Every CEO has got to deal with creative people in the team, especially designers, copywriters, or even UX experts. These team members are a crucial part of the team because their work directly affects the product and/or the communication going to the important stakeholders like consumers.
Every CEO also knows that getting the best work out of such creative species can be quite challenging. In this blog, we talk about how to brief creative people in your team so that you can manage them well and get the best results for your organization.
This applies to those who work in ad agencies or those who hire ad agencies too. Similarly, this also applies to organizations who need creative people on board for their products – example, architects, fashion designers, interior designers, actors and so on.
Here are 4 things you should keep in mind while briefing your creative team.
1. Describe the problem in detail.
Sounds simple. But it’s at the heart of getting the briefing process right. Describe the problem or task at hand as well as constraints to the solution. Include relevant research, inputs, evidence to help them use whatever they like.
You’ll be surprised how many times creative people fail to deliver the right solution because they weren’t informed about limitations on budgets or resources. And you never know which detail in your brief sparks a new idea.
2. Learn how to give feedback.
When the solution does not meet your requirements or it is not the best solution to the problem as defined by you, describe what is missing. Give reasons why it is not the best solution. Your analysis and observations will lead to more conversations – and having more conversations means exploring the problem from different perspectives.
Many CEOs reject the solution given by the creative team with a bitter dismissal. That’s counterproductive to your goal of delivering results.
Explaining, giving inputs for further improvement are helpful. To reiterate, don’t see the briefing process as a one-time dump on the creative team. You should be fine with letting it evolve.
Your briefing does not begin or end at the start after your first input/briefing or before the task at hand is accomplished by your creative team. Understand that sometimes the first draft is the final one and sometimes the final one is the first draft!
3. Understand the nuances of motivation, recognition, and praise.
This is a very important aspect of positive feedback and feedback in general. Motivate your people all the time. Bestow recognition for good work by identifying the people who really contributed rather than people who are there to just grab the credit. Offer lavish praise when the job is done, and also when the job is not done. All these – motivation, recognition and praise – are part of encouraging your creative team.
4. Encourage innovation.
For every idea that goes on to become successful, you need to allow 10 bad ideas to emerge. For every success story, you need to witness 10 instances of failure. And sometimes, even more than 10.
Encourage risk taking behavior and experimentation. Accept all ideas and be willing to support when ideas fail. That’s a part of accepting responsibility when solutions are not ideal.
You cannot bring creative types in line with regular rules and regulations. Try different kinds of approaches to demonstrate that you are here to support them. You do not have an option anyway. Creativity requires patience.
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