We all have been there right, you are invited on a team project and you have ideas that you think are good, but the lead comes into the room with an idea already in mind and there is nothing you can say that will make it so that anything different gets added to the concept.
What happens next, what always happens next. One ends up just waiting to be told what to do, quiet in the corner with ideas floating and comments that can be helpful, but why would you voice them? You are not valued as someone that has an input that matters.
This is the feeling that I have seen and experienced. There is something broken in how we communicate with our team and how we put moral down with rejection, ignoring or worst, patronizing our team with just bad leadership dynamics.
Some of these problems have different solutions depending on the situation. There are a few approaches, practices and reactions that I like to implement in order to keep everyone engaged and invested in what we are doing.
Before the meeting
I love me a good brief. A brief that answers the important questions, not just the client’s preferences such as colors, fonts or their own ideas, but the questions that really make or break a project. Such as, what are the challenges? what are the goals? what are they willing to invest to make this happen? how much control do they want to have? who are your decision-makers? how do they describe themselves? how would people describe the client? what are the emotional reasons people choose them?
A good brief aligns the team on the same page, everyone is working with the same and right amount of information and also eliminates many personal opinions that come from assumptions made by not having answers.
What kind of meeting
Armed with this information, let’s have everyone come to it with 5 to 10 ideas, depending on the project. However, as stated in the book by Adam Harrell, Creative Direction In A Digital World, “Social dynamics end up damaging creative output.”
Adam states that due to our desire to conform, we end up fixating on other’s ideas and mimicking them instead of exploring new avenues of thought. This can, of course, narrow the creativity and just have the same concept in different ways.
There is a time for different kinds of meeting depending on the project. I would rather have separate meetings and explore different ideas with my designers. Having a 2 to 4 person meeting and really expand the ideas to a point that makes them viable.
After this step, let’s bring the rest of the team together and present the concepts to each other and give feedback.
Feedback
I feel like this is the step in the process that a lot of leads get in trouble and can lose the designers in the room, not just for the current project for upcoming projects too. If we can’t give good feedback, then we will never be able to help others create great work.
There is a way to engage, even if the idea is not good, don’t dismiss it, especially in front of peers. Any idea deserves respect, not just for the idea but for the person that said it. Asking questions that show active listening. Questions such as why do you like this idea? What makes you feel that this can work? How does this match the company goals? We need to understand the reading and not just say that we don’t like it. Usually, this person would be someone with less experience, and this is a great opportunity to have that person grow and become a smarter designer for the future.
This is something important to me because I believe that showing respect for everyone’s ideas keeps the rest of the team in high spirits and feeling heard. What I want to avoid is having someone on the team feel disrespected or dismissed. This feeling spreads. Conversations happen between co-workers and other people will start to see dynamics from the view of the unhappy person.
How to follow up
Post meetings conversations are huge! We can have great meetings with great feedback, work together and come up with something awesome, but there are often things that we thought were good but end up on the cutting room floor.
What I like to do is just have a quick 5 to 10-minute conversation, maybe that day or the day after and get some thoughts on what the other person thought was good, what was bad and why. This can give me insights as to what their perspective is and it’s a great time to talk about what kinds of projects and designs the team wants to work on.
Sometimes we have an itch do create something in particular and we find ourselves mentioning this on every meeting, whether it fits or not. Talking about it, we can come to an understanding and even find a way to shift the concept to something else.
For example, if we want to create something 3D, but we can’t find a project, then let’s make something that we can use for social and this can help the need to create this, keeping that person engaged and showing to everyone else on the team that if they really want to create something, they will and that I am here to make it an enjoyable day to day experience.
The takeaway
I think the takeaway is simple, we need to know our team, know how to speak with them in different settings, be respectful of them and their ideas, find what they are passionate about and find opportunities to make it so they enjoy working with you.
I know that every project is not going to be super happy, but if the team feels like their option matters and that at some point, their idea will be executed, the team will stay engaged and excited.
Thank you