Decision-making by consensus in the creative business? Here's the problem.

"Great presentation, team." said the client after we presented a campaign plan over a zoom call.

This was a client at one of the agencies I worked at.

"I think the strategy is on point and I love the creative campaign route." she exclaimed, then continued, "But I'd like to open the forum to my reporting team for their feedback and inputs."

This is where everything went South.

One of her team members literally took offence to the way our campaign pointed out unhealthy eating habits of people [*facepalms virtually*] and the brand manager suddenly changed her tone after to that. "I think there are slight chances of this route not going down well with our target audience. What if they take offence? Can you think of a different campaign route and present to us tomorrow?" she asked.

"Ummm.. Sure. Tomorrow seems difficult, but let us get back to you with the timelines." I replied on behalf of my team who had just put a week behind this presentation, only to fall flat to one junior's personal preference and emotions.

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Many organizations, both clients and agencies, often rely on decision-making by consensus. This system exists due to many reasons - decentralized departments, lack of ownership, the pressure for have everything reviewed by certain stakeholders, among many other reasons.

While such systems work well for objective decision-making in operation-led businesses, they are detrimental to nurturing of a good output in creative businesses, a.k.a. media, entertainment, and advertising. That's because subjective inputs don't add any value to a creative idea and its possibilities.

We've all read about how creative geniuses like Walt Disney, J.K. Rowling, and even Stephen King faced rejection of their ideas, which later went on to become historic pieces of work across the world (Mickey Mouse, Harry Potter, and Carrie, respectively attributed to the authors mentioned above).

The same happens to hundreds of creative ideas, every day, in every ad agency, at every meeting - because someone felt it was not bold enough, or too bold, too clever, not clever enough, too quirky, not quirky enough, too straightforward, too much, and so on.

Aarghhh.. maybe just sit with a copywriter or strategist for a drink and hear them rant till the end of time.

Well here are 4 reasons why creative decision-making by consensus is not the best idea:

1. It's subjective: Good creative ideas are often new and in unexplored territories, meaning they are also risky and need a leap of faith. Many clients prefer to keep going on and on with the same tried and tested patterns of ads and content, because 'business is good.' and they don't want to move the needle.
2. It wastes precious time: When making creative decisions by consensus, some stakeholders take way more time than others. Why? Because they can't wrap their heads around new ideas and spend a lot of time overanalyzing it. This leads to a round of unreasonable feedback loops, and usually ends at, "Let's look at the first draft once again, I think that was closest to what we need." after months.
3. It's not about who's right: When 20 people are given the authority to reject or approve an idea, sometimes personal agendas, egos, and preferences come in between rational decision-making that needs to solve a challenge. Due to the subjective nature of the matter, personal sentiments become a hindrance to putting out good creative work.
4. It discourages ownership: It takes away the risk of owning responsibility of failure when there is a whole meeting room full of people to blame collectively if the idea does not work out. It's safe. Well, the safe zone isn't where creativity thrives, or ever wins.

So how do we tackle this? Here are some do's and don'ts that can help you draw the line of consensus-based decisions to keep creativity alive and people thriving.

Use consensus or team debates when:

1. Setting goals and KPIs - Debating out what needs to be achieved from the P.O.V.s of different teams helps set the right kind of objectives for each team.
2. Discussing marketing and campaign strategy before the agency comes in, or with the agency's strategist before their creative team is looped in.
3. Allocating resources and responsibilities to different tasks in a project.

Avoid consensus in decision-making when you are:

1. Getting your agency to present creative ideas. Have a smaller but sensible team with a leader that takes ownership to evaluate the effectiveness of the idea from a strategic perspective and not its creative execution.
2. Ideating new products or services that can better be test-marketed than shunned because of personal opinions and preferences of internal team members. (Remember, there are people who actually like Pineapple Pizza, and brands like Marmite which exist on the premise of polarity of consumer preferences.)

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"For those who do not wish to step away from consensus, the creative is useless at best; at worst, it's dangerous." - Deena Metzger

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Disclaimer:- Opinions expressed are solely my own and do not express the views or opinions of my current employer or any of my previous employers.