003 A tweak too far: When to stop taking advice

Work expands to fill the time available. For me polishing and tweaking don’t end until the budget or deadline says so. But what happens when advice and suggestions continue to flow and time runs out?

Text, color, image, graphics and music can all have an impact on whether or not content is a hit or miss on social platforms. That’s why weighing different perspectives and experience is so valuable. But when is it time to say thanks but no thanks to colleagues or clients who continue to share suggestions in the eleventh hour?

“Give a problem to a mediocre team and they will screw it up. Give the problem to a great team and they will solve it or come up with something better”.

Disney Pixar CEO Ed Catmull writes about managing creative collaborative teams in his book, Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration,

Catmull says, “when teams reach a creative crisis point, give a problem to a mediocre team and they will screw it up. Give the problem to a great team and they will solve it or come up with something better”. But what if you are out of time or money and the real boss, the client, offers the advice?

“They thought that by taking everybody’s idea would make the show bulletproof – but in fact, it makes the show riddled with bullets. And then the show died!”

Ask Phil Rosenthal, the creator, writer and executive producer of the CBS sitcom "Everybody Loves Raymond". Rosenthal says, “the road is littered with many, many shows where the showrunner took everybody’s ideas – regardless if they were good or not. Because they thought that by taking everybody’s idea then that would make the show bulletproof – but in fact, it makes the show riddled with bullets. And then the show died!” His advice is to listen but trust your own instincts. If you are right they can take the credit. If you take their advice and its bad they will still cancel the show.

Though diversity of thought and experience makes every decision better regardless of consensus, trying to please everyone is a losing strategy. When you are responsible for a creative process that will be judged subjectively by the end user and pragmatically by the client you have to go with what you know.

Although best practices evolve over time, what worked last time may not work the next. So what is a cutting edge content creator to do? Here are three ideas.

1. Stay abreast of emerging trends in digital. Read articles, case studies and act on analytics.

2. Success is never final. Make continuous improvement your goal. Attempt to stay current but add new ingredients to keep content fresh. Test and learn.

3. Listen to clients, colleagues and competitors. Let them know they are heard but do what your experience and talent tell you.

"Be so good they can’t ignore you"

You may feel the pressure of budgets, deadlines and creative differences throughout the production process but in the end your work has to stand on its own. As for polishing and tweaking, make them rip that baby from your hard drive. As actor, comedian and national treasure Steve Martin says in his master class on comedy, "Be so good they can’t ignore you".