Resource management is the quiet step-sibling to project management, shyly sitting behind a capacity calendar and trying to jam square pegs into round holes for a living. They have all ten fingers on the pulse of the organization, and their job is to make sure everyone can punch out at 5:00pm without a major bloodletting. They have a profound opportunity to truly eff your shit up (but fortunately, rarely a proclivity to do so).

As essential as the role of personnel resourcing is within a dynamic agency setting, the greatest resource facing scarcity usually isn’t one that shows up in a workload planner. Your place of employment can demand your time, your skill, and your focus, but work struggles to necessitate that you truly care about anything you do while on the clock. It absolutely would if it could, I’m sure. But luckily that technology doesn’t exist yet, and it’s difficult to measure how much of your soul you put into any particular work output.

So it stands that caring is the most valuable resource in the end. When I say “caring” I’m referring to an honest, innate drive to make the work as good as it can be. Caring is engine oil. It’s engaging the hips. It’s an extra tablespoon of butter that makes a box cake taste like it came from a bakery. It’s crystal clear emails, thoughtful leadership, and pixel-perfect design. Caring is essential to move work from good to great and it smooths the path to getting there.

Caring is also a finite resource. We expend it on the demands of life that we deem most worthy, and it slowly replenishes over time. The well can be fed faster through being a part of meaningful work, or surrounding yourself with colleagues that have reserves to spare, but eventually the keg runs dry for us all. 

Managing caring as a resource

For a manager, the importance and scarcity of caring raises two considerations: how much caring does a project require, and how can we make sure we resource enough of it? The former is an interpretation of the project’s complexity and threshold for creativity. Rote projects with clear and narrow parameters can truthfully get by if everyone on the team simply does their job.  Conceptual projects that cross disciplines and have more blue sky potential demand at least one spring of caring. Someone is going to have to put the project on their shoulders and demand excellence because there’s no room for mediocrity when creativity or genius or innovation are the wares on sale. 

For these engagements, a good resource manager will look critically at the squad that’s been assigned to the project and identify at least one person that will make sure it reaches greatness. Is one of the project leads passionate about this opportunity? Does one of the junior designers have something to prove? Is there a seasoned strategist that always takes ownership naturally (rare gems, these folks)? Somebody on the roster is going to have to rise above their specific role and tend to the outcome more holistically. 

The double-edged sword of caring

And of course, sometimes it will be your responsibility--and privilege--to be that person. The next time you feel that innate, inexplicable determination to take a project by the reins, voice it out loud and appreciate what you’re really giving to your team. The fortunate ones with deeper pools of caring tend to rise to leadership roles, but have also probably retreated to the bathroom at least once to cry in an empty stall for a bit. As with so many things in life, investing yourself is a risk, but it’s one often worth taking.