Polishing the vase when the house is falling down
Sometimes, sometimes, you need to delete everything.
Every assumption, drawing, idea. Mercilessly.
You’re going to be pissed off, some people are going to be pissed off, a lot of pissing off is going to happen.
The thing is, you saw it coming. Your gut feeling told you that the insight wasn’t very well drawn out. That idea was a bit made-to-fit. That design only saw meeting walls and it grew without light.
Whatever the reason, you’ve reached a point where one wall fix just makes another 3 cracks in the ceiling. Every new feature feels like building another living room. On the rooftop.
So, what do you do? You can’t just polish the vase hoping no one will notice. (we used to do that when we were 3).
Houston, we have a problem
Long brainstorming sessions, late evenings, multiple meetings are quite often the norm in creative teams. You try 80 ideas before picking one. You start building it, you pitch it, polish it, review it, and approve it until you slowly get to a painful realization that… it’s actually not working.
This is pretty much the time when “I quit” comes to mind. “It’s not worth it” follows it religiously. “I want to buy an island and live there.”
And yet, this is the perfect learning process. Yes, the one that makes you feel like you hit the wall face first. There’s no easy path to great execution.
At this point, you have two options when you ultimately face your team: you can make it feel like the Titanic’s sinking (congratulations, everyone just quit) or you can actually show you just need to steer the ship before the iceberg hits (despite what the movie has shown, this is actually a recommended method).
Congratulations. You don’t know everything.
A strong ship steer requires steady feet. A team that trusts your word, braces for the move, and understands what needs to be done. How you frame the conversation, how you remind everyone of the end goal, and how clear you are on the next steps, are essential in moving forward. You will need to change a mindset before you switch an idea.
And yes, it takes a bit of courage to say it. Takes a lot more faith and patience from your team or clients to understand.
It’s also a great exercise in honesty and humility. A realization that you don’t have all the answers. But you do know how to find them.
Start fresh, throw ideas around, treat your team to some pizza. Allow yourself to be wrong again and again until something great pops up.
—
Delete everything.
Start over.
It’s going to work.
Nothing is really lost but a bad idea.
