109: How to React to Creativity, Part 2
[After] Effective feedback is itself a creative act
We are born creative.
Which suggests we are also born with an ability to relate and react to creativity on par with origination itself.
It’s just not taught that way, or supported. But it’s there.
If we think about the practice of feedback as a creative act in itself, we’re on the right track.
[Part 1 here]
Avoid leaping
We were taught how to rush to judgement. We were taught to cut corners and leap to tactics. The arc of efficiency suggests me just telling you how to solve the creative issue saves us time, gets to the point, and most important—moves us quickly away from the uncomfortable soil of humility. One of my youngest son’s doctors said, “The hardest thing for any doctor to do is nothing. We’re trained to take action.”
The ouroboros that is creativity and feedback is lopsided. All wholly magic and foggy charm juxtaposed with a muscular razor’s edge of action-oriented precision. One side comfortable in uncertainty, the other adamant we solve now. This is learned behavior.
We can unlearn it.
We can talk openly about resisting the urge to take matters into our own hands. We can talk openly about the anxiety produced by creativity which hasn’t yet landed. We can return to and interrogate the assignment itself to see if that’s where the problem really lies.
Actionable feedback doesn’t dictate, it fertilizes, it opens doors, and keeps the “oxygen of optimism” flowing. It takes practice and finesse, and desire.
Creativity is dangerous. Act wisely.
My second favorite book in the world is Robert Grudin’s The Grace of Great Things. The pulled quote on the back cover reads,
“Creativity is dangerous. We cannot open ourselves to new insight without endangering the security of prior assumptions. We cannot propose new ideas without risking disapproval and rejection. Creative achievement is the boldest initiative of mind, an adventure that takes its hero simultaneously to the rim of knowledge and the limits of propriety. Its pleasure is not the comfort of the safe harbor, but the thrill of the reaching sail.”
When a marketer asks for creativity, they are asking to leave the comfort of the safe harbor. To believe otherwise is foolish, never mind inefficient. How else do we propose to attract necessary attention? To convince customers of our benefits? In reacting to creativity we are reacting to change itself. We should not be surprised if it acts in unfamiliar ways. We got what we asked for.
So we’re back to a mindset.
In the dance which is creativity and feedback, we must re-mind ourselves of the circumstances we’ve created. We asked for the new, the persuasive, the differentiating. Our reactions to the work should be rooted in the knowledge we are actively and deliberately “endangering the security of [our own] prior assumptions.”
The economics of feedback
It sounds like a Tim Ferris anecdote, but I can’t confirm it. The myth goes like this: A professor hands out a grade below “A,” which prompts Tim to schedule a meeting to learn why. A four hour meeting. Maybe it was only an hour. But here’s the point about economics: For the professor, the “cost” of giving Tim anything less than an “A” in the future might end up being a lengthy meeting.
Economics are in everything. Especially feedback.
Orson Wells read a line of ad copy into the microphone. A disembodied voice gave a response. Wells reacted, “The right read… is the one I’m giving you.”
Legend has it the ad writer Mark Fenske once told an account executive or client, “I get my ideas from God, so don’t make me change any of them.”
If you’ve never worked in creativity all of this might sound childish and silly. Unprofessional, even. But I’ll wager those impressions miss a very important point:
Reacting to creativity HAS TO have a price, otherwise it wouldn’t be creative.
If brilliant, career-changing ideas were free for the asking, would we notice? Would they have the potency and qualities to change things? There has to be a reason so few ideas truly impact the world. I suspect one criteria is the price that must be paid to extract it.
So now what? Earlier I suggested avoiding prefacing—attempting to protect feelings ahead of (what you know will be) negative feedback. Such tactics are unproductive. Similar advice applies to the economics of feedback. The professional understands they are on a two-way street, that feedback is a conversation which will be negotiated. Barden and Morgan’s “CAN-IF” structure provides one resourceful solution. How else might you prepare yourself, your team, your collaborators to price the economics of feedback?
10,000 hours of “why” versus “how”
Feedback is the unpracticed skill which can unlock incredible creative and economic value. It starts by acknowledging this skill is challenging to learn, but you’re learning.
Avoid the leap. Ask for time to reflect.
Then be as creative in discerning an actionable insight as the work you’re reacting to. Don’t solve “how,” but ask “why?” Why do you feel uncertain? Why isn’t this idea aligning with expectations? Are your expectations off target?
Maybe the assignment is ill defined. Maybe we don’t know enough about the target audience. Maybe we’re not imagining the target audience in the most useful way. Maybe we’re trying to solve a problem marketing isn’t meant to solve.
Maybe the creative solution on the table is the right thing to do but you don’t know how to say that?
It’s okay to say, “this isn’t working.”
But it’s critical to say, “I need X amount of time to think about why so I can give you actionable feedback.”
What = “actionable?”
Actionable feedback isn’t exhaustive or exhausting. It is rarely granular. It isn’t prescriptive. It accepts a responsibility to negotiate with and inspire better creativity. It looks for what works, and amplifies those qualities. Actionable feedback accepts there likely isn’t a perfect solution, yet we can and will decide anyway. Because actionable feedback is confident enough to know this is how the process works; and it wouldn’t be creative if we weren’t a little or a lot bit uncomfortable. Actionable feedback defers to take action.
The practice of professional feedback has at least three elements. First, it is candid. Second, it clearly and concisely pinpoints the problem’s root, rather than prescribing a solution; it identifies the source of uncertainty. Lastly, it is human. Admit when you’re struggling to grasp the intent or inspiration behind the work.
You’ll figure it out soon enough.
Or your competitors will.
Creativity + AI Updates
💈🥬🏒 It’s time, once again, for the All Minnesota High School Hockey Hair Team video. This tradition is so important The New York Times put some gel on it this year. Let the salad flow, boys.
🚦 Looking for policy guidance on the use of AI in your organization? Scribbr has curated a handy overview of AI use policies across the college and university spectrum; with links to examples.
😆 Food co-founder Iain Tait writes about “Laughing With AI” and makes a case for the responsibility of creatives.
👓 Fascinating story here about perception and quality from Tomas Roope, ex-Google AI lead. “When it comes to creative AI the challenge is how to generate results that are in the top percentile.”