Mad Men, Episode 9: Team Building Lessons On Hierarchy, Ego ...

Mad Men, Episode 9: Don leaves behind Michael Ginsberg's ad concept

Team building lessons from the most creative, dynamic, and dysfunctional ad agency?s creative department on television today.

If you follow our articles here at the Team Building Blog, then you know that we?re big fans of The Apprentice. It is, after all, a reality television series that casts real-life business professionals, and constitutes them into teams for the purposes of making compelling television programming. In the process, we get to observe the both the best practices and pitfalls of the team building process, all at an incredibly accelerated pace.

For as much as The Apprentice is our favourite reality television programme around here, Mad Men ranks as our most beloved fictional series: compelling characters, a candid look into American culture in the 60s, and, most of all, a realistic depiction of the inner-workings of a burgeoning Madison Avenue ad agency whose success and demise hinges on delivering fresh, creative ideas to both existing and prospective clients. For as much as Mad Men is a scripted show, its producers know what they?re doing; the tensions, issues, and processes played out in the office each week are compelling and ? for the purposes of this blog ? educational.

Let?s take a look at what happened last week, in episode 9.

If you sift through the episode?s debauchery and domestic drama, you discover a kernel of team building insight. We see Donald trying to reassert his creative prowess in working on the ?snowball? ad campaign for a prospective client. His concept ? a creative play on the ?snowball?s chance in hell? clich? ? is matched in creativity by the work of new creative department team member?Michael Ginsberg, who develops a humorous series of ad images depicting respected and authoritative figures like police officers and politicians being pelted by snowballs.

Both ideas are equally compelling, but in the end, Donald decides to pitch only his idea to the client ? and wins with it. This decision, of course, leads to new tensions between Donald and Michael. It is obvious that Donald feels threatened by Michael?s work when it competes against his own ideas. While he tries to justify his decision to Ginsberg by stating that he believes that pitching two ideas is ?weak,? Michael implies an accusation that Donald made the decision based on his ego. The episode ends with Donald?s divisive barb to Ginsberg: ?It?s a good thing you work for me.?

Not a very healthy team building strategy!

The Team Building Lesson

Hurt Feelings: Don't ego-based decision will have damaging effects on the team

The tension in episode 9 of Mad Men is worth noting: while Donald is the Creative Director of his own company and seen as the real talent behind the department?s efforts, his role has become increasingly hands-off, allowing the bulk of the work to be done by the team itself. This is a typical, real-life migration that many managers and directors transition into. For as much as business professionals often aspire to achieve directorial positions, pulling away from the doing can hit their egos hard: those at the top of the organisational chart often feel the need to assert themselves as the ?best? at what their department does.

Other managers and directors always remain hands-on, and continue to be productive alongside other team members, in spite of having hierarchy over them. This can also be a sensitive situation, since business roles become blurred; team members can be made to feel as though competing with ideas against their boss might be damaging to their own career!

If you are in Donald?s position at your business, then a decision has to be made when it comes to team building and managing: are you going to be a hands-on or hands-off manager? If the latter, then a candid discussion between yourself and your team is in order: while you may be the one who gives the marching orders, those job it is to develop ideas that may compete with yours should know that they are invited to be competitive and give their very best with no fear of doing so. Then, of course, you need to live up to that promise (which can be tough, no doubt).

And if you decide to pull back from being hands-on, then understand that jumping back into the business process ? for any reason ? can be damaging to your team?s workflow and creative process. If there is a legitimate need for you to get your hands dirty on a project, again ? make sure you?re communicative with your team on why.

Don?t take Donald?s approach. While he was indeed entitled to make the decisions made in episode 9, those decisions will have negative repercussions. That will make for some good television, but not for a healthy work environment.

Thanks for reading our article! Be sure to check out Accolade Corporate Events? wide range of team building events that can help your business?s departments achieve maximum productivity.

Question: Who do you think had the better ?snowball? ad ? Donald or Michael ? and why?

Tags: Mad Men

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 20th, 2012 at 2:54 pm and is filed under Team Building. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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