I just called, to say...

What's the best way to, you know, um... communicate?
(Don’t ask me, I'm busy).
Tell you what, instead of reading this and typing a comment, texting me or sending
me an e-mail reply, why not call me?

That’s right, call me. My number at Engine is 02 9438 2000 and I’d love to hear from you.
It’s not likely to happen is it?
Now I know better than to take that personally. Know why? Because the phone has
been banished to the realms of crisis and time filling.

Without trying to sound like an oldie, years ago every major decision in the creative
world was taken via a combination of face-to-face meetings and phone calls.
Then e-mail and the Internet showed up and things changed.
There has been a real change of dynamic in the way we communicate…or don’t as
the case may be.

Electronic media has allowed us to keep each other at arms length and to distance us from each other whenever and wherever decisions have to be made. How many times have you e-mailed someone one or two lines and considered that communication? Often the person will reply in Instant Messenger style and what ensues is nothing short of a conversation, without a single spoken word. Who do you know who can type faster than they can speak? And yet we still don’t pick up the phone.

Why?

Not only is the communications path changing but the quality of communication is changing with it, for the worse. We now have very little intimacy and respect in our communications and very rarely get to judge the emotion behind what someone is really trying to say.

How many times have you had an e-mail or text misinterpreted because the other person couldn’t sense your intonation or emotion? This in turn has altered the dynamic between agency and client.

Often we have huge projects, with big budgets that are treated in the same way as a meeting request. One line question, one line response. Not good. Not good at all.
Until, that is, there is a crisis.

Ohhh dear…then things change. So, here we are skipping happily along with our single sentence, single word, single syllable communication when something is missed, forgotten or, dare I say, miscommunicated.

Then, dear reader. The phone call is made. And it isn’t good. Lots of screaming, finger pointing and often complete inaccuracies as both parties try very, very hard to blame each other and secretly wonder how it went so wrong and why.

Want me to let you into a secret? If we don’t talk, it’s very hard to listen.
At Engine we do a lot more in house than most companies. This has its benefits and its downsides. One of the biggest benefits is that people talk. And listen. I’ve often been part of a meeting that has arisen from a WIP and born more fruit than a thousand e-mails…because we’ve all been in the same room, talking the same language, raising our eyebrows in the same way, but understanding why.
Good. Quality. Communication.

Creative is a precious resource. It needs to be held tightly and cherished. Without it our industry has nothing. Or next to nothing.
In today’s working world it seems that more things to do, with less people and less time is very often the way we are told we should be working.

A simple equation:
More things + less people + less time = poor communication = bad creative
Now, what was I referring to when I said, “…the phone has been banished to the
realms of crisis and time filling...”?

Allow me to elaborate…or alternatively, as I’m a bit pushed for time, give me your
number and I’ll call you from the car on my way home from work. You just won’t
believe who I saw making out with who last night…

Adam Wells is Executive Producer at Engine