People Solve Problems

I produced a large festival in Dallas, TX for several years and had the privilege of working with a man I had respected for many years named Denny Keitzman who is one of the absolute best production managers the industry has ever seen.

It was an outdoor event and we had seen several days of severe weather leading up to the event as well as on show day. Everyone on the stage was exhausted and starting to fade as the show finally got under way. As we were discussing possible scenarios to preserve the event and make the best out of a tough situation I remember him saying “people solve problems, so let’s make sure our people working have exactly what they need to do their job, they are well fed, and they feel appreciated”.

The first thing we did was have catering bring additional food and drinks to the stage. The next thing we did was huddle the team and figure out what each person needed to be successful that day and we made sure if it was at all possible we got it for them. Finally we made sure everyone knew that they were vital to the success of the day and every chance we got we made sure to thank them and let them know they were appreciated.

What could have been a disastrous day ended up being one we all celebrated together and still talk about to this day.

I see too many situations where organizations forget that it’s people who solve problems and if you want to grow an organization you have to be about people. Starbucks says it best when they say “we are not in the coffee business serving people, we’re in the people business serving coffee. We are passionate about the people who make the coffee, the people we serve, the people we partner with, and the communities we’re a part of”

I think over the years I haven’t adequately been able to state why I do what I do. I think some people have seen the creativity and technology and always thought I was about excellence for the sake of excellence or being great at creativity or technology, but it’s always been about people.

When you take an approach that is people centered it makes it easy to keep an open mind. Through the years I didn’t always just do what I wanted to do or what I thought would be the coolest thing. In fact there were several times I completely thought ideas were the wrong ideas or approaches, but…because it was never about me and it was always about people, the people coming in the doors, the people I worked with, the people I worked for, and the people/companies I kept relationships with, it was always easy get past it and stay about the business of connecting with and impacting people.

Comments

[Bill Swaringim]

great post Mike.