What's the Project?

Contextual Thinking Brings to Life our Everyday

In the mid-naughties, I found myself somehow working as a floor manager in a high-end-big-box Salon Spa for Aveda (the American natural ingredients salon brand) in Covent Garden, London. It housed over 80 staff from more than 20 countries spanning three floors offering spa, salon, and education services. It was (and still is) a global centre of excellence.

For an Adelaide Hills boy bought up on a building site (and the sporting field), it couldn't have been further from home. The staff (and clients) were almost wholly women and for the most part I was the only heterosexual guy on the team.

In the salon, there were cutting specialists and colour specialists of varying levels ranging from Assistants to Creative Directors charging hundreds of pounds for a service. One of the senior colourist, Alwynn Griffiths had a wonderful following and was good fun to work with. His clients loved him so much, when it came to December, their Christmas gifts to him would fill our stock room with bottles of champagne, hampers, and chocolates. They booked their monthly appointments many months (sometimes up to a year) in advance and considered him a trusted friend. In some cases, he was deemed family.

Like anyone, he would need to entertain new clients occasionally and keep 'fresh blood' dripping into his client base. On one occasion, I remember a young lady coming to us for the first time. She was super excited to make an appointment with our top professionals. We booked her in for a consultation with Alwynn. I remember it well as this potential client came with magazines and a lot of energy – something we would welcome.

But there was something a little off with this one. She was pedantic about her appointment time and was asking many questions – often the same question a few different ways. Once again, nothing wrong with this but I could sense there was a potential problem coming our way. When it came time for her appointment, we welcomed her and Alwynn took her into the salon. I watched from afar and after a few minutes, I could see Alwynn starting to get animated. He never got flustered but he was starting to disengage.

They got up and started walking towards the front desk. He said good bye to her and she turned to me with an annoyed look on her face. In a disjointed and exasperated way she complained to me that she wouldn't be able to get her done and how the colourist didn't understand her. I couldn't get a word in until I was left with only one thing to say:

"Madam, maybe we are not the right salon for you".

She stormed out and we never heard from her again.

I went to see Alwynn immediately. "What happened?", I asked. Without hesitation he turned to me with a deadpan look and said,

"If I don't know what they want within the first three minutes, I never will".

I’ll never forget this moment.

The thing is, hair colour is a real art. There is the colour wheel, the person's skin tone, the hair's texture and thickness, and a journey the colourist may need to take the client through to achieve the look they are after. But most importantly, there is the subjectivity of a person's idea of the colour or look. The way things are described and interpreted makes all the difference.

Experience told Alwynn there was high risk if he decided to go ahead and 'taken the money'. He could have chanced it and did his best. But, he knew it would have been a tough road with a likelihood of free re-do's and refreshes to never truly make the client happy. The risk wasn't worth it and he decided on the spot it was better to lose the client and deal with the backlash than to set himself
(and her) up for failure.   

I have come to understand that we are often presented with this dilemna. Take the instant gratification of appeasing someone or getting a task crossed off the list. Or, to take time to question and see the bigger picture. Often this leads to immediate backlash, difficulties, or a feeling of 'unproductiveness'. Like in Alwynn's case, there are often commercial pressures heavily influencing us to 'get the job done'. So, it is not easy to action in the moment.

But, being able to see what I call, The Project within which a situation/problem/challenge sits inside is of great value. Constantly having a balcony view while simultaneously being in the trenches is an ability over a decade of being in retail taught me. Watching artists like Alwynn build a strong and resilient following of loving customers left an imprint on me. I feel all professionals can take learnings from this, especially those in leadership positions.

We can ask ourselves:

Do you know The Project you are running?

Do you understand The Project your team member/client is involved with?

Do you see how the situation in front of you fits into The Project?

We often get dragged into transactional thinking leading to unintentional decisions and communication causing us (and others) feeling like we're in a 90's mosh pit at the Big Day Out. Fun for a little bit but dangerous if you get caught in there for too long.

Good quality questions are helpful. Contextual thinking with The Project front-of-mind is even better.