That was my take, too - Sauron is not the person who can make anyone do anything, so why does Ingrid somehow think he magically can? This sounds like an Ingrid/Harry/Hermione problem. I think the way to go is to very politely tell Ingrid that you have done all you can, and you can’t make H & H move on this.
On a somewhat-related note, I’ve heard that one of the most stressful dynamics at work is having all of the responsibility and none of the power.
Why are VPs writing scripts for videos anyway? Shouldn’t they have people who do that?
I’m assuming that your real boss wouldn’t give a crap about this nonsense, so going up the chain won’t help but might hurt. There has to be some politics going on behind the scenes here. My advice is to go to Ingrid and say how frustrated you are about the situation, and try to make her think you are on her side in dealing with these slowpokes. Maybe then she’ll open up and you can find out what is really going on. I wouldn’t try to write the script for them because it becomes your fault if they or anyone doesn’t like it.
It’s a bit late now, but you really should have cc’d Ingrid on all your email correspondence with H&H.
Even if everything had gone smoothly, it’s the right thing to do because it keeps Ingrid posted that you’re moving forward with this request, without your having to update her separately.
But when things go amiss, it’s particularly valuable, because she sees that nothing’s happening even though you’re doing your best to move the ball forward, and she’s in a position to step in and engage them directly by replying-all to the latest email in the chain.
But what to do now? I think I’d forward whatever email chain you have with H&H to Ingrid, with the message:
Ingrid,
I initiated this correspondence with H&H because you said they wanted to shoot this video. But as you can see, they are in no hurry to move on this. I know you are eager for this video to be produced, but as you know, I have no authority over them, so I cannot resolve your differing levels of urgency over this. Could you please work directly with them to do so, and get back to me?
I will be happy to shoot this video whenever H&H are ready. I have already offered my assistance with writing and/or editing the script and other areas of preparation, and that offer stands.
Thanks,
Sauron
I think this is a classic situation where phone calls aren’t good. Email is better because you can save them and CC all the parties so everyone is in the loop. And your ass is covered.
My point was you shouldn’t have contacted them, since THEY didn’t ask you, Ingrid did. I would have told Ingrid “That’s great, have them contact me when they are ready.” and then forget about it until you receive contact from H & H.
You don’t tell a VP to have two SVPs contact you when they’re ready… unless your job title is three letters long and starts with C.
That’s a fair point. In my defense, I’ll say that when Ingrid came to my desk to first tell me about this video, I composed a quick email while we were talking and sent it off, and I’ve updated her after every email / conversation with H&H. I think she was bothered that nothing happened for about two weeks.
The individual VPs don’t have people, but the company does … me. Or at least, I do that for most of the videos we write. Sometimes folks with writing experience will do their own and ask me to edit, or we do videos unscripted where I’m off-camera asking questions and we edit the footage appropriately.
I’ve got a meeting today with H&H to discuss the video and see where we are. I didn’t call the meeting, but it was created based on my prompting (and maybe some behind-the-scenes pushing from Ingrid). We’ll see where things stand at that point.
Well, he said that Ingrid was kind of his peer. I took that as being he didn’t take orders or direction from her. If that is not the case, my advice may or may not still apply, YMMV
You’re right and wrong … she’s my peer in the sense that we report to the same boss, and he regularly refers to her (and the other VPs who report to him) as my peer.
In reality, she is three pay grades above me, and has about six years’ seniority on me. She regularly gets direction / instruction from our boss and relays it to me and other members of our department.
Well, you’re right then, that’s a painful situation. I always hate when ‘Jack’ comes to me and says ‘Hey, John wants to do this’ when ‘John’ may or may not want to, or even know about it yet. That’s why I started my policy of “Have them contact me then” but of course, like your situation, that doesn’t apply when it’s my boss, or someone that relays direction from my boss. Hope it works out for you!