If your staff turnover is high and client tenure short, it says a lot about your culture. Having a good one is all about people, not ping pong tables and soft furnishings. — “If you take a job where there’s lots of assholes, the chances are you’ll turn into one too” — Bob Sutton, The Pineapple Project, ABC, 2019 Ad agencies obsess over this concept of “culture” but having a good one is about more than…

Second-grade girls charged with collusion after early morning collision with the school principal. — When I was seven years old, I got into serious trouble at school and took my friend down with me. Principal Stevens, a stern and physically imposing man, told the entire school at morning assembly about our alleged crime. He spoke into a microphone from the top steps of the library, broadcasting the news over the loudspeaker system, through the corridors and across the ovals. The mysterious “two girls in…

In the Era of Trump, when the President is acting like a competitor, how do you protect your brand? — In the era of [insert here] Stiff competition and adulterous clients make advertising agencies race to keep ahead of change. Partly because they like shiny new things but also to show that they know what the next era of [insert here] will bring. Change is a constant topic in our industry; we’re experts at talking about…

Has email become less urgent — almost irrelevant — as we shift towards more intimate, instant messaging platforms? Word. — “I sent a lot of great emails” is not an achievement worthy of a resume bullet, nor is “answering emails” a remit on most job descriptions. And yet, sometimes it feels like that’s all we do, all day, every day. I have 18,603 unread emails across 4 accounts today. I…

How revisiting old words can inspire new ones. — Blog off? At its simplest level, a weblog or “blog” is a diary or journal. It can be run with software that is readily available…madonnad007.blogspot.com For a job interview, I set up a fake blog as a prop to explain “blog culture”. My premise? How brands could use blogs to show some personality, to let consumers see behind the corporate curtain. It was before authenticity, content marketing and corporate values became a thing. Clearly too early for the train to Purpose Town, I didn’t get the job (but we’re still friends).

Nearly three-quarters of us are going through the motions, showing up but only doing what is absolutely necessary to get through the day at our jobs. — Claire Snyder took active steps to find work that she was more engaged in. Meeting recently at RMIT in Melbourne, we discussed her transition from journalist to activist. A freelance consultant for environmental advocacy and “purpose-driven” groups, Claire has high profile organisations such as OXFAM, Greenpeace and the Australian Youth…

Poorly run meetings are the biggest time suck. — If your career has mostly been in small companies with dedicated internal teams who regularly communicate, you may not have a problem with meetings. My first “proper” meetings at one of the biggest global advertising agencies in New York were more like those captured so gloriously by Sarah Cooper in…