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Dealing with the Unexpected – A Cancelled Show.

As production people, we spend a lot of time planning how the show is going to run, sound, and look, as well as creating an environment that is safe so the audience will enjoy themselves. Just last month I was working on one of our largest shows of the year. 2,500 tickets sold. We would be converting our recreational space into a concert hall.  A month of planning, contracting and getting excited to do what we do best, and the day of the show finally arrives.

Surprisingly, everything is going according to plan. It’s not raining yet, contractors are arriving on time, the volunteers are showing up to do their part, and we are getting ready for a show. Even the artist’s advance team has arrived and they are doing their thing. We are a couple of hours from doors, heading into the calm before the storm. Dinner is being served to the production team and entry team, then a call comes over the radio. A quick unplanned meeting, nothing new, this happens all the time as logistics change, it’s part of the job.

However, the message I received during this meeting was not expected at all. I was met with somber faces and one simple sentence. “They’re not coming.” Thirty minutes before 2,500 guests are about to come through the doors and the headliner never got on the plane, there will be no show…I’m sure you can imagine the curse words that came out of my mouth at that time.

Taking a minute to back-track and fill in a bit more of the story. I’m now in my 6th year of being a production professional, but I have never had a show canceled. I’m a planner – a checklist kind of person and a problem solver –really that should be my entire job description – but surprisingly I didn’t have anything in place for this kind of situation. I’ve heard of shows being canceled before, seen it happen around town; just never expected it to happen to me. The campus hasn’t experienced such a last-minute cancellation with so many people involved either, so we were starting from scratch on what to do.

Back to the situation at hand; at this point, my mind is racing, developing the checklist of how to solve this problem, each step to move forward for our best possible outcome for this situation. Our first step becomes identifying and telling our key players about the situation we are in. So our small team splits to gather the bigger team; our campus police chief, head of security, the facilities manager, and our ticket manager to break the news. They also had their own choice words. Then the questions started coming.

What are we going to do? How did this happen? Are we going to open the doors? Is it even possible to refund tickets? When are we going to reschedule? How are we going to tell everybody else? Where did the artist’s advance team go? and so many more. To answer one question easily – the advance team left, and then called to let us know it was canceled once they were off the property.

At this time everyone has their individual goals in mind, their own concerns to address. Everyone is emotional and everyone is reacting differently. Once the shock of the cancellation begins to fade we started to put together action plans.

First, draft an email to send to students (A majority of the ticket holders), the radio station, and to post on social media providing notice of the cancellation, the reason, and to hold on to tickets. Getting this information out was critical considering the event was scheduled to begin in just minutes. Once the communication was out, we could determine if we would reschedule or refund tickets.

Second, tell the rest of our teams about the cancellation, and ask them to patiently wait for further direction. Additionally, request their professionalism with regard to posting messages on social media or texting friends. We need to ensure a clear and complete message had a chance to circulate before the rumors flew.

Third, we determined that we would not open the venue for the evening, but would post people at the entrance doors to communicate the cancellation. This was a prevention step to ensure that a potentially angry crowd, would disperse without incident. It also allowed for us to move onto our Fourth step, taking the setup down.

Our team that held it together until the end

Our team that held it together until the end

I learned a lot from this entire experience. The students and the rest of the team working on this event learned a lot as well. We learned that an angry crowd will take their frustrations out quickly. Crowds get rowdy, and social media blasts go out everywhere. There is anger, disappointment, and confusion. We have to take this into consideration when making the announcement and dispelling the crowd gathered at the entrances. It doesn’t change the work we have to do, but it does make you readjust your concern for safety and crowd control.

We finished our jobs for the night and took the rest of the weekend off. Nothing more could be figured out until Monday morning. After all of that surprise, emotion, and expenses we decided to see if we could re-negotiate with the artist. As a result, we will be holding the same show next month, this time with a cancellation plan in mind.

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Navigating the Build – 100 Days to Show Time.

Being a part of a new building process is quite an adventure. The building will open to the general public in 100 days. It has been approximately 200 days since my last blog about it- check out my first blog on the building process here.

img_3153100 days until the building opens to the public, students wandering through taking a look, dining employees getting to know their new kitchens, and of course, brand new technology running our meeting rooms.
It’s a bit daunting to think about how much is left to be done and how little time is left.

As the project has moved forward, I have continued to learn more and more about how all the pieces of a new building come together. Four years ago I was reading drafts and plans of how things would look and be wired. On the latest walkthrough, it is all starting to come together. Equipment is installed, wired, and starting to work. It’s astounding how long it has taken and yet how quickly all the pieces are coming together.

It is has been eye-opening that even though hundreds of people have read the project books, details are still missed. Budgets get adjusted, and sometimes pieces just don’t come together in time. Many words from my last building update remain valid. In particular, the importance of setting a timeline and sticking with it as well as setting the budget and maintaining it.

The timeline is still as vital today as it was 200 days ago. Just as it is important to schedule start and ends time to an install it is also important to schedule progress checks and walk-throughs frequently; although there is a balance to checking on the work and micro-managing. For instance, in this project’s case, there are so many people and layers that changes need to go through before they can happen sometimes it takes too long to get a change order in and approved before it can no longer be modified. Once the ball is rolling it’s almost impossible to stop without an increased expense.

Checking early and often can combat this, but you also don’t want to get in the way and slow down the timeline. Each step affects the next, so if something needs to be changed get the process started early, so it doesn’t have significant ramifications on the building schedule. There are a few items in this building that if caught earlier could be changed, however, that didn’t occur and for now, it’s too late.

The budget is just as important from start to finish as I wrote the last time around, but as we go, I’m learning just how valuable it is to truly get the budget set for all the needs right away. It’s not worth the stress or the headache of wondering if there will be enough money left afterward to add this or that. Establish the budget from the start to include everything deemed a priority, and then leave room for the price of those items to change. Having the funds set aside from the beginning will help with getting everything done on time and right the first time.

Finally, last time I wrote about balancing persistence and patience, and it remains even truer today. I would also add acceptance and creative problem-solving. Accept the things that cannot be changed, lower your expectations for perfection. The building and technology will not be perfect, recognizing that early on can help you not to get stuck on the small things. Decisions have to be made fast, pick your priorities and stick with them. Focus on significant issues; the little ones won’t matter in the long run.

Get creative. Find different sources to purchase equipment if you can; it might be cheaper or even free. Currently, I am applying for a grant to add the lighting equipment my staff wants and loves. Buy ahead, I am an organized person, so I like to have the right cases and storage capabilities. However, these items could be considered extra when it comes to a budget that is running low. So I purchased ahead and bought cases that are general enough they will be easy to integrate into whatever we end up within the building. Be creative in your problem-solving, look at every possibility, and be prepared to make changes.

Last but not least, don’t forget about your current facility or shows. You may still need to invest in what you have to keep your current shows running. If something is already 15 years old and the project completion is five years away, it’s likely going to fail or have trouble before you are finished with it. If your budget allows, do not plan to move your 15-year-old equipment into the new facilities. You do not want every room and rack to look like the highlight of the daily AV nightmare posts floating around the internet.

 

Preparing for the Start of the School Year – Staff Training

As the start of the school year approaches there are many things that need to happen before the first events take place at UWL. Checking racks and carts to make sure everything is working. Installing fresh projector lamps where needed, and finishing up the last of the cable repairs to name a few. The overall goal is to be prepared for the busy season, which is virtually the entire semester.

Working for the school many of my staff members leave for the summer and won’t touch a soundboard until they are back in the fall. Just like in elementary school with such a long summer break many items are forgotten and time has to be spent relearning the skills and procedures, and then start building on the new ones. In preparation, student employees are asked to come to campus a week early for 40 hours of staff training before classes and events start on opening weekend.

This week is vital to getting the team back into the tech regime as well as setting the tone for the entire season. This is the one and only week for the entire year when the pressure of events are off and time is more flexible to address issues and try new things. I find this week to be one of our most important as it sets the tone for the year as well as gets everyone back up to speed, making the year easier for me. I take full advantage of this week, and carefully pick and choose what we will do, to make the best of our time.

Here are the topics we will be covering and why.

Technology

We spend a lot of time on technology; it’s what we do, and what our clients need the most assistance with. I make sure we always spend time on our primary audio systems as well as the lighting systems. We work toward advancing the existing skills by doing drills and exercises that will push the staff’s limits. Substantial time is spent on any equipment pieces that are new.

This year the technology training is going to complete via solo activities. This is purposely designed due to having a fairly new staff and needing those students to gain independence. Seven different stations designed for each person to refresh and improve their skills. The goal is to get everyone to their next level in time for our new building. The stations this year focus on mixing, LED light, faster setups, house lighting, troubleshooting, and more.

Emergencies

We work through our emergency procedures twice a year, but fall is where we get really in-depth. We combine the 3 teams that are most likely to need to react in an emergency and work together to make sure everyone knows their role and responsibilities. We cover medical situations, building safety, fire, inclement weather, and active shooter situations. These students also receive AED/CPR training from a certified instructor as well as basic first aid.

Teamwork

Teamwork is important to me; I think it is vital to be able to work together to create a successful event. We spend time developing how we work together by doing different exercises to see how people react and open dialogue about strengths and weaknesses. I usually ask for someone else within my office to lead this training so an outside perspective can offer advice to increase the team’s cohesiveness. Then throughout training, we build on these activates that expand on teamwork as well as offer some fun and competitiveness.

Communication

stageI’ve talked about the importance of communication before and it will always remain a forefront topic during our training. There is a great deal of communication that takes place in the learning and planning modes. The importance of good communications increases during an event. The emphasis is on different types of communication and how good communication can improve the success of the team. Each year we try to raise the bar on how the team uses communications to work together. An example of this is if the team struggled to work through conflict communication in the last year, we’ll spend time on that. Other topics could include leadership communication, directional communication, or even body language.

Customer Service

Customer Service in production technology is a whole lot different than customer service in say retail or restaurants. The customer isn’t always right and sometimes we just have to say no to some of their desires. Here we work to empower the staff to be able to help as necessary, offer advice for logistics, the best use of the venue and technology. It’s important that we develop the skills to communicate clearly with the customer, and address issues in a friendly manner. We work through how to tell a customer they can’t do something due to safety concerns or time constraints, or equipment possibilities, solving problems in a way that works for all parties involved.

Team planning

staffFinally, we spend time team planning or visioning. Usually, over a meal, we talk about what the team looks like now and what they would like to look like in the future. We talk about what procedures are working and which aren’t. Overall, we come up with a vision for the group that includes improvements through the year that makes the team better by continuing to learn, grow, and change as needed. Vision is important to me. When the team is involved in creating the vision and goals for the year, they will be more engaged in putting forth the effort that is needed to reach those achievements.

To conclude, preparation is important for the start of the year. Training, communication, and planning gives us the foundation to come together as a well-performing team. It’s not a one-time thing; the opportunity to improve and learn is continual. Next year we will be in a new building with hundreds of updates, new demands, and a new outlook on how we work as a unit and a team. While my focus for the moment is on training the staff for this year, my subconscious is already working to anticipate what will need to be done to prepare for the next year, when we move into a new facility. There will be more space, more technology, shifting customer expectations, and more deliverables expected from the team. One thing I feel confident about is that we will continue to work with the core concepts of technology, teamwork, communication, customer service, and team planning.

PS: more on the new building to come soon!

 

Changing the Dread of the Annual Review

As a manager of 12 student staff members, it is part of my responsibility to conduct annual or semester reviews.  I see the value in reviews as it is an opportunity to connect with staff, have a one-on-one conversation without racing the clock to cover the event needs, and to talk about anything that may need to be further addressed.   However, I personally hate reviews.  I hate that it can be such a formal process where there always seems to be a buildup of anxiety before the meeting, and then in my case (when I have my own review) I have to fill out a form rating and justifying myself before I speak with my supervisor.  Reviews can be really nerve-racking and sometimes some of the information shared comes as a surprise.

When I first started as a manager I followed the standard review process I had experienced.  Send off the “rate yourself” form and schedule a meeting with the employee than go through the form myself and rate them. Let the anxiety build until the meeting occurs, discuss the differences in ratings, tell them what to fix, and call it a day.  Doesn’t sound too helpful, does it?  All someone really gets out of that is what I think differently from them (usually) about their work and then we go on about our business.  I also feel as though 80% of the time new information is shared at these meetings, which I also don’t like.

I think a review should be a time to touch base, continue conversations uninterrupted from the standard workday, have two-way communication about plans and ideas, further address issues (if needed), and best of all grant raises if you can. I think reviews should be positive and oriented toward improvements than negative with reprimands and surprise information. As a result, I decided to take a new approach with my staff members.  I threw out the “rate yourself” form, stopped asking if they thought they meet expectations or exceed them, and address issues as they occur instead of once a year or semester.

Instead, I decided to change the anxiety-filled meeting into a conversation about goals and planning. This way, I gain knowledge of where they are in achieving the goals they have set, provide my 2 cents on where I think they are, continue a conversation about something that hasn’t gone well, and – if I can afford it – offer a raise.  

As a side note, I include continuing the conversation about something that hasn’t gone well in the past, as I never want a negative topic to be a surprise.  If I see something an employee needs to change I tell them right then (if time permits), otherwise sometime that day. I never wait too long or let it be a surprise later on. That doesn’t do anyone any justice. Waiting 6 months to tell someone that they did something they shouldn’t only give them more time to continue the mistake and for it to become the norm.

I always start my review meetings touching base with the staff member, asking them how they are doing, what’s stressing them out most right now in life and/or at work, and opening the door so the employees can talk to me about anything they want to first. Then we move into goals. We will discuss progress on the goals they set for the semester reviewing their progress and discussing if the expectations have been met both by me and the employee. Then we move forward with setting new goals. Usually, I have staff members set three goals. I have found that three goals in a semester seem to be achievable and we can cover a wide range of enhancements within those three.  I strive for each staff member to have one skill-based goal (communication, leadership, etc.) one technology-based goal (mic placement, board techniques, etc.), and then one in any area they desire to improve.

We determine these goals together so we both can see developments where needed, but so we can also make sure the goals are achievable and lay the groundwork to do so.  We talk right then about how they plan to reach those goals and what I can do to help them.  It is also an opportunity to make a recurring issue a goal for improvement so everyone is on the same page.

Our next conversation is about raises. If I am allowed, I give raises based on their performance and their achievements of these goals. If I can’t give a raise we have a conversation of why so they know why no raise was given. I try to not keep everything a secret; secrets don’t help create a team environment.  

Finally, I open the floor to them. I ask them if they have anything else they would like to discuss or anything they want to bring to my attention or feel that I should change. Communication is a two-way street so for all of us to be a great team together. I believe that my employees should feel like they can talk to me about or ask me to change anything. Having open conversation helps to create a positive work environment and also allows for me to be transparent about what I am working with or up against. I can learn as much from them as they can from me so keeping communication open helps me improve and develop my management skills as well.

Overall, my philosophy with my employees is that I’m a stepping-stone to whatever they desire next from their careers.  My goal is to create an employee that is prepared, educated, and qualified for their next job. Now, their next job always means they leave the operation as I can only hire students so they always move forward, but I don’t think my philosophy would change if I worked somewhere where employees had indefinite terms. However, I would adjust my orientation of the next job being within the company instead of elsewhere. My point is this: change your review tactics if you are a manager in order to make it about goal setting and moving forward instead of each staff member’s personal Yelp review from someone who didn’t even ask the server for more ranch before bashing the company online).

A Perspective on Success

Many people define success in different ways: A good setup, starting on time, a sold-out show, or more.  Industry success is often defined by the number of awards that someone has won, which internationally acclaimed band they are touring with, or by that bright and shiny new equipment they can afford.  Obviously, there are hundreds of ways to define success and just as many that could be used to call something failure.

Recently, when working with a student staff member they told me all they wanted was for one show to go perfectly right, exactly as planned.  That idea intrigued me, mostly because I never really thought about it that way, so I asked for them to share more with me. I learned that their desire was to never have to go back and change or fix something. They wanted to set the mics in the exact right spot, get the monitor mixes perfect during soundcheck, and have the entire system plug and play properly so nothing ever needs to be traced back for corrections. I do find value in that idea, but I think it is impossible. Now people who know me know that I don’t think of many things as impossible. There is always an option or a workaround to get something done. However, with the nature of the business and the nature of a young and learning staff team, one must realize that it is impossible to have everything go exactly right the first time around. Why is that? My guess is human nature and how communication works and the fact that people change their minds all the time.

On the other hand, as I define the success of the staff I have to keep in mind that normally 50% of this staff team has never touched an XLR cable before they joined the team while the others are learning to watch for the details, keep track of timing, and teaching the new staff; also that most staff member only gets three years in staff before they graduate. Everyone’s on a steep learning curve and to master it all in a short period of time is impossible.

This is where I challenged that staff member to change their frame of mind. Redefine what success in an event looks like. Change the impossible into something achievable and value the successes that come with each event – find the bright side. Success for a staff team like this is a moving target. Each person is working towards their individual goals, and each individual is working within the team to achieve the teams’ goals. The team goals cover the broader picture like having the PA plugged in and tuned early so soundcheck can occur when the artist is ready, packing the cases properly and checking off the pack list so they don’t have to run back for missing equipment, leading the team, and being able to make adjustments on the fly as things always change.

I define success as someone on the team learning something new or showing that they learned from their mistake by doing it right the next time.  They have grown and are able to take on larger events with more independence. They can set up and fully troubleshoot the night taking care of concerns as needed. Success is demonstrated by someone being able to think through the situation with all the variables and make the right decisions that result in a great event.

hhjune2016-2I look at success as a bigger picture. I find my success in the growth the staff has, the increase in services we can offer, and by watching each team member going from never wrapping a cable right to leading the entire team during one of our large event setups. For some, these changes may seem to be too small and take too long to see the results. For me it’s about the bigger picture. The small successes here will lead to these students’ larger successes in the future.  For me it is all about what is next for these staff members. I find my success in the education and training can I provide them so they become valuable employees for their next position.

How do you find success? Are you looking for the impossible to define your success or do you celebrate the short-term wins? You may not have a staff where you can see their successes like me, but there are many ways to see individual successes. Success can be recognized by seeing your growth from small shows to larger ones, gaining more leadership within and during the event, or by increasing your knowledge of the board you’re using that night.  There are many ways to define success, define yours by setting some goals that are achievable quickly and others that might take more time and work towards those goals. Instead of striving for perfection, strive for success. Either way, if you’re a veteran in the industry or someone just starting out, think back to when you started and where you are now. Think of all of those successes that occurred over time, define what they mean to you, and continue to strive to be more successful; not perfect.

 

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