Streamline Training & Documentation: The Hollywood Model

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

The Hollywood Model

At companies producing products and services in multiple versions for different customer segments, and intent on rapid innovation in order to stay competitive, the "Hollywood model" is increasingly used. As with Hollywood studios, which hire almost everyone for any given movie on short-term contracts, companies in a wide range of industries are now contracting with freelancers (or with partnering vendors) to create ad hoc teams for specific projects, rather than trying to have all needed skills and experience represented on-staff.

Indeed, as people become increasingly adept at working with collaboration tools, such as groupware and video-conferencing, virtual teams — teams tapping in-house and out-of-house talent in multiple locations — become practical for more and more companies.

Contracting for talent on a project-by-project basis not only provides the benefit of assembling a finely tuned mix of complementary skills, but can also offer significant benefits on the cost control front. For instance, a recently released video game produced using freelancers for about 75% of the workhours, came in with costs 35% below what they would have been if the game had been produced entirely in-house.

I won't pretend to cover in this post all of the pros and cons of using the Hollywood model. (There is a detailed discussion by an experienced movie producer of how-to's, along with pros and cons, here.) Rather, I'll highlight the skills that participants in a mixed in-house/out-of-house team need to master in order to make the most of this approach.

It goes without saying that leadership, project management, and collaboration skills are crucial. And the usual suspects of communication skills and conflict resolution skills are also top-priority. Here are other skill areas to assess as you aim for optimum results from Hollywood-model project teams:

Problem solving — finding and addressing root causes of problems

Holding effective meetings — focused, with everyone contributing

Constructive group dynamics — e.g., reaching agreement on norms and ground rules and sticking to them

Building good working relationships with people with different behavioral styles

Time management — e.g., tips on focusing energy in a multi-tasking environment

For strengthening some skills, such as managing group dynamics, training in a group setting is a natural fit. Your group will likely include people with divergent levels of skill. Ideally, you will be able to distribute the most adept individuals across groups of 4-6 in the training sessions.

For other skills, such as time management, only individuals with a clear need to improve need be steered toward suitable training.

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Labels: Collaboration, Competencies

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