Local Agency Rebrands Timesheets as ‘Personal Narrative Capture’ to Improve Staff Morale
Boutique creative shop Lantern & Vale has announced the successful relaunch of its timesheet system, now known as Personal Narrative Capture, in what it calls a “landmark reframing of billable existence”. The initiative rolled out Monday with a compulsory morning tea and a 42 slide deck explaining how logging six minute increments is, in fact, storytelling.
Managing Partner Clive Ransfield said the old term timesheet carried “industrial baggage” and “colonial admin energy”. Personal Narrative Capture, by contrast, invites staff to see each calendar block as a chapter in their professional memoir. Designers are encouraged to replace phrases like “amends” with “iterative emotional refinements”. The finance team has confirmed this has not changed invoicing, but morale has lifted by what Clive described as “a strong conceptual margin”.
To support the transition, staff have been issued pocket sized Field Journals for jotting down feelings before entering them into SynergyStack, the same system as before. A new category titled Existential Drift has already been paused after junior creatives began billing 14 hours a week to it. Leadership clarified that while self reflection is billable in spirit, it remains non chargeable in practice.
Lantern & Vale says early feedback has been “textured”. One account manager noted it now takes longer to write a timesheet than the actual client email. Another said she enjoys selecting the drop down option Courageous Follow Up instead of Second Reminder. The agency plans to enter Personal Narrative Capture into next year’s industry awards under Brand Experience, pending confirmation that internal compliance counts as culture.
Managing Partner Clive Ransfield said the old term timesheet carried “industrial baggage” and “colonial admin energy”. Personal Narrative Capture, by contrast, invites staff to see each calendar block as a chapter in their professional memoir. Designers are encouraged to replace phrases like “amends” with “iterative emotional refinements”. The finance team has confirmed this has not changed invoicing, but morale has lifted by what Clive described as “a strong conceptual margin”.
To support the transition, staff have been issued pocket sized Field Journals for jotting down feelings before entering them into SynergyStack, the same system as before. A new category titled Existential Drift has already been paused after junior creatives began billing 14 hours a week to it. Leadership clarified that while self reflection is billable in spirit, it remains non chargeable in practice.
Lantern & Vale says early feedback has been “textured”. One account manager noted it now takes longer to write a timesheet than the actual client email. Another said she enjoys selecting the drop down option Courageous Follow Up instead of Second Reminder. The agency plans to enter Personal Narrative Capture into next year’s industry awards under Brand Experience, pending confirmation that internal compliance counts as culture.