Lead with Empathy: Yumi Prentice, David&Goliath

von India Fizer , AdForum

 

David&Goliath
Werbung/Full Service/ Integriert
El Segundo, Vereinigte Staaten von Amerika
See Profile
 

We spoke with David&Goliath President, Yumi Prentice, about the importance of flexibility with accountability and placing value on balance rather than busyness.

 

Over the past year, work environments have had to change drastically. How has your agency taken employee feedback, coupled with what’s appropriate for the company to create a work plan going forward?

First and foremost, we prioritize our people’s safety above all else. In fact, we shut our office down a week before the city issued Safer at Home orders. It wasn’t a popular decision at first, and during that first year, not a day or week would go by when we wouldn’t get asked when we’d reopen again so everyone could come back. Today, our office is open to any employee who’d like to work from our space (with COVID protocols in place) — and yet we find that most folks prefer to work in a hybrid environment that allows them to determine how to get the best work done and be a supportive, contributing team member.  

We won’t always get it right as it’s greenfield navigating our way forward, but at the heart of it, we lead with empathy and believe the key is flexibility with accountability. You’re not going to get an extrovert to do their best work by isolating them, and you’re not going to get an introvert to do their best work by forcing them to do all their work in in-person group settings. The truth is, we must accept that corporate America has done workers an injustice by forcing a singular work modality on all people regardless of proclivity or circumstance — and it’s simply not a one-size-fits-all.

 

How has the changing work landscape affected the way pitches and campaign briefs are approached and conceptualized?

In many ways, it’s made us have to get much tighter on the briefs and how we communicate with each other. It’s made us ensure that we over-communicate with each other and keep the developing work visible, as observation by osmosis simply isn’t possible when everyone’s dispersed. 

Zoom, Slack and other virtual channels have certainly helped us get much more immediacy in our ability to react, respond, test and build on ideas, but at the same time, we’re sensitive that nuances can be missed — so when we can meet in person to discuss ideas and develop a flow, we find ways to do so safely.

 

In what ways has this impacted the work-life balance of your employees and what steps have been taken to mitigate that? 

This is a tough one. I don’t believe that it’s the digital tools that are to blame for the lack of work-life balance in this industry. Instead, culturally, this business — perhaps even the country — has for decades put a badge of honor on “busyness,” with people erroneously equating long hours worked with their vocational or societal value. Folks who feel the pressure to always be on because the technology enables it, are likely responding from years of internalized busyness culture, as well as managers who do not understand that people need to live their best lives in order to do their best work.

The real challenge we are all facing is the Great Resignation, which I believe is re-balancing what corporate culture has gotten wrong all these years. The resulting staffing shortages are exacerbating employers’ abilities to reduce hours to acceptable thresholds. There’s no easy way to mitigate this, other than to pull our heads out of the sand to first ensure that the people feel that their work has real value, and that people really feel valued.

 

Given that each work environment can look a bit differently, what has helped in creating a cohesive working relationship with clients?

We’ve been fortunate in that most of our clients aren’t local to LA, so we’ve had some practice in cultivating cohesive working relationships over distances. Where we can’t visit in person as frequently as we once did, we stay connected using other means — just as we do with family and friends.  

The lesson from the pandemic is that we must continue to see each other as whole people, not just the personas we bring into work. We’ve shared the highs and lows of a pandemic experience together — our fears and our hopes. We sometimes see their kids, partners, or dogs on the video calls. We have a renewed appreciation for the fullness of life and experience that our clients juggle every single day, and this has given us the ability — and bravery — to perhaps connect in more meaningful, substantive ways with one another. 

 

What changes that have been made over the past year do you see sticking around for years to come? 

If we go back to exactly how things were done in 2019, we have lost a massive opportunity to evolve for the better. Flexibility is going to become increasingly central, where employees have more of a say in where, when and how they work. This will be reflected in hybrid work environments, flexible PTO, as well as broaden the talent pool for employers who previously would only hire people living in or willing to relocate their lives to HQ. As a result, we’ll see more diverse talent enter the workforce, and see more virtualized, on-demand and flexible teams come onto assignments.