Making work meaningful for the whole studio.

A team where everyone feels that the work they are doing is meaningful is ideal and not impossible to create.

Meaning for most web people I have worked with starts with knowing the purpose of the things they are building.

So why then do many of the account managers I have encountered in Philadelphia treat their team like Kinkos? Rather than bringing them in to participate with them and the client early on, rather than facilitating them as an orchestrated unit creating solutions, rather than allowing them partial credit for the success of the account; why do they engage their team as if there is a counter separating them on which they can just drop job orders after working out things on their own with the client?

I think it is the print model of advertising being ported wholly to the interactive space which is causing this problem. The account manager role as brought over to the web from traditional (print) advertising also relies too heavily on motivating account managers by praising and bonusing them - I'm guessing - for their solo efforts.

This model, the print model, as applied to highly interactive projects is inefficient, undermines morale and employee retention, and often leads to confused online strategies and project plans.

Leadership which sees its role as faciliating and guiding a team towards solutions is sorely needed in our interactive agencies. Additionally leadership that understands that the ideas the agency's technologists (and IAs and everyone else on the "production" team) contribute are essential to developing great strategy is also necessary.