The Edge Archives - Media Guy Struggles https://mediaguystruggles.com/category/the-edge/ The Media Guy. Screenwriter. Photographer. Emmy Award-winning Dreamer. Magazine editor. Ad Exec. A new breed of Mad Men. Thu, 14 Feb 2019 20:25:00 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://mediaguystruggles.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/MEDIA-GUY-1-100x100.png The Edge Archives - Media Guy Struggles https://mediaguystruggles.com/category/the-edge/ 32 32 221660568 Dealing with Bears and the Eisenhower Decision Matrix https://mediaguystruggles.com/dealing-with-bears-and-the-eisenhower-decision-matrix/ https://mediaguystruggles.com/dealing-with-bears-and-the-eisenhower-decision-matrix/#respond Thu, 14 Feb 2019 20:25:00 +0000 http://mediaguystruggles.com/2019/02/14/dealing-with-bears-and-the-eisenhower-decision-matrix/ Okay so where am I? How you ever been in the middle of the innocuous RFP (Request For Proposal) process? Well, I have and it’s alternatively intense, ridiculous, mind-numbing, and about eight other adjectives that I cannot list here. I love getting new business. It breathes life into the agency. It’s great for the bottom […]

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Okay so where am I?

How you ever been in the middle of the innocuous RFP (Request For Proposal) process? Well, I have and it’s alternatively intense, ridiculous, mind-numbing, and about eight other adjectives that I cannot list here.

I love getting new business. It breathes life into the agency. It’s great for the bottom line. It rewards the soul if you can produce some Big Ideas and generate success. But the process of creating the RFP and submitting it is a real bear. Like the bear* from The Revenant. The process can eat you alive mentally.

Why? Because just when you think you are ready to collect your entire presentation and merge it one complete document, it chases you down again like the bear** in The Edge. The worst part of the entire game is that a) you don’t know if the fix is in with the companies offering the RFP, and b) your staff assembling your response to the RFP will tell you that everything is urgent and everything is important.

Now while the struggle of point “A” is definitely a real, most of us ban manage point “b” with a little technique I learned decades ago in college (yes, I am old…) called The Eisenhower Decision Matrix. You’re probably saying, “Wow, that’s a mouthful; The Eisenhower Decision Matrix. What is it?”

The Eisenhower Decision Matrix is how to distinguish between urgent and important tasks and make some real progress in your daily projects. If you’re a manager—or aspire to be—I’m sure that  sometimes feel like you spend the majority of your time managing crises. I bet you feel like your life is spent putting out one proverbial fire after another. At the end of it all you are completely zapped and drained of energy. Some days you look up and can’t point to anything you tangibly accomplished.

This is where The Eisenhower Decision Matrix can benefit you more then you know. Here’s the philosophy crux:

I’ve written before leadership lessons that came from Attila the Hun and now I want to add Dwight D. Eisenhower to the mix. This principle of this matrix guided him through his entire, hugely successful career as general and president:

“What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important.”

So what’s the difference between “urgent” and “important”?

Urgent means that a task requires immediate attention. These are the to-do’s that scream “Now!” Urgent tasks put us in a reactive mode, one that is ultimately marked by a defensive, negative, hurried, and narrowly-focused mindset.

Important tasks are things that contribute to our long-term mission, values, and goals. Sometimes these tasks are also urgent, but usually they aren’t. When we focus on important activities we operate in a responsive mode, which helps us remain calm, rational, and open to new opportunities.

It’s a fairly intuitive distinction, yet most of us frequently fall into the trap of believing that all urgent activities are also important. This is because our evolutionary ancestors centered in on on short-term concerns rather than long-term strategy. Maybe that’s because a charging saber-toothed lion could mean the difference between life and death.

Because of the 24-hour news cycle, we are constantly bombarded with information that has only heightened this deeply engrained mindset. We experience “present shock” – a condition in which “we live in a continuous, always-on ‘now’” and lose our sense of long-term narrative and direction. In this state of being, it’s easy to lose sight of the distinction between the truly important and the merely urgent.

The consequences of this priority-blindness is the primary cause of burnout and stagnation and on a broader level our culture is unable to solve the truly important problems of our time.

Business thinker Stephen Covey popularized the Eisenhower’s Decision Principle in his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, where he a decision matrix to help individuals make the distinction between what’s important and not important and what’s urgent and not urgent. The matrix consists of a square divided into four quadrants:

  1. Urgent/Important, 
  2. Not Urgent/Important
  3. Urgent/Not Important, and,
  4. Not Urgent/Not Important:

If you need extensive tutorials on the four quadrants, you should really buy the book (here’s the link; only $5.44 on your Kindle), but for my purposes, I’ll break them down quickly.

  • Quadrant 1—With a some rudimentary planning and organization, many Q1 tasks can be made more efficient or even eliminated outright. For example, instead of waiting until the last minute to work on an RFP (thus turning it into an urgent task), you could schedule your time so that you’re done a week in advance. 
  • Quadrant 2—We should seek to spend most of our time on these activities, as they’re the ones that provide us lasting happiness, fulfillment, and success. Unfortunately, present bias challenges that keep us from investing enough time and energy into Q2 tasks. We all have an inclination to focus on whatever is most pressing at the moment and make this our default mode. It’s hard to get motivated to do something when there isn’t a deadline looming over our head. Departing from this fallback position takes willpower and self-discipline. 
  • Quadrant 3—These tasks require our attention now (urgent), but don’t help us achieve our goals or fulfill our mission (not important). Most Q3 tasks are interruptions from other people and often involve helping them meet their own goals and fulfill their own priorities. They’re important to others, they’re not important to you. They need to be balanced with your Q2 activities or you’ll go crazy.
  • Quadrant 4—These aren’t urgent and not important. This is goofing around work . The kinds of work Prince sung about in “Raspberry Beret”: “I was working part time in a five-and-dime / My boss was Mr. McGee / He told me several times that he didn’t like my kind / ‘Cause I was a bit too leisurely / Seems that I was busy doing something close to nothing / But different than the day before.” If you specialize in Quadrant 4, you won’t work for me long.

In our present shock world, the ability to filter the signal from the noise, or distinguish between what’s urgent and what’s truly important, is an essential skill to have. So now, you’ll have to pardon me because we have to make FedEx by 4:30 P.M. to get this RFP overnighted to make tomorrow’s 2:00 P.M. deadline.

——-

World’s Worst RFP – A brilliant play on the entire RFP / Spec Work game:

Zulu Alpha Kilo takes on the RFP world with their “World’s Worst RFP” where they extend the conversation to the RFP and pitch process for both clients and agencies alike.

* – The Revenant Bear Attack:

** – The Edge Bear Chase:

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Chewing Gum at the Office https://mediaguystruggles.com/chewing-gum-at-the-office/ https://mediaguystruggles.com/chewing-gum-at-the-office/#respond Tue, 19 Apr 2011 04:26:00 +0000 http://mediaguystruggles.com/2011/04/19/chewing-gum-at-the-office/ Just another day at the office. The call from my side went something like this: “Montana, huh?” “You want to test your new product into Montana?” “But, why?” Twenty minutes later I took my directive and charted a marketing solution. But first it was time to speak with the natives. Or near natives. I have […]

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Just another day at the office.
The call from my side went something like this:

“Montana, huh?”

“You want to test your new product into Montana?”

“But, why?”

Twenty minutes later I took my directive and charted a marketing solution. But first it was time to speak with the natives. Or near natives.

I have a friend who decided it would be a good idea to save the world in Montana. That’s a wonderful concept, with the exception that I can’t possibly imagine living that far from the entertainment capital of the world. I mean to me living in Montana is like living in Edmonton. Even there they have a hockey team with five Stanley Cups. Buying media in Montana must be the same as buying media in Stockton, only easier.

So yesterday, I interviewed her to see what it’s like living in Montana. After all, how am I going to decide how to market this new chewing gum into our 44th most populous state?

———

Media Guy: So before living in Montana, what was it like living in L.A.?

Montana Friend: Living is L.A. is the equivalent of selling your soul for a patch of good weather, movie stars, gridlock traffic and superficial tans. Best of all, it can be taped live before a studio audience.

MG: What about living in Montana?

MF: Living in Montana is a lot like being duct-taped inside a storage container with a bunch of honey badgers. It’s dangerous and it’s probably going to be fatal no matter what.

MG: How can you tell the difference between dangerous mountain-people and not-as-dangerous mountain-people?

MF: At first everyone will seem like crazed-looking individuals who reek of meat-sweat and failure. Some of them will be dangerous and some will merely be your fellow Safeway patrons. After a while they will all be your friends.

MG: I hear garage sales are huge there.

MF: Beware of garage sales! They are actually traps.

MG: Traps for what?

MF: You start your morning with visions of finding those used albums in near mint condition or even a funky wooden radio from 1961. You go from telephone pole to telephone pole, guided only by those stenciled GARAGE SALE signs and then you arrive to junk heaven. Once you’re there and search the neatly organized merchandise, a delightful old lady named Gertrude will approach you. She’ll say “I have the best stuff inside.” When you bite, she’ll spring the trap. “So…have you enrolled in a fellowship
yet?” Then you’re toast. One hour to wiggle out of the Baptist Fellowship trap. Save your soul, indeed.

MG: It must be easier to drive in Montana than L.A.

MF: Au contraire. If you feel the need to leave the relative safety of your home and get behind the wheel, be prepared. You’ve just entered Grand Theft Auto on chaos mode. What’s worse is how exasperated you become because no one will notice that they nearly killed you. Instead they give you that “what the f**k are you doing on MY side of the road?” look.

MG: What about the bears? Have you honed your bear-fighting skills?

MF: You will be attacked by a bear at some point in your life here. These beasts remind you of Yogi Bear without the hat and tie. Don’t be fooled! They are ferocious killing-machines that are not controlled in any way. Your best bet to live is to find a rock that is blunt on one end for bludgeoning and sharp on the other for stabbing. You should definitely watch The Edge with Anthony Hopkins and Alec Baldwin because if the thought of beating/stabbing a monster that slightly resembles a Hanna-Barbara cartoon made you feel any emotion other than battle-rage, you will not survive. You know what? Nevermind. Bears always win, except if they are in a Hollywood movie.

MG: So why don’t you move back to L.A.?

MF: Because I love it here.

———

So believe or not, this cynical, but loving view of Montana gave me exactly what I needed: a pure, unadulterated view of a misunderstood state. And the perfect genesis of marketing genius.

Thank you Miss Montana!

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