A case for getting the good news before the bad
Creative feedback edition
Being positive is a big ask these days. As human beings in 2021, we’ve entered an unspoken agreement to be refreshingly honest about the crappy state of things. It’s united us in our collective groans, sleepless nights, and bouts of laughing-so-we-don’t-cry.
As part of this unspoken agreement, it feels like it’s no longer in our nature to feign positivity, which is a welcome change. Asking someone to think positively today seems pretty absurd — you may as well zap them with the Men in Black neuralyzer so they can forget everything in recent history.
At A Hundred Monkeys, we’re pitching creative ideas constantly, which means we’re receiving constant feedback — positive, negative, and everything in between. We’re prepared for anything, and we learn from it all. But we typically ask the client to start with positive feedback. Most people (even pre-2020) chuckle at this request and interpret it as not wanting to hurt our feelings.
Sure, a barrage of negative feedback is never easy on the ego. And if 100% of the feedback is negative, then clearly there was a disconnect somewhere along the way. But 99.9% of the time, there’s something positive to say, and here’s why we like to start there:
Setting the tone
Giving feedback as a client can be a stressor. You’re reacting to something in real time, you’re asked to think creatively and strategically, and you have an audience. You might panic if you’re not immediately in love with anything you’ve been presented. The fight or flight response kicks in, and it’s easy to let negative thoughts take control. Thinking positively in a stressful situation can send that same signal to the rest of our bodies, allowing for a more productive conversation overall.
Setting the bar
When we present names to a client, we like to give options. They’re usually faced with a dozen or so of our recommendations, and we try to get their thoughts on each one. If we can first understand what is working, then we’ll already have some good context for what isn’t working, and why. It’s a good exercise in connecting the dots together and finding alignment on how we’re assessing good ideas.
Setting the stage
A creative presentation is rarely the last step of a project. Typically, creative work is iterative: the feedback received on the first iteration informs the next round of work. From there, we help our clients take the work over the finish line, whether that means socializing it with their team, navigating the legal landscape, or even collaborating further. Not everything rests on a single presentation, but each and every conversation sets the stage for a good relationship.
As the lines between work and home continue to blur for many of us, so do the lines between our work selves and home selves. A creative presentation might’ve once been the highlight of someone’s day — and now, the highlight is probably that time they got outside earlier. But as absurd as it may sound, we’ll keep asking people to start positive, if only to deliver a result that keeps them smiling.
