulb?

*From the Colorado DOL’s Annual Compliance Report, published May 18, 2011, on House Bill 09-1310, Misclassification of Employees as Independent Contractors

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Las Vegas? That’s right, gambling. Most visitors come to Vegas to get lucky at the tables or slots. Casinos bank on players’ willingness to take on bad risk – that’s what keeps the acres of marble floors polished and maintains the opulence that is Las Vegas.

During last week’s American Staffing Association Staffing World 2012 conference, the other 1600 attendees and I crossed a casino floor what seemed like every 5 minutes on our way to workshops, meetings and meals. I’m happy to report that I didn’t make the house any richer during my stay. I’m also happy to say that discussions around a different type of risk came up repeatedly during the show. Business risk.

Every business manages (and I use that term loosely) risk differently. Some play the penny slots, hoping to stay in the game as long as possible while others go bust. Others go all-in right away and either hit it big or flame out before the high rollers even arrive. The consensus during last week’s meetings was that a calculated approach balances risk and allows businesspeople to leverage their luck while keeping an eye on the long term prize.

Easier said than done, right? Isn’t luck something that just happens uncontrollably? Jim Collins offered his thoughts on this topic during his keynote address, which in my opinion hit the jackpot. He recommends pausing to embrace luck and use it as a tool to enhance your long term business planning. Instead of chalking up a ‘random’ event to luck, Collins suggests quantifying each ‘luck event’ in terms of how it happened and its impact on your business. Then, evaluate how your long-term plans could be adjusted to incorporate luck and continue doing what you do best.

Bottom line – luck happens. You can welcome it, analyze it and use it to your advantage, or let it pass you by. Now, off to take my own advice at the blackjack tables…

In my last post I mentioned the challenge of building a high performing team from the raw material of a multi-generational workforce. One of the hallmarks of a high performance organization is the ability to innovate and adapt. Said another way, they possess the willingness to fail quickly en route to success. These are groups that apply their collective creativity to take intelligent risks.

I believe every member of every team has formulated at least one good idea over the past 12 months. Something that would enable their organization to produce output better, faster, or cheaper. Something that none of their competitors is doing. I also believe these ideas may not apply to the team members’ direct area of responsibility.

So why isn’t every team a veritable idea factory, awash in a sea of innovation? Fear. An emotion that prevents so many of us from achieving individual glory also saps the potential from otherwise stellar teams. The fear I’m talking about comes in three flavors:

1. Fear of rejection. “Gee, why don’t we ship a live turtle with every product?”
2. Fear of additional workload. “Great idea! You’ll be responsible for care and feeding of the turtles until they’re shipped.”
3. Fear of failure. “His career never recovered after The Great Turtle Disaster. Remember that smell?”

Idea factories have figured out ways to overcome these fears, beginning with simply acknowledging they exist. I remember stories coming out of Redmond, Washington many years ago about the great parties Microsoft would throw every time they pulled the plug on a failed project. Supposedly, these were celebrations of the teams’ entrepreneurial spirit and a recognition that not every idea will turn out to be the next Windows Vista. (Cheap shot acknowledged.) True or not, this is a great example for those of us who need to unleash the creative potential of our teams.

A final word on ideas:  Some are just plain dumb. This is where intelligent risk taking becomes vitally important. Even so, quirky ideas can lead you in interesting directions … like the kid who told his mom he was building a personal computer. Her reaction? What on earth would anybody use it for? That turned out to be a very interesting question indeed.