The Kindness of Many Strangers

Strong leadership is the secret sauce of strong companies. You may be the most creative and most groundbreaking firm on the planet. But if your teams don’t work well together, if they spend too much time on the wrong parts of the process, and if they don’t keep clients happy—you’ll see subpar results. In this Best Practice interview, Holly Deichmann and Zoe Small, Associate Principals at Diller Scofidio + Renfro, share exactly how good managers can uphold the business: by empowering employees, setting up processes that manage client expectations, and maintaining just the right amount of anxiety to keep everyone on their toes.

Interview Takeaways

• Embrace anxiety
• Take off some of your hats
• Diffuse the smallest icebergs first
• Cap off the creative process
• Get input early on
• Make time for actual work
• Be persistent in your creativity
• Repurpose, rather than reinvent
• Show, don’t just tell
• Take time to establish trust initially
• Match the right people to the right project
• Prep clients for their responsibilities

Show Links

• Connect with Zoe Small on LinkedIn 
• Connect with Holly Deichmann on LinkedIn
• Check out Diller Scofidio + Renfro
• Connect with George Valdes on LinkedIn or Twitter
• Connect with Chris Morgan on LinkedIn 
• Check out Monograph
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• Listen and read more about Monograph