Balancing A Curious Mind With A Clearly Defined Role

When we started iThnk it was just a bita fun. We felt that we had some pretty good ideas and that if we shared them maybe someone would listen. It was easy to love the job in the beginning, Andy and I would just work on whatever part of a project was needed.

All this changed when we started making money, not big money but money nonetheless. Now we’re super busy and we’re trying to define our areas of expertise and the tasks that make up our roles.

This is one of the hardest things to do (well in my experience anyway) because I just want to be involved in everything. But it’s at the point where it’s 100% necessary to divide up our energy to increase efficiency and maintain personal sanity. Every company has to do this sort soul searching breakdown of responsibilities but from what I’ve seen the guidelines on how to do this are pretty crap.

I recently finished ‘Getting Things Done’ by David Allen it’s a great book with some great advice for achieving tasks and being productive, but it didn’t prioritise passion, enjoyment and keeping curiosity alive – which aint that cool. So I made a new framework where I’ve put enjoyment and passion first – because these are the things that iThnk keep curiosity alive and will help us happily divide tasks without getting too much FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out).

Defining happy roles

What Do You Thnk?

Clearly this is a bit of an experiment so any advice or input you have would be greatly appreciated.

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Sammy Balancing A Curious Mind With A Clearly Defined Role

This post was written by Sam Schuurman (aka SocialSammy). You can connect with him on both Twitter and Linkedin.

  • MiriamS

    Very good! Good on you guys.

  • socialsammy

    Thanks Miriam – we'll see how this pans out. I have a feeling that over time it's something that we'll have to regularly re-assess.

    Hope all is well with you.

  • ophil

    Nice Sammy… guess you are running into that existential dilemma; distinguishing between and reconciling management and strategy… I'm guessing you know my position on this one, PURPOSE is the driver, achieving it efficiently is management… Sometimes it's not outsourcing that is the solution BUT maybe acquiring some management competencies…. this doesn't have to be a people manager , can often be a 'time manager' often just referred to as a PA! Let someone run your business processes, so you can run your business (and generate the revenues!)

    PS the opposite of competencies isn't incompetencies! while we might be capable of doing the work required it just might not be the best thing we could be doing

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  • socialsammy

    Thanks Phil, yes unfortunately it's a fairly typical situation that we're facing & I'm trying to look for a way to steer clear of traditional management structures. I've been looking at other traditional models and operational systems for running a business and after reading Rework I'm convinced that there's a better way.

    My initial observation is that the agency model is kind of broken, not only are they competing with increasingly talented DYI marketers they also work people too hard and make their people spend too much time on things that don't result in direct benefit to their clients. They're in the everyone game where they are trying to appeal to all types of businesses which makes it very difficult to stay at the top of their game (constantly having to add new features) – so at this stage I'm thinking of the intentionally small and intentionally targeted at a niche market that we really enjoy working with..

    Plus I'm also trying to incorporate the lessons learned from the GM vs Toyota scenario where GM brought everything in house and failed while Toyota outsourced everything that wasn't part of their core competencies….maybe a PA would be perfect in the not too distant future but we'll see how this evolves.

    Any further thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated.

  • socialsammy

    Phil this has been on my mind most of the day and I really like it…..

    “The opposite of competencies isn't incompetencies! while we might be capable of doing the work required it just might not be the best thing we could be doing”

    I just wrote it down in my little book of quotes to keep in mind/live by…awesome!

  • alexwhalley

    “The opposite of competencies isn't incompetencies! while we might be capable of doing the work required it just might not be the best thing we could be doing”

    I love that your comment threads are just as epic as your posts.
    Awesome quote that I too have added to my quote list :)

    SOrry never got back to you re: meeting up this week, Harrison been really sick so EVERYTHING has been put on hold – traffic s l o w l y dying… hahaaaaargh

    I suppose I had better comment on the post now hey.
    Awesome man, really hit home for me as this is exactly what I am trying to do at the moment, literally. And I am finding the making money side has taken a back seat to all the tasks associated with building longevity (ie building a blog and a brand) but seriously, finding the balance is impossible, because realistically I need to make money now AND build longevity – maybe I will give that book a read.

    Talk soon my friend

  • socialsammy

    Hi Alex

    Yeah Phil is always full of wonderful pieces of insight and he such a knack of making his comments every so catchy.

    I think what you're in right now is probably the toughest spot to be in, the spot where you need it to pay off so that you can live and get back to focusing on long term objectives. It's incredibly tough to think strategically when you're constantly focussed on making a living and it's incredibly hard to make a living when all you do is think strategically. I know I fall into this second trap a lot. Hang in there man, I'm sure you'll make it through and it will all come good in time.

    Lets catch up this week, I'm free-ish on Friday, gime a call, tweet or text.

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