Thursday, November 20, 2008

In which I tell LL that I love him.

Because he has verified, in AV format, that I AM NOT CRAZY!



As we well know, being not crazy, and also eating "a fruit a bread a veg a milk a cheese a bean a meat," are very important.

For years I thought I was only imagining this segment, and if on the off chance I wasn't imagining it I thought that Farmer Brown was a Sesame Street guy. Neither of those figments are true. This is actually good news. I don't mind being not crazy, and if you watched the video, you can well imagine WHY I was thinking Sesame Street, because who in their right mind(s) would be thinking USDA?

Thanks Dude! You rock, and I love you, man.

===============================

That video production I mentioned yesterday? One good thing about it: I did not appear in the presentation. One bad thing about it: It was a team effort, one in which a group of a dozen people were assigned various roles that were supposed to reflect the actual movie-making procedure, but which also in their turn describe some of the roles that exist in the clinical development paradigm.

Guess who was assigned to be executive producer?

Yeah, me. I had to lead a team of people I barely know through the motions of making an 8 - 12 minute film on the future of clinical research at my company. Sure thing! I can do that! Why, as someone on the very BOTTOM of the corporate totem pole, I am well equipped to tell anyone and everyone what to do, to hold team meetings at the appointed times, to stay out of the way of any TECHNICAL work being done and simply command the ship, to delegate and let the core team success or flounder on their own! Yes! That's me all right! Step aside and Let.Me.Lead.

Yes, friends, me, with a sum total of about 8 minutes of management experience, was put in charge. It's a wonder the very earth under my feet didn't split and swallow me whole right there at the very unlikelihood of it. With all my 'leadership potential,' it should therefore not be any wonder that my team had not committed ANYTHING to film until 30 minutes before we were supposed to turn in the cameras and begin our feedback session. We had a blank screen, despite the timetable that declared filming should have begun a full 90 MINUTES before deadline. Hey, what's an hour's difference in an exercise that took 2.5 hours, start to finish? Bah! A pittance!

Oh my yes, there were many chiefs and chefs, all of them stepping on one another's toques and headdresses as they 'worked together.' My crack core team needed to be reminded time and again that they were responsible for pulling this thing together - I saw one of them give up hope way too soon, leaving his team to determine how to get their jobs done. I had one team member who forgot they were in charge of DIRECTING, and so nothing was happening except random nattering. The writers were constantly being bugged about producing a script, which meant that they couldn't actually produce a script because they were answering questions, and with three minutes left before the deadline there were still shots being put on tape....aw heck, with 30 SECONDS left they were still shooting!

And yet, despite all the floundering and shouting and cross-purposing, they did it. They pulled something kind of awesome out their collective asses, and I was so proud. Good thing too, because I was the one standing up in front of the room reeling off our 'lessons learned,' and would have hated to be the lynchpin of a failed effort (I am unabashed in my drive to CMOA, as this standing in front of the room was leaving me terribly exposed, as it were). What they produced was funny, well shot, decently acted, and to the point.

Phewf.

It was kind of fun, but if I ever have to go through that exercise again, I'm going to bribe the grip to change places with me. Being at the peak of the responsibility pyramid sucks chapped monkey ass.

===========================

Y'all have a good one, mmkay?

No comments: