We just did a new Lazy Book Club on Tuesday. It was about the book 'Creativity, Inc', which covers the history of Pixar and how you can maintain a creative culture. So, loads of stuff we could learn and discuss. Here are the 7 major themes we talked about:
1. The process either makes you or unmakes you. At Pixar, they focus on having clear processes that allow the company to maintain a high standard for everything they do.
That said, there is a risk that over-investing in process reduces the unpredictability of the work. So the key tension is that there are some hygiene things to keep in check, but process should never get in the way of getting to interesting answers for our clients.
2. Culture over process. Related to the previous point, one of our attendees highlighted that at his agency, there is no process or template per se, but culture plays a big role. A culture of asking why, going after the commercial challenge and outcome we need to solve for.
Now, lack of templates or process could create unnecessary tensions, but there’s an expectation to create interesting output. As long as you’re trying to understand the question and giving ideas, it doesn’t matter how you do it. This is something managers need to foster more of.
3. An idea vs many ideas. When we see a film, we might think that film is a lovely idea. But in fact, what we don’t realise is a film is a collection of loads and loads of good ideas and decisions. And those ideas change over time, because that’s how you get to better thinking.
This is similar to when we approach a strategic or creative piece of work, because they are not single objects, but a combination of multiple ideas. The best strategy and creative work are the result of various conversations and iterations over time.
4. Over-planners just take longer to be wrong. Related to the previous point, the need to get it right often creates a pressure to do a bunch of work until you show it to someone, hoping it’s perfect. In reality, it’s helpful for strategists to be able to “kill their babies”.
Bringing in creatives or the account team earlier helps, sharing strategy early helps, and having briefing buddies (people who give you perspective on your briefs, even if they don’t work on the account) helps. Sharing hypotheses early and often helps you eliminate bad options.
5. Leave room for exploration. Creatives tend to prefer exploration, but strategists tend to cut exploration short too quickly. In fact, and especially early in a project, it’s more important to get your story right, even if your deck isn’t as pretty or detailed as you hoped.
That requires exploration, seeing what resonates. Also, a piece of advice from one of the attendees: when presenting first thoughts, never use the agency templates. Templates get people into editing mode. Not using them keeps options open and focused on the content (vs format).
6. Don’t expect things to run smoothly. As strategists, sometimes there’s an expectation that there is a way this is meant to work, a linear way, and if things don’t go that way then something must have gone wrong.
In reality, due to the nature of creative work, things get a bit chaotic and that’s ok. This is also important when taking clients on the journey. Even if things might not be 100% right just yet, what’s important is that people and the work are heading in the right direction.
7. Focus on the problem, not the person. This one is for those of us who tend to struggle with feedback, or think someone is being unfair when critiquing work. At its best, a critique is about the work, not about the person doing it.
This is important to remember, because it means there is enough depth of relationships between people to know that, even if the work is not quite right yet, there is trust that the people doing it will eventually get there.
It’s also a way to ensure that, even if projects have their road bumps (they always do), motivation stays high because people know others trust them to do the right thing.
That's it, a summary of what we discussed! If you'd like to come to the next Lazy Book Club, all you have to do is join the community here 👇
group-think.co.uk/become-a-member
It's all free. No name tags. No add-ons. Just good ingredients. Groovy. Aight, peace x
group-think.co.uk/become-a-member
It's all free. No name tags. No add-ons. Just good ingredients. Groovy. Aight, peace x
