For what can be considered the entirety of my professional life, I have been managing pixels. There was the barista gig in college, but that was to pay bills and buy beer. Then there was the call center gig, but that was just to get my foot in the door so I could start managing pixels (a profession I fell into by virtue of filling a need). I’ve grown a lot since them and have a new gig where my job required that I manage people a bit and manage processes a bit, but the truth of the matter was I still spent most of my time jockying pixels.

Recently that changed and my area of responsibility shifted to solely managing others who are, in turn, managing pixels.

It occurred to me however that I wasn’t particularly adept at this new task. When it comes to creativity, I have always just sat down in front of a blank canvas and tried to take what was in my mind and get it onto the screen. Now I am charged with taking what’s in my mind and getting it into somebody else’s mind, which is entirely different.

Primarily it involves a different way of communicating.The parts of my brain that used to talk to the photoshop parts now have to talk to the language parts and put actions into words, while avoiding pronouns as much as possible.

In many ways though, it involves a different way of thinking altogether. A different approach. As similar and as different as an actor and a director on a movie set. Some great actors can’t direct for shit and I am now a director, for better or worse (I’m counting on better for what it’s worth).

So I decided to get a copy of a book witten by someone who’s journey was similar to mine. I’ve been reading his blog for years and he’s always got something interesting to say and is a great communicator himself. The book is called “Managing Humans” and my hopes are high that it will help me master a very different style of art; the art of communicating ideas with words rather than pixels.