Design by Committee
It takes a strong project manager (leader) to say to staff and fellow management alike, “I trust (the experts we’ve hired) that we’ll like (benefit from) the results of this project.”
Without a project leader like that, it’s pretty much a cinch that you won’t like the results.
Input is nice to have (sometimes), and (occasionally) quite eye-opening. In addition, being heard makes folks quite nearly as satisfied as seeing their input put to use, so it’s well worth allowing input.
But.
Committeethink
90% of the time
Isblandthink.
If you’re the owner, the leader, the project manager, you’ve got to be willing to allow, accept and ignore (reject) that input, to get the best results from the project.
… The results that you paid for. From the experts you hired.
Grow and be well,
Kelly Erickson
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15 June 2010, 5:25 am
Also known as: trust yourself and your own judgment!
With writing although it’s good to get feedback, especially from people you respect and trust (ie the experts), it’s a bad thing to get too much feedback because you’ll end up taking out all the personality from your writing and kill the spark.
Another great lesson Kelly!
Alex Fayle´s latest blog… Hello world!
15 June 2010, 8:21 am
That’s a big reason you don’t see a lot of cutting edge advertising from the big boys anymore. As soon as you get VPs and lawyers “helping” you with the creative, you’re sunk.
(Haven’t experienced this at the Fortune 500 level, but have experienced first hand it with mid-sized corporations/organizations. Can be very frustrating if you let it get to you!)
The worst part is that it takes *forever* to get the stamp of approval from everyone. Send it one place, make changes, send it another, make more changes, send it back to the first place, wait six weeks, make changes… Months it can take.
The Ad Contrarian had a story about this once. Can’t remember all the details, but basically they were hired to do the marketing for a new ship they just started to build (or something along those lines). One day, while he was perusing the final edits, he looked out into the harbour and saw the ship sailing away…
Classic.
~Graham
15 June 2010, 8:31 am
Alex,
LOL I’m going through that with some writing right now! Hadn’t even thought of that connection, but it’s so true!
Graham,
I remember laughing my head off at that post. Working with small and mid-sized businesses, I don’t see it very often, but every once in a while, there’s a PM who just doesn’t feel right unless every single person has put their stamp on it.
I watched a ship sail away recently on just such a tide of input. Not that this was inspired by a true story or anything… *ahem*
Regards,
Kelly