Team Management: Surprisingly Challenging

When starting content marketing, it's easy to focus on methodology, knowledge, and securing the necessary team members. However, I've come to realize that team management is surprisingly difficult. I've witnessed various frictions among my acquaintances, and I occasionally hear about cases where, even after bringing in experts or introducing tools, something just doesn't work or progress. Why is "moving forward itself" so difficult? I'd like to explore this a bit.

① Those Who Know vs. Those Who Don't

The most common issue is likely the gap in digital proficiency among team members. Content marketing requires diverse skills—from creative to marketing to editing—so teams aren't necessarily composed solely of people with extensive web experience. Even when experienced individuals come together, this field is vast and deep, with highly complex tasks, meaning each person's expertise can be quite specialized.

In such an environment, explaining things to less knowledgeable team members can be surprisingly taxing during routine digital tasks. While terminology alone might be manageable, explaining fundamental differences in approach or perspective often takes far longer than anticipated. Compounding this, the more knowledgeable members are typically busier daily, and their work is constantly a race against time. It's understandable that they might overlook the need for extra consideration towards slower-paced colleagues due to their lack of expertise.

Moreover, those deeply immersed in the digital realm aren't just knowledgeable; they constantly chase, absorb, and update themselves with the latest information. To such individuals, those less familiar inevitably appear perpetually novice. The knowledgeable are seen as superior, the less experienced as inferior. While no such rule exists, this environment tends to foster unconscious hierarchies.

An invisible dynamic operates between the knowledgeable and the less knowledgeable, causing small stresses to accumulate continuously. This is one crucial point leaders of diverse content marketing teams must be mindful of.

② Those Who Want to Excite vs. Those Who Want to Deliver Numbers

Digital is a world of numbers. Even when planning content, you can't separate it from numbers. Yet within the team, there are people who particularly trust numbers. They find value in hitting targeted metrics, in being able to explain vague feelings through numbers, and in seeing numbers match simulations.

On the other hand, there are those who seek the meaning behind the numbers, striving to decipher the true feelings of consumers. They want to create plans that stir those feelings and excite customers.

The difference in what each values manifests in their approach to work and their level of passion for it. Naturally, this also changes how much time they dedicate to tasks and their mindset. Those who respond quickly and efficiently with numbers tend to want to eliminate anything perceived as wasteful.

Conversely, for those seeking to uncover the essential message and excite customers with a well-crafted plan that truly resonates, taking time to properly consider and refine ideas is just as important as efficiency. This raises the question: how much of this process do we mutually recognize as necessary? It requires adjusting each other's expectations.

Of course, there's also the approach of tightly locking everything down with numbers and advancing projects efficiently. However, in such an environment, those who "want to excite customers" lose their place and naturally drift away. Ultimately, the team becomes one where ideas don't emerge, and neither transformation nor innovation occurs. Ideas and numbers. Deliberation and efficiency. Balancing these is a constant challenge in team management.

③ Judgments with Rationale, Judgments Without

Content marketing work ultimately involves creating tangible outputs, but confusion often arises when the intent behind decisions isn't clear. For example, vague requests like "Make this photo bluer." Since people can't fully grasp another's perception, repeated revisions happen when the reasoning behind such requests remains unclear.

Or requests like "The higher-ups said so." Without understanding the higher-ups' intent, creators flounder, and work time piles up.

Furthermore, digital work, once started, cannot be easily reversed. Decisions must be made under the premise that sudden, unexplained changes pose significant risk.

Making decisions where the intent is clear, and not overturning decisions once made. Such fundamental principles are incredibly important.

 

Looking at this again, it's all pretty basic team management stuff. In content marketing, properly caring for these basics becomes a far more critical point for project success than you might imagine.