Thursday, October 22, 2009

Creative Collaboration Part 2: Assign a leader. Please!

 

An orchestra needs a conductor, a movie needs a director, and a project needs a leader. No matter what the title, the project leader is the one person who coordinates the direction of the project, and is empowered to make decisions and take action. A project leader usually has internal or external clients to answer to, but he or she is still the one person who has direct and primary responsibility for the project. The leader provides the vision that will pull all of the parts into a unified whole. The leader helps each team member understand how his or her contribution will fit into that unified whole.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying that the project leader is necessarily the most important person on the team, but I am saying that the project leader is key to a successful outcome. The best project leaders know that a big part of their role is to make it possible for the team to deliver an outstanding product.

When management is reluctant to empower its employees or to assign project leadership, the results will be predictably mediocre, and you can expect to find anxiety among the team members. Creative professionals feel more motivated and do a better job when there is a clear chain of command so that definitive answers can be had, actions can be taken, and progress can be made.

There are some schools of thought that it’s best to let members of a creative team work “democratically” without an assigned leader. I’m sure there must be cases where that kind of works, but in a professional setting where time is money, order and structure provide an undeniable advantage.

It’s also important to assign a qualified person as the leader. By their nature, top creative professionals want to grow their skills, and quite often the only growth path they may be aware of is into a management or leadership role. Unfortunately, the skills that help a person become a top creative professional do not necessarily prepare them to lead or manage others. When a top creative pro is put into a leadership position for which they’re not prepared, expect anxiety all around. The tragic result can be that the top creative person feels they must leave the organization to save face instead of stepping back from the leadership role. I learned that lesson the hard way by promoting a very talented Designer into a Creative Director role. I lost this person within months because the new role took her away from her strength and put her in situations that caused a kind of stress that she was not prepared for. With proper guidance and training the transition can be made successfully, but all too often it’s the Peter Principle in action.

It is very important to make sure the person who is moving into a leadership or management role understands how their role will change. More often than not I have found that top creatives resist moving in that direction once they understand that it means they may be doing less of the hands-on work they love, and spending more time supporting others. One good way to help a person prepare for leadership and test their tolerance for it is to assign him or her to lead smaller projects. In practice, most projects can be broken out into a number of smaller projects that will be coordinated to create the whole. For each of these sub-projects, there should be a qualified individual assigned the leadership role and ownership of the outcome of that sub-project.

One indicator of a great leader is how he or she speaks about the team. A great team leader will refer to the project and the team members in an inclusive way with the word “our,” such as “our project” and “our designer,” whereas a lesser leader will use the possessive term “my,” such as “my designer.” The difference indicates whether the leader considers himself or herself a part of the team or above the team. The most effective leaders act unquestionably as a part of the team and feel a responsibility to support the team.

Please contact me with your thoughts and comments. And please, ask for my help. Watch here for future installments. 

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Creative Collaboration Part 1: Define the Target

An effective creative collaboration starts with a clearly defined target. A written creative brief helps all involved parties to literally get on the same page about what needs to be accomplished.

The brief should be specific enough to help everyone understand what success will look like, and broad enough to foster innovative or unexpected solutions.

It’s a bit like taking time to make sure you are asking the right question before you put a lot of effort into coming up with an answer.

I think of a creative brief as the DNA of the organism that the project will bring to life.

A slight flaw in the DNA will result in problems as the project grows, but get the DNA right, and magic happens.

Even though a creative brief is usually only a page or two of text, those words will have a huge impact on the finished project.

DNA is a single molecule, but look at the complexity and diversity that can come from that single molecule.

One of the key benefits of a well-written creative brief is that it provides an objective measure for ongoing efforts. Are you growing the animal you meant to grow?

In practice, creative briefs often need to evolve.

Circumstances surrounding the project may change, or progressive efforts may reveal new insights.

With building a house as a metaphor, no matter how detailed the blueprints may be, once the structure starts going up and you can walk into the space, you will discover things you had not anticipated.

I recently watched some time-lapse archival footage of the original construction of Disneyland. As Main Street was being built, a large gazebo had been planned at a prominent point on the street, but when Walt saw that it blocked the view of the Magic Castle, he immediately had it moved.

On the film, one can see this large structure moving in and then quickly moving out. The gazebo eventually found a home at New Orleans Square, where it sits today.

Watch for new information and be prepared to use that new information to complete the project to its most successful outcome – whatever the factors may be. Keep the brief up to date and make sure that all involved parties understand the changes in the brief.

Projects without a formal creative brief tend to meander.

People working on such projects typically do what they want to do rather than what the project needs.

And who could blame them? They haven’t been given clear direction.

While the project team may appear to be busily working on the project, the essential purpose of the work may be only marginally served or missed altogether.

A creative brief is the surest way to avoid mistaking activity for progress.

The following is a template for a written creative brief. One or two pages is the desired length. Differing assignments have different needs, so modify and add or delete sections to best capture the essential information needed to make the project a success. Clarity is absolutely critical – that is the point of the brief.

SAMPLE CREATIVE BRIEF

Project name:

Date: and/or version number

Submitted by: Who prepared the brief (usually the Creative Director)

Client contact: The person with approval authority on the client side

Project leader: Probably the Creative Director

Project team: Key team members and their roles

Budget: Gotta be clear about that, at least to the project leader(s).

Schedule: The due date and any other significant dates.

Project overview: A short, high-level description of the project

Target audience: Who is the intended consumer of this item?

Assets available: There are almost always a few existing assets available for a project and it’s helpful to know what those are. Assets may include logos, brand style guides, music, photos, etc.

Creative direction: Any information that will point the look and feel in the right direction. In media projects, the target emotional response is worth great effort to establish before solutions are attempted.

Technical specifications: For some projects, this is absolutely key to success.

Please contact me with your thoughts and comments. And please, ask for my help. Watch here for future installments.