Every agency has some sort of traffic system.
The inspiration for the best traffic system I ever worked with, came from a story about a steel tycoon.
The American entrepreneur, Andrew Carnegie had just bought Bethlehem Steel.
It was in trouble because it was under-performing.
To make money, a steel works needed to do between 2 and 3 smeltings per shift.
Bethlehem Steel was only doing one smelting per shift.
Energy and morale were low.
Carnegie came to look around his new steel works.
The men, wanting to put on a good show, worked a bit harder.
Carnegie asked the foreman how many smeltings they’d done today.
The foreman said two.
Carnegie got a piece of chalk and wrote a huge number 2 on floor of the entrance to the factory.
When the night shift came on, the day shift workers showed them proudly what Mr. Carnegie had written.
The night shift were furious.
They weren’t going to be beaten by the day shift.
They worked even harder that night and did 3 smeltings.
In the morning, they kicked the number 2 off the floor, and replaced it with a huge number 3.
Then they stood and watched the day shift’s jaws drop as they entered.
The day shift weren’t going to be beaten by the night shift.
They went absolutely flat out and, that evening, proudly replaced the number 3 with a huge number 4.
From then on, Andrew Carnegie was getting between 3 and 4 smeltings per shift.
That’s more than 300% increase in productivity.
He hadn’t threatened anyone, or fired anyone, or given anyone a raise.
He simply understood that competition isn’t a dirty word.
It’s fun.
People enjoy it.
Money isn’t the only motivator.
If it was, with the best-paid players in the world, England would have won the world cup.
Instead of failing to qualify.
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It’s interesting that research has found that people who score high on the trait of hypercompetitiveness are more narcissistic and less psychologically healthy than those who score low on the trait. Would you say this is Advertising’s gain or problem?
Interesting. So… what was the traffic system? Open briefs and work up on walls?
John W.
I can see that “hypercompetitiveness” would be “less psychologically healthy”.
But the dictionary defines hyper as, ‘high-strung, keyed-up, excessive’.
So I think hyper-anything isn’t in anyone’s interest.
But good old-fashioned competition is fun.
It’s not life or death, but it’s hard to have a game without it.
Craig,
It would take too long to explain it in a comment.
But if enough people express an interest I’ll explain it in a post.
yes please i’d like to hear, great story btw
Dear Dave
I suppose if you climb into the ring you’ve got to expect that they’re gonna be wearing boxing gloves.
The actual traffic ploy would be good to hear about.
yep. I’d like to hear more too. thanks
i would also be interested. thanks.
Very interested in the traffic system and would also like to see a post (or reissue) on your Binary Briefing. Used to have a dog-eared copy and despite Scamp bagging it a dozen posts or so ago, I reckon it would be a good read for your younger readers
Post the system! Post the system!
I also would like to hear the story.
The first rule of Blogging: give the people what they want!
Binary briefing… that sounds interesting.
Now, don’t get me wrong Scamp has had very good posts too but he lost me with ‘dressing wacky’ is important. Last time I saw Cabral he wasn’t wearing a silly hat…
Fair enough guys.
I’ll do a post on how the actual traffic system worked.
I’ll try to write it over the weekend and post it Monday.
I’ll keep it brief in case it gets boring.
If you need more detail, let me know.
Also, if you want to know about binary briefing, let me know.
Or anything else.
There are a number of things I could suggest as being a tad boring in this business of ours (only a tad boring because even the boring bits are far less boring than those in really boring jobs) but your blog isn’t one of them so go ahead Bore for Britain
Tom, I never said ‘dress wacky’. My message is just to be aware of what the clothes you wear are communicating about you.
There’s a reason the riot police don’t wear pink.