Recruit great people -- then fire them. A big project is nothing more than a series of smaller projects strung together. You have to give each phase the right amount of attention, planning, and -- most important -- people. Our projects have peaks of activity as well as lulls. At the beginning, there's a small team of people who do the fund-raising. Then there's a big team of researchers; then a huge team of photographers; then a small team of picture editors. Right now, for example, we have 3 people. Two years ago, we had 35 people. It's hard to find good people, but it's even harder to let them go. Everybody becomes like a member of your family. But it's a bad idea to keep people around when you don't need them. You'll bore them, and the overhead will kill you. Give great people a chance to do what they do best -- and then get out of their way.
Plan to be spontaneous. As a freelance photographer, I was often frustrated by editors who would see only what they were looking for. Anything unexpected would land on the cutting-room floor. To me, the unexpected is what's interesting. So I purposely create room for that in my projects.
That doesn't mean that we hire 100 photographers just to wander around, aimlessly taking snapshots. We spend months coming up with assignments that have the potential to generate great photographs. But our hope is that, when the photographers get out in the field, they will throw out their assignment and come up with something that's 10 times better -- because they're there on the spot.
Coordinates: Rick Smolan, ricksmolan@aol.com
Cheryl Dahle (cdahle@fastcompany.com) is a Fast company senior writer whose projects are never trivial, boring, or small.
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