Ep. 101 - The Fluid Organization: Testing, Learning, & Iterating to Create Human Connection & Business Momentum - with Jen McDonald
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Jennifer McDonald is Chief Client Officer of North America at VMLY&R, where she leads a 250-person client engagement team.
We had Jen on the show back in episodes 70 and 71 to talk office politics, but we had to have her back on the show to discuss the transformation that VMLY&R underwent through 2020 and 2021.
We wanted to share how an organization this large could respond to the unknowns of a global pandemic with unprecedented fluidity — and our favorite thing about it is that their strategy hinged on supporting and empowering their people.
Finding Where You Play Best and Being Useful
Jen studied public policy and German in college, with aspirations of working for a non-profit or government agency solving “big world issues” — but, like many of us, her college journey does not reflect her career journey.
After some great public sector internship experiences, she realized that she didn’t want to work in government, which left her completely lost her senior year; she didn’t know anyone who worked in the private sector to give her perspective on the other possibilities out there.
By happenstance, she landed a job right out of college with a business intelligence software company called Microstrategy that experienced rapid growth and eventually went public. It was a company at the forefront of many organizations’ digital transformations.
She started out working on software implementation, but she quickly learned that she was much more interested in marketing the software and telling compelling stories. This kicked off a series of marketing leadership roles at technology companies.
She wanted to continually broaden her knowledge of marketing, so she purposely was searching for breadth vs. depth because she realized that going deeper into one specific area rapidly drained her energy. She recognized that her interest was in creating a plan and figuring out how to coordinate all of the different aspects of a team towards achieving those goals.
Ultimately, she realized that it was this intersection between creativity and technology and business that really fueled her — and she leverages that passion to help clients such as Wendy’s, Sam’s Club, and Napa Auto Parts solve challenges and move their business forward.
Jen’s ability to do what she does today comes from trying a lot of things out to hone in on where she plays best — a unique mashup of roles and expertise that allows her to lead a huge team that’s solving digital problems at a breakneck pace.
She’ll also tell you that success for her personally is how to be most useful to her team, her peers and her company. It’s not about the title but rather the impact that she feels she can make.
Building Professional Momentum: You’re Not (That) Stuck
Each new role Jen took on helped fuel the next leg in her career journey; each an opportunity to learn and explore what fit vs. moving linearly through an organization. This perspective on progression ended up really serving her, both in greater fulfillment and greater career opportunities, because she was able to learn about the environments, roles, and skills that really align to where she knows she can deliver the most impact.
And it’s because of these varied experiences that she was able to understand her own superpower: “My superpower is understanding what I don't know and kind of grabbing the best people or the smartest people for the job and kind of keeping us moving in one direction.”
This helped her realize her value, what makes Jen, Jen — or, said another way, Jen learned what her own brand was about. And that clarity helped her move forward with confidence.
If you’re feeling stuck in your professional journey, Jen has some encouragement: you aren’t stuck there!
“If you don't exactly like [where you are], then you are able to chart your own path and make a change — and that is as much on you as it is on the organization.”
Reacting to the Pandemic & Creating a More Fluid Organization
Like all businesses, VMLY&R (and all of their clients) had to figure out how to adapt to a global pandemic, both in the way they worked and how they solved client problems.
They have clients all over the world and some were thriving while others were struggling to survive; some had an opportunity to expand into new markets and some had to close their doors.
So how could VMLY&R best help all of companies they support all from their homes?
Jen and the executive team realized that to be more dynamic, fluid and agile as an organization, there had to be a focus on people first and foremost whether it was their own employees or their clients.
For Jen, that started with giving those closest to their clients’ the responsibility for determining what that client really needed — and that meant being really empathetic to the situation each of those clients were facing, “not just as a business but as human beings.”
They also held daily check-in meetings, (which they called daily scrums) to continuously share information so decisions could happen quickly. This is pretty common in the tech world and this rapid exchange of new information enables an organization to pivot much more rapidly.
Those daily meetings were also an opportunity for everyone to check in on one another and get a pulse on how everyone was doing as human beings in a suddenly-more-virtual world. The leaders of VMLY&R also worked as quickly as possible to flex up and down when it came to resourcing so they could fulfill the constantly shifting needs of the many companies they supported. That involved determining which employees fit best in their role so there was the most mutual value for that individual and for the client.
Jen gave a great example of what this type of management shift looks like in practice:
They hired a skilled employee who wasn't performing as well as expected with his client, but the issue wasn’t the employee’s abilities — there simply wasn’t alignment between his interests, abilities, and responsibilities.
Jen recognized his aptitude and moved him to another team where he could really leverage his talents. On a micro level, both the employee and client were happier. But on a macro level, that’s an employee who is going to be with their company longer and have a greater impact.
Jen also shares that one of the things that allowed VMLY&R us to adapt really quickly at the beginning of COVID was condensing the US business to one P&L, or one profit and loss account. This allowed the team to be much more fluid and more collaborative, cutting down on internal competition because they were all working toward a shared goal.
In the end, this shift to being a more fluid organization that is also human-centered has enabled them to unleash that creativity which is so important to their business. Further, by operating in a much more agile fashion, they have become more efficient, effective and transparent in the way they work. This has helped them continue to drive growth.
Career Advice
To determine if a company is a fit for you, evaluate these factors for yourself:
Do you enjoy the people you work with?
Are you engaged with the mission and vision the company is trying to achieve?
Do you feel valued?
Key Takeaways
You need the right mindset and approach to tackle this kind of organizational transformation; it is about focusing on the people who make the company run at the end of the day.
Creating a fluid organization involves being able to constantly shift, adapt, adjust, and learn — all while still staying connected to the people and goals of your clients or your own business. That’s necessary to survive in this new dynamic world.
That involves helping them build the right relationships across the organization so that they can create that necessary connection between others, particularly when working virtually and/or across borders. Think of it as helping your team network internally so they can build their own internal village of support.
It also involves meeting people where they are. Not everyone is going to adjust to change well so you have to be empathetic to their needs.
You can’t force someone to fit. You’re more likely to create traction by shifting someone who is underperforming to a role that they do fit in or have an interest in than by managing them in a role they don’t like. This isn’t just better for your employees — it’s going to drive business growth. This starts by recognizing your people’s aptitude, interests, and how they prefer to work.
Finding the right balance is a constant process. Everyone is trying to figure it out as they go, even the organizations that seem like they have it all figured out.
Even in a more virtual world, leaders need to make time for those moments of human connection.
Recognize that you are never really stuck in the place that you are at. You do have control to make a change and chart your own course — it’s as much on you as it is the organization.
When it comes to your career and your own development, you need a vision of where you want to go and a plan to make logical steps toward it every day. It won’t always feel like progress in the moment. But a year or two down the road, you will look back and realize how far you’ve come (just like a business).
Everybody's a work in progress. Nobody has it totally figured out.