Testing Time-Management Strategies – WSJ.com.

As most of you know, I’ve been spending the past year or so working on time management techniques, trying to figure out ways to keep creative, but still get work done quickly and efficiently.

In my new role, I find [...]]]>

Testing Time-Management Strategies – WSJ.com.

As most of you know, I’ve been spending the past year or so working on time management techniques, trying to figure out ways to keep creative, but still get work done quickly and efficiently.

In my new role, I find that I spend quite a bit of time juggling meetings, animating, giving notes, exploring ideas, family, and trying to find time to relax and work out.  It’s not easy, and things can easily get dropped or fall behind.

I’ve explored a few ways of keeping track of things, and what I’m working with now is a somewhat modified GTD technique, or Getting Things Done for those of you who haven’t heard of GTD before.  It’s a pretty cool technique for managing time developed by David Allen.

It’s working relatively well for me, but I still have yet to find a complete email/iphone/os X/linux workflow that I love with it.

I’ve also attempted the Pomodoro technique a few times, which I really like when I have a whole saturday to work straight ahead on 4 or 5 items.

The main thing that’s keeping me on track is trying to keep my email inbox to 0.  My goal is to do it every day, but some days that’s just impossible.  If I can’t hit it every day, I try and make SURE I do it by the end of the week.

Anyway, the Wall Street Journal has put together an article talking about time management.. it’s pretty interesting.  Check it out!

I’m not going to get into specific [...]]]> As our production has begun, I’ve been talking to our animators about my goals in running the animation department for the show. It’s been an interesting process, one in which I’ve learned a lot about myself, my values, and how I feel our department can be most sucessful.

I’m not going to get into specific tricks and techniques for what we’re going to do (this is a public blog, after all), but I thought others might find it interesting at least to hear what I feel are the 3 areas of focus that are important to having a creative, successful, and happy team dynamic. I think that these values probably apply to almost any team dynamic.

You’ll notice that I’ve labeled each area A, B, and C, not 1, 2, 3, because I don’t think there is a hierarchy as to which area should be considered first.  Each area is of equal importance, and while not every decision one makes can have each area “win”, I believe if each area is considered while making decisions, in the long run you can achieve growth and success in all of them.

Area A: The Best Quality Product

This area of focus is on making the best quality product (whatever it is you’re creating.  In my case, the best animation and acting we can produce).  Here, all of your decisions should be focused on the good of the product.  This include things like – who do you have working on the most key components of your product?  Have you done your research?  What is the end goal?  What tools do you need to reach that goal?  What are the possible pitfalls that can get in the way?   When I started on this show I pictured the end result of what we would need to have a successful show.  What would our rigs need to do?  What specific tools would we need?  Who knowledge would I have needed to have?

Picturing the end result allowed me to work backwards and ask important questions about the features we needed.  If the rigs had to support “x”-feature, then what do I need to do to ensure that could happen?  How much planning do we need to have?  Are the tools even available to support this feature?  Who do I know that can create it?  How much time would it take?

By asking these things at the head of the show, I could build a path and plan on how to ensure we would be ready once the show started.  Knowing that it’s impossible to foresee every eventual hurdle and hiccup, we also created a plan for how to handle problems we don’t know about yet.  It’s important to realize that something will happen that will try and keep you from reaching this goal.  Instead of being surprised and reacting to it, create a plan ahead of time so when it occurs, you have a method for dealing with it that keeps everyone sane and “happy”.

Area B: The Happiest and Most Productive Team

Of course it’s impossible to create a great product without a great team behind it.  This second area of focus is all about your team and how it works together.  You have to think about what THEY need to achieve this goal.  What can you do to help the team morale (always an issue when people are working hard and putting their hearts on the line every day in dailies).  How can you help them grow together, learn to trust each other, and work in harmony?  How can you remove any of the political back-stabbing that can happen in group dynamics and help them nurture each other instead?  How can you ensure that perception of your team is one of compassion, cooperation, and inspiration?

Area C: The Individual

Of course, each team is made up of unique individuals, and if every person isn’t feeling satisfied and creative, then it’s difficult to have the team work successfully.  And if the team isn’t working, then there’s no way you’re going to achieve the best product you can.

I like to think broader than that, though.  I’m not just trying to help animators be great so this particular film is great.  I want the animators to be happy, creative, successful, fulfilled, empowered, and passionate because that’s the kind of environment that I feel is a great place to work.  I want every animator to feel like they’re growing, that there is a future for them, and that they “control” that future.  I know that I always work my best when I feel like I have a personal stake in the results of what I’m doing.  I want every animator to have goals that are greater than their current abilities, and know that they’ve got a team of people supporting and encouraging them to achieve those goals.  Knowing that it’s okay for them to reach and fall, because we’re there to help pick them up and allow them to reach again.  If your team doesn’t feel safe reaching and failing, then they’ll never reach and achieve.

Growth.. personal and professional are important to me.   That’s why we’ve asked each animator to create a list of goals for themselves.. for the show, for their careers, for their personal lives.  They can share it with me or not, but I want them to at least think about it.  Then, they should think about what the next physical action they should take that would help them achieve the goal.  This is actually something I did a few years ago when I was animating on Shrek the Third.  I had a goal to become a supervising animator, but I felt like I didn’t quite have the acting chops to achieve it.  So I thought about what I needed to reach this goal.  I wrote to my Head of Character Animation and my Department Supervisor and said that I had an eventual goal to be a supervisor, but felt like I was lacking in subtle acting ability.  In order to achieve my goal, I wanted to focus more of my animation time on subtle shots so I could learn and grow.  I wrote about what things I would be doing personally to become better in this area, and then asked for their support and the opportunity to try these more challenging shots.   Sure enough, I was given more subtle shots and was pushed beyond my comfort level.  I knew I had their support to grow, and felt okay failing because they were behind me.  It was hard, but I worked at it, and I soon became a supervising animator (and now a Head of Character Animation).

Making Decisions..

As I mentioned earlier, not every decision we make can support each area of focus.  Sometimes we have to give certain shots to animators we know can achieve the level required in the short time we have.   Sometimes we can’t afford a training class for the entire department even though it would be incredibly useful and in the long run would help everyone become stronger.  Sometimes an individual animator’s goal on a particular shot or sequence will not work with our current schedule and we can’t accommodate them.  However, we are always thinking of each area of focus with every decision.  We try hard when there are conflicting goals to find a way to still achieve a desired result by looking at things over the course of time.

Maybe this particular shot can’t go to this particular animator, but we can give that animator two simpler shots, and then on the next sequence we’ll give them the shot that will really push them, and in order to support them in their growth, we’ll make sure the supervisor has extra time put aside to help them and work with them so they’re supported and not just left dangling in the wind.

Maybe once in a while we’d have to work saturdays during crunch in order to get the show done on time, and maybe that means that parents won’t get to see their families as much.. but what if everyone in the department took a few bucks every day and put it in a pot, and then we took some money from the department morale budget and set up a family picnic one saturday every month with food and drinks and games for the kids to play?  And what if we personally thanked all the family members for their understanding and patience?

Maybe we have to make hard decisions that make some people unhappy, or it may take longer to achieve their goals.. but I firmly believe that by focusing on these three areas with every decision, and letting the teams know that we’re actively doing this, we can really help create a creative, supported, artistic, professional, forward-thinking, engaged, successful team that will produce the most amazing work possible.

At least, that’s my thought.

I’d love to hear yours!

You can see the repost here:
http://www.11secondclub.com/helpful_hints/the_fear_of_moving_past_blocking/

I thought it was a great idea. I hadn’t actually re-read my post in a [...]]]> A few weeks ago my friend Eric Scheur asked if he could re-post one of my posts about the Fear of Moving Past Blocking to the awesome website http://11secondclub.com.

You can see the repost here:
http://www.11secondclub.com/helpful_hints/the_fear_of_moving_past_blocking/

I thought it was a great idea. I hadn’t actually re-read my post in a while, but was very happy to hear that it had a great influence on him & other animators he spoke with. I just read through it now & realized how much relevance it actually has on my latest “obsession”.. trying to better manage my time & prepare for production.

See the show I’m currently Head of Character Animation on starts animation production pretty soon & I’m in the last stages of making sure everything is ready for our crew so we can just kick butt the moment we get our first sequence. There are a lot of little loose ends to tie up, threads to follow, and loops to close and if you take a 40,000 foot look at everything it can become pretty daunting.

Just like trying to move from blocking to spline animation can appear daunting at times.

So I’ve been investigating various task management theories.. the one that’s sticking with me the most is the Getting Things Done methodology that was started by David Allen.  It’s all about creating a process for handling all the various forms of “input” that you get, and then managing that stuff systematically.

What I love about it is that you can take a seemingly daunting task.. say, getting your email inbox to zero, and approach it a step at a time until it’s done.

The other thing I really like about it and this method of moving from blocking to first pass of animation I wrote about is that once you fully commit yourself to this method of working, it totally relieves all your stress about the task you’re working on.  Now that I have this method of animating that I completely adhere to, the only stress I have about my shots is whether or not the animation and ideas are any damn good to begin with.  Not whether or not I have the chops to take them from blocking to first pass, which is where most of my stress was before.

So with this method of handling my inbox, as long as I completely follow it and stick to it religiously, I won’t have any stress about there being any loose ends I’ve dropped, or balls I’ve left untied.  Instead I can focus on the pure excitement of a deadline coming up that we can’t change & the knowledge that my team and I are getting ready as best we can.

For someone who likes to react to things emotionally and intuitively, this systematic stuff is actually pretty cool.

*note:  in case you’re wondering what that picture is.. It’s Alex Wong from the group “The Animators”.  He and I went to elementary school together & is an awesome musician who also likes to draw.

I’ve been trying to write a really cool spreadsheet that will allow me to keep track of various phases of a project. I’ve got some fun [...]]]> So lately I’ve been trying to expand my knowledge base and work on my time/project tracking abilities. One of the tools I’m using is open office calc (it’s free!).

I’ve been trying to write a really cool spreadsheet that will allow me to keep track of various phases of a project. I’ve got some fun things working, but have gotten stuck with one of the oddities of the way open office handles conditional formatting.

For those of you who don’t know, conditional formatting is a cool features that allows you to change the style of a cell based on the content. For example, I can make a cell “yellow” when the project is launched, green when it’s in progress, and black when it’s done.

The problem is that there are only 3 conditional formats allowed.. and there are WAY more than 3 phases to a project.

I’ve detailed my problem in the open office forums here, but if any of you have any suggestions I’d love to hear ‘em!

Cheers!

If you don’t know, GTD is short for “Getting Things Done”.  It’s a technique that David Allen developed to .. well.. get things done.  Many “todo” applications [...]]]> For those of you who are self-help/management nuts, this might be an interesting book for ya.  I’m just sort of getting into this whole GTD side of things.

If you don’t know, GTD is short for “Getting Things Done”.  It’s a technique that David Allen developed to .. well.. get things done.  Many “todo” applications use this method to organize data.  I haven’t spent that much time reading into it, but I keep thinking I should.

Anyway, David’s got a new book out about being a good self-manager.  Could be worth a look!

David Allen: What Kind of Self-Manager Are You? | BNET.

<br /> <img src=”http://www.assoc-amazon.com/s/noscript?tag=jasonschleifer-20″ mce_src=”http://www.assoc-amazon.com/s/noscript?tag=jasonschleifer-20″ alt=”" /><br />  

One of the things I’m working on in my position as Head of Character Animation is learning how to straddle the roles of being a “Coach” and a “Player”. You see, as an animator, my role was to be the best animator I [...]]]>

One of the things I’m working on in my position as Head of Character Animation is learning how to straddle the roles of being a “Coach” and a “Player”. You see, as an animator, my role was to be the best animator I possibly could be. To learn, to grow, to develop as an artist. Sure I would try and help out others as they needed, but mostly I was judged on one thing – my shots. The better I did as an animator, the better I was seen at work. This is pretty common in pretty much every job.. you do your job well, you succeed.

When I got promoted to being a supervisor, I understood that my role had changed, that now I was being judged not just on how I was doing as an animator (since I still had to animate), but also on how my team was performing. If I was kicking-ass and doing great shots but my team was struggling, then I wasn’t doing my job well. I had to learn how to manage and develop my team, help them grow as artists, and help them achieve the results the studio required of them. This meant developing more management skills. An incredibly helpful man told me that a manager’s job is to basically identify and remove the roadblocks and problems that are inhibiting your team from getting their jobs done.

This is the roal of the “coach”. The one on the sidelines doing everything in their power to help their team be the best they can possibly be.

The problem here is of course that it’s difficult for artists to make this transition. When you’ve worked your entire life to become a skilled artist, to feel success when you create a meaningful performance it can be hard to suddenly change your view of success to be that of your team creating great work. It doesn’t sound difficult.. it sounds like what you would expect any manager to do. But it is difficult.. subconsciously you will look at their work and even though you can be proud and satisfied when they do well, there’s a tiny part of you that goes “oh man, I wish I could have done that shot..”.

You won’t be thinking this because you think you could do it better, or because the person didn’t do a good job. You’re thinking it because you miss animating. You miss being able to put 100% of yourself into a shot and get mired in the gritty details.

I’ve seen people respond to this in a number of ways. One way is to completely stop animating and just become a manager. To focus only on supporting your team. To just be a coach.

Some people try and animate through their team. They will give note after note that reflects not necessarily what their animators are trying to achieve, but what they want.

I have found that both of these solutions cause problems. If you’re just a coach, you’re not really supervising and leading your team. Part of being a good supervisor is understanding what it takes to get a shot to a certain level. You have to stay in the game to do this, you need to be animating to keep up your skills. You must be able to give a detailed note of “this finger needs to be delayed by 2 frames, and push the arm here to get this silhouette.”

If you try and animate through your team, you’ve got another big problem.. you’re not letting your animators bring anything to the table. You’re treating them all like assistants. This can work for a little while, but it’s important to remember that your animators are artists. Your goal as their supervisor is two-fold. One, to make the best possible movie ever, and two, to help them grow and achieve their dreams as animators. If you’re just pushing your ideas through they will grow weary, loose interest, and never learn to develop ideas on their own.

The best solution is to be both a “coach” and a “player”. You need to be a “player” (animator) so you can keep up your chops. You need to be able to create animation yourself to be personally artistically satisfied. You also need to be a “coach” (manager) and help your team deliver top quality animation that makes them satisfied. They need to feel supported by you, that you’re helping them achieve their goals and reach their vision. You need to talk to them about what they want to achieve, and then work with them on a long-term plan to reach that goal.

You also must be able to take pride in the work that they achieve that has nothing to do with you. I don’t mean you should take ownership, I mean that you should be satisfied and happy when people on your team perform well. I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to be able to present the work of a member of your team to your director and say (for example) “Here’s a shot that Bryce has been working on. He and Carlos were talking about how the character would react in this situation, and they came up with this idea. I think they’ve got something exciting going here, what do you think?” and have the director say “That’s GREAT!”.

You may have had nothing to do with this specific shot that bryce and carlos are working on, but by being a supportive and collaborative supervisor, you’ve given them the space to be the best possible artists they can be.

And THAT is something you can definitely be proud of.

Oh, and as for the book listed at the top of the post.. this has been one of the best books I’ve ever read and has really helped me develop as a supervisor and manager. I highly recommend it to anybody who works with other people.

Have you ever been in a situation where you [...]]]> One of the things I have been working a lot on lately is learning how to get my actions to lead to my indended results. If this sounds confusing, I’m not suprised.. It’s a bit hard to explain. But I’d like to try, so here goes:

Have you ever been in a situation where you want something, so you act in a way to get the thing you want, but the result is that you cause more trouble than you thought?

I will give a specific example.. We all know the story of “the boy who cried wolf” right? Kid keeps calling wolf when there isn’t one there, pissing off the villiagers until one day a wolf shows up, he calls “wolf” and nobody appears to help him.

Why do you think he kept crying wolf? Was it to get eaten? No, probably not.. It was probably to try and get some attention. He was bored, lonely, and pobably never expected that people wouldn’t actually come if a real wolf was there. So his intention–have some fun, get some attention, etc–caused some unintended consequences.. It caused the villiagers to think he was a git who didn’t deserve their attention. Thus, he got munched. Oops.

What does this have to do with animation? Well, every day we work with a number of people.. Animators, coordinators, directors, producers, etc. Everything you do, say, act, etc has some sort of consequence. For example, let’s say you are showing your shot in dailies an the director asks for a change. You think “huh.. Okay.. That goes against what I was thinking.. But.. Whatever..”. So it’s not a big deal, but it’s a bit of a tweak. I means the shot will take an extra 3 hours to complete. You let out a little sigh, make your note, and say “okay.”. Then you get up, and walk out of the room.

What do you suppose your intention is here? Probably to just go back to your desk, make the fix, and be done.

How do you think you are perceived by the producer who just heard the sigh?

Right.. Probably not like someone who has to just make a little tweak, but more like someone who is a little bit frustrated.. Maybe a little stressed. Maybe the change is a bigger deal than they thought? Maybe you are overworked? Maybe this shot will push past it’s scheduled date? Maybe they should pull the shot and give it to someone else if you can’t handle it? Man, maybe you can’t handle these types of shots at all.. You seem like the kind of animator that need serious care and hand holding.. Not going to be their go-to guy, that’s for sure..

See what I mean? Your action caused a totally unintended and inaccurate response.

This kind of thing happens all the time.. We do it to others, they do it to us, it’s amazing how easy it can happen.

You can break down the cycle this way:

Intent -> action -> result

You have an intention or desire. You perform an act to try and achieve a result.

Now here is the tricky thing.. You are aware of your intent.. It’s yours, you know what you intend to do. You pick the action and perform it.. You are aware of that aspect of the equation.

But here is the kicker. The response is whatever it is. You don’t have direct control over it. You may see some of the response.. But there may be some hidden part you are unaware of.

Quick example. You are at work and you need to fax something quickly. You go to the macine and see that there is a 10 page outbound fax in front of you and the person faxing it isn’t there. You make a note of the number, cancel the fax, fax your document which takes 5 minutes, and then resubmit the other persons fax. No harm no foul, right? You had a desire-to fax, you performed an act-canceling the other fax, and the result was that you got your fax done first.

So what do you think some unintended conseques might be?

Well, the first thing to do is put yourself in the shoes of the person who put the fax there in the first place. Why do you think they were faxing something from work? Why would they start it and then leave it to finish? What reason could there be to such a large fax? There are probably hundreds of answers to these questions, but none of them came up when you cancelled their fax and sent your own.

What if they were running late for a meeting and had to send off this time sensitive fax to secure a loan for their house, and by postponing it for ten minutes they missed their application window and now won’t get their dream house?

Maybe that is a little far fetched, but it’s a possibility, and you get the idea.. That was an unintended consequence of your action.

So, again with the diagram:

Intent-> action -> result

You control an influence the intent and the action, but can’t control or even sometimes see the result.

So here’s the big question.. How do you stop getting unintended results?

If you can’t control the result, you have to change something you CAN control.. Your intent or your action. Obviously changing the intent isn’t what we want to do.. After all, you are trying to achieve something specific. You have to change the ACTION. You must change the thing you do to achieve the intent.

But how do you know how to change your actions to get the result you want?

The answers is so simple it’ll kill you. Seriously.. I wish I had thought of it. Here is the magic formula… You ready?

You ask.

Yep, that’s it. You ask the person if your action was the right way to get the result you desire.

I know. Crazy, right? But it works! Just ask! You will learn quickly if your actions are correct, or if you are headed down the wrong path.

It’s called feedback.. And we can all use it to make sure our desired intentions are realized.

So… Here goes! I am posting all this stuff for two reasons.. One is because it helps me learn it. Two is that I feel like it can help other animators learn these things we don’t often get a chance to learn.

Is it working? Are you finding these posts useful, or am I coming across like a giant gassbag?