One of the things I’ve found interesting over the years is how planners deal with creative reviews.
In the main, they fall into 2 groups.
1. The ones that tear things down.
2. The ones who lift things up.
What makes #1 worse is that in many cases, what drives their destruction isn’t the work doesn’t answer the brief, but doesn’t answer it in the way they imagined.
In other words, they’re acting like a Creative Director.
Don’t get me wrong, a brief is important – it’s something that not only gives direction and lets ideas be pressure tested, but serves as a historical document so people can see where things came from at some point in the future.
But – and it’s an important but – a brief is not law.
It is not something that can’t be changed, enhanced or thrown out and re-done.
The goal has to be the work and while briefs can work ‘in theory’, if the creative teams aren’t getting to ideas that ignite energy in people, then it’s time to look at where the brief is stopping creativity to flow.
That does not mean you post-ratrionalise whatever is produced, but by the same token, you don’t expect a brief to be answered to the letter, which is why I stand by the belief a brief should act as a direction rather than a destination.
And that’s why I like planners who ‘lift things up’.
Who look for the good in the work rather than the bad.
Not in a Paula Abdul ‘everything is good even when it’s not’ kind-of-way, but recognise the threads that could lead to something exciting and new … threads that encourage rather than dictate … threads that lets everyone feel you’re on the same team and want the same thing.
The reason I say this is because I recently saw a quote that I loved.
It comes from US politician, John A Morrison and he say’s …
“Knowledge may come from taking things apart but wisdom only comes from putting things together”.
I love this.
I love what it means and represents.
And that’s why I think planners need to spend more time on wisdom than knowledge, because while a major part of our job is finding out the ‘why’ behind the ‘what’, if we don’t think of how those things can come together in interesting ways, then we’re not only limiting our own potential, we’re doing a disservice to where creativity can go and what it can achieve.