If anyone told me
I’d be giving an entire class A Shirts I’d have laughed. Yet here I sit, A Shirts earned (and awarded) to my entire Summer 2015 Copy
Class.
Ah, you say. Superior Creative Juices. Higher quarters, more previous classes to grow
from. You went soft. Many excuses/explanations. One truth.
The entire A Shirt group
pushed. Hard. Themselves, each other,
me. Went from Kamikaze Copy Sins to
Advanced Style Work. Experimented (at
times successfully) with avant-garde grammar bending. Couldn’t scare em. Couldn’t confuse em (something I'm supposed to be very good
at). Couldn't deter them from their goal.
In the end, an entire
class without one late/missing assignment or revision. Most did extra work – if I asked for ten good
headlines, this group sent me twenty. If
I cried “Copy Sin!” once, with few really tough exceptions, I never saw it on
that student’s paper again.
I offered to slow
down. They pushed faster. If someone couldn’t read my comments, a
classmate translated. In the end, writing at least two term levels above where they started (the minimum individual growth and the
hardest requirement for the A is two terms' growth in one). No missing
work. No challenges
unmet, usually with multiple solutions.
Even the T-Shirt
guy was shocked.
Don’t get me
wrong. I’m proud of the students in both
classes. Shirt or no. Also embarrassed. Is Twenty-four As in forty months too many? Not when
they work as hard, push beyond the expected as every student in this one class did.
Besides, talent,
hard work, experimenting with tricks and personal innovation copy rarely
considers (I don't mean cussing or disparaging language), the Miracle All Shirt
class had one other powerful difference:
As competitive as they are, they didn’t compete with each other. Only themselves.
So all you CDs,
recruiters and ECDs reading this, take a good look at the pictures. I also have some Shirt winners from more previous groups (one or two shirts/class), even one writer who earned two (took both Beginning and Advanced Doreen). You don’t want any of these copy smart copy starts
to get away. Most are getting ready for
graduation. Some already working in impressive
shops. Some are waiting for “The” Job.
Want their
names? Call me.
The bigger
question, Why then, after an all A Shirt
class, did the next group earn not even one? Lots of talent. Lots of growth. Lots of hard work. A few came close – 1.5 terms’ growth’s darn
good, but still half a term’s growth from the shirt.
The difference? The second class didn’t put as much into their
own – and their classmates’ - work as the Shirt Class did. If I found one student really working on editing
a classmate’s copy (peer edit),
that classmate rarely considered what their peer editor pointed out. I didn’t hear the stories of collaboration
and help the Shirt Class told.
My point? As competitive as Advertising is, it’s a team
sport. What anyone else does on an
assignment has not to do with what you do on yours. Genuine collaboration, however, does.
If you can’t get
comfortable with student mentoring relationships among your peers, you’ll never be
comfortable with mentoring relationships in The Real World. In some agencies you’ll be competing with
your entire group for the “winning” concept.
What other group members do still has nothing to do with your work. They may, however, be able to see the flaw,
the blip, the confusion, the falling short point you miss.
Don't expect them to volunteer it. You must ask.
That All A Shirt Class? They aren’t afraid paranoid embarrassed too
shy to ask their peers what they think.
They took advice and collaboration, turned it into that last half-term
of growth, learning from the very people they’ll be competing for jobs
with.
Truth be told, I
looked forward to working with both groups. Not everyone liked me. Not everyone agreed with me. Not everyone even liked me. Doreen’s door’s still open.
The moral of The Tale of Two Classes?
Do whatever it takes. Ask
whomever it takes. Support and be
supported by your group. Competing for
assignments, agencies, titles – that’s just business. Working as a team – that’s where better work
than you ever thought you’d do hides.
Not in furtively competing against each other, hoping Karma will take
care of the rest.
The Miracle Class On the Fountain
The Fountain looking for another Miracle Class
Time to start your own miracle. I'll order as many shirts as you earn.
