Quantity Over Quality

In my last blog post, I made a controversial statement that design is not art. Well, I'm back again in this blog post to challenge another long-standing aphorism.

The popular saying is that you should value "quality over quantity." In almost every aspect of my life, I agree with this idea. I choose simple, well-made clothes instead of fast-fashion. I value experiences over objects. I prefer to save my money for one good meal out per month instead of 5 mediocre ones.

But when it comes to creative projects, especially in the beginning stages, I have learned time and time again that the far better approach is to ideate as many possible solutions as you can. I preach to our team to prioritize quantity over quality.

I get defensive when I hear people say things like "I wish I was creative," or "I could never come up with that idea, I'm not creative enough." Statements like that assume that creativity is like magic. They present creativity as this precious trait that only a gifted few possess. Anyone who has succeeded in a creative line of work knows that is simply not the case. Creativity doesn't flutter in and out of our consciousness whenever it pleases. It's not summoned out of thin air like a magician. 

While it is true that some people are more naturally gifted than others at the skills that might lead to a more creative thinker, the bottom line is that creativity is about hard work. It's about approaching a problem from every possible solution. It's about poking holes in the promising ideas. It's about relying on your personal experiences as a curious person to connect new ideas. I've seen it time and time again. The best work comes from those who work the hardest at it. Period.

Therefore, it's in those early stages of a project that you should focus on generating a massive quantity of ideas. If you're a designer working on a new logo for a client, you should generate hundreds of sketches before landing on a final solution. And once you get there, you should iterate on that solution with a hundred more variations. If you're a writer, you need to write a hundred different headlines to even have a chance to land on five good ones. As much as I wish it were true, there seldom are shortcuts. You have to do the work to get to the bottom of the challenge.

An un-disciplined creative person tends to hone in on a particular idea after just a few minutes of brainstorming. They lock in on a single idea and begin to refine the details. This is like an architect fussing over the design of a single window, and not paying much attention to the entire house. The solution never benefitted from being through the entirety of the creative process. There was no exploration. Therefore, there was no amazing creative discovery.

It's only through a rigorous iteration of a massive quantity of options, that you will ultimately find quality.

Delegate Outcomes. Not Tasks.

If you are a leader of any kind, especially in a creative field like marketing or advertising, you'll want to pay attention to this post.

If you are anything like me, you want to lead a team of individuals who always show up with good ideas. Employees who push the envelope. Who challenge assumptions to create innovative solutions. What you don't want are teammates who sit around and wait to be told what to do. Employees who only give you the bare minimum, and nothing more.

There are many ways to build a team like this. One of the most important ways is to delegate outcomes and not tasks.

What does this mean exactly? It means that you need to present challenges to employees that allow them to use their own experience, intelligence, and unique skills to solve a problem. After all, those are the traits that moved you todid hire them in the first place. When you form your instruction in this way, it allows the employee the opportunity to take ownership of the project. This will result in a teammate who is more engaged, happier, and ultimately, more productive. Not to mention, that you'll likely get more interesting solutions and insights to the problem you're trying to solve. Everybody wins.

Conversely, the manager who delegates individual tasks tends to get the opposite result. This person is sometimes unfortunately known as the "micro-manager." Delegating a set of specific tasks ultimately leads to employees contributing the bare minimum because they know that their ideas don't matter. The best and brightest minds won't tolerate this for long, and you'll quickly see attrition among your best employees.

This methodology isn't easy. It requires a lot of patience from the leader. Instead of "cutting to the chase" you'll often find yourself delicately re-directing your team over and over again as they work their way to the solution. One metaphor that I like is that the manager acts as a set of “guard rails” to redirect their team as they move forward toward the goal. In a deadline-driven industry like advertising, the time required to get to a solution using this method can be exceptionally challenging.

Of course some problems require a more direct form of leadership. Examples might include the aforementioned restraints imposed by deadlines, or working with particularly in-experienced teammates like junior designers and copywriters or interns.

Like all good lessons, this was one that I had to learn the hard way. If you are having trouble with your employees providing the kind of creative insight that you originally hired them for, you might start by looking yourself in the mirror and asking yourself if you're delegating outcomes, or if you're delegating tasks.