PHILOSOPHY: PEOPLE
To be a shield, A sword, A servant.
TO LEAD.
DEVELOPMENT
EVERYTHING is development. Every aspect of a project, every aspect of a client interaction, every team meeting, email sent, and social interaction is development.
If clearly written and oriented, even rocks and goals can be layered with development. My approach as a leader has been to harness these opportunities - even the seemingly benign - and build a measurable structure and cadence around them.
The results of that effort have led to insights that drive personal and professional development, build team coherence, and impact the quality of our output.
Most importantly, development is how we prepare to advance. It is my duty to prepare my team for whatever may come next in their careers, whether their next step is an internal or external one.
Development Programs
Annual Creative summit
Summits are designed to occur on an annual basis. These are off-side events where the team gathers to reflect on and update our mission statement, evaluate our process and workflows for improvement opportunities, align on ways to build culture through ritual and tradition, and vote on group activities for each quarter.
Group review/critique/ideation sessions
While reviews, critique language, and ideation are a part of everyday workflow/communication in a creative environment, it is important to have a regularly scheduled session where we can do some evaluation and creative thinking as a group. Often there will be a theme; bring your best and WORST creative output from the last few months. Pride and humility in equal measures helps find a productive balance and builds trust within a group setting.
Development-oriented goals
It’s crucial to have healthy goals that drive our work, but to align them to a project, initiative, or KPI alone is missing an opportunity. Whether it’s a hard skill like new software expertise or a soft skill like confidence while presenting work to senior stakeholders, there’s always a business oriented objective to attach personal and professional development to.
Group courses / certificates
When budge permits, it is much more effective to enroll a group of creative thinkers in a group course, vs individual attendance. The experience of learning, debating, building, and analyzing through shared creative assignments pulls a team together and gives them a common creative language to apply. The most recent success with this approach was via an ‘Unlocking Creativity course through IDEO U.
PROMOTION
Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
AWARDS
One crucial aspect of leading and mentoring a team effectively is to ensure that their efforts are measured; that the measurement has meaning. Validating their work builds a sense of pride and accomplishment, and fosters an environment of expectation of themselves and each other. In this high-performing environment, award-worthy work becomes common - and internal praise comes with it.
Equally important is taking that praise public, which boosts credibility and certifies a team's excellence. Awards in the creative space builds a reputation, which in turn helps my team with their relationships day-to-day as it generates trust with their clients and peers. An added benefit are milestones they can platform for their own personal career growth.
The creative team at Allina Health has achieved multiple gold and platinum awards from GDUSA's Annual In-House Design Awards and the annual Marcomm Awards program in ever year we've entered. High praise…and well deserved.
2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025