The Lost Art of Creative Feedback

I recall my first writer’s group the way one would recall their first unanesthetized tooth extraction – not fondly. I had just completed a short film script, and I was eager to get feedback from other writers who were all part of the same community.?

I volunteered to go first, and when the group was finished sharing their thoughts, I felt like I’d never write anything again. It was 45 minutes of people letting their inner critic rampage over my work.

Fast forward three years, and I have been accepted into the Atlantic Film Festival script development program with my feature script, The Rivals. I was excited, but it also meant I would have to go through another critique session.

‘Tell me what worked’

I’ll never forget the co-ordinator’s first instructions to the group “Let’s go around the table and I want to hear what worked for you in Tony’s script.”?Wow, I like the way this is starting. And one by one each of my colleagues said what they enjoyed about the read.

When that was done, he asked everyone to ask any questions that arose during the read — anything that was unclear. Some insightful questions pointed out inconsistencies that had never occurred to me.?

I left that first night feeling pumped about tackling that next draft. And then, on the drive home, another thought hit me. At no time did the coordinator say, “Tell us what you didn’t like about these scripts.”

How is that even possible? How did four writers have their scripts completely deconstructed without having them dumped on, leaving our confidence in tatters? It’s because we were guided by someone who understands how to get the best out of creative people.?

Biggest Blind Spot in Content Creation

In the ensuing years working in corporate communications, I have experienced countless notes and feedback on my creative work. Far too often, the experience was more like the first writer’s group than the second.?

In fact, I would say that the inability to give proper creative feedback is the biggest blind spot for content managers today. That’s because giving notes on creative work is like driving – everybody thinks they’re great at it when we all know they’re not.

But here’s the thing – there has never been a worse time in human history to be bad at giving creative feedback within your organization. Think about how important content such as videos, blogs, thought leadership pieces, and customer success stories have become in growing your brand over the past 10-15 years.

All of it adds up to one undeniable truth – you need to know how to get the best possible work from your writers, editors, and visual designers. With that in mind, here are four best practices for giving creative feedback.

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Best Practice #1 – Understand the psyche of creative types

Let’s face it, creatives are just a different breed of cat. I don’t care if it’s an annual report, marketing blog, communications plan, or video edit; if someone poured their heart and soul into it, it is difficult to separate professional from personal when it comes to hearing feedback.

?It’s hard to hear primarily negative feedback and not think, ‘I’m a failure’ or ‘I can’t do this’. If your style of giving feedback is to deal only with what you don’t like in a very direct way, you risk setting off these triggers, which will be counterproductive to getting an improved next version.

That’s not my opinion – that’s neuroscience.

In their article, This is Your Brain on Feedback, blue beyond consulting explains how the brain’s mechanism to protect us from perceived threats can hinder processing feedback if presented negatively.

"When our brain perceives a threat, our amygdala is “hijacked” in order to avoid that threat — leading to reduced analytical thinking, creative insight, and problem-solving. Giving feedback the wrong way can send the receiver into a threat response, where they can’t properly internalize or respond to the feedback you’re giving them."

This is why I always recommend…

Best Practice #2 – Lead with the positive

I don’t want to give the impression this is all about coddling sensitive creative types. It’s all about respecting the creative feedback Golden Rule – The primary objective in giving feedback is to get the best work from that person in the next version. This was the genius in the approach during my session at the AFF program. By starting with the positive, it prevented the ‘amygdala highjacking’ and I was more open to hear the more constructive points later in the session.

Leading with the positive also helps the creative person separate baby from bath water. If you give primarily negative feedback, you’re falling into a massive but common pitfall. The assumption is “If I don’t flag it as needing fixing, that means I like it.” But that is not at all true. What it really means is it can fall into one of two categories: (1) I love it or (2) It’s merely satisfactory.

How much better would a revised version be if the writer/designer/editor knew (a) what you loved about it, (b) what is merely satisfactory, and (c) what parts need to be addressed? ?Because, if all the person hears is what’s not working, it’s very easy to conclude that?nothing?in the piece is working. By starting with the positive, you can protect the parts that work when the writer undertakes the next draft.

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Best Practices #3 – Frame concerns as ways it can be made better

I’m going to share two real-life examples I personally experienced. First, I was working in a corporate environment once where a video editor was about to screen his first pass of a much-anticipated project for a big client. When the initial screening was finished, the account liaison just rattled off everything she didn’t like about it and asked him to fix those things in the next version, then she left.

Now contrast that with my experience at Livewire working on Manrico’s team. Any time he reviewed my work, he’d approach it by saying something like, “Hey I really like this. I like how you captured (X). You know what I think might help – what if you moved (Y) and (Z) to the top to introduce it earlier?”

In both scenarios, people gave creative feedback to improve the next version. The big difference though was how it was given. Manrico’s approach was less about criticism of where it was falling short and more about how the next draft could be made better. Accordingly, I was encouraged and confident going into that next round of work. But when I looked over at the video editor that day, I saw his shoulders slump as he stared ahead blankly. I felt for him because he did really great work on that first pass, but you would never know it from the feedback he received.

You will get much better results if you frame your “constructive feedback” as ways to make the next draft even better rather than as pointed criticism of the work.

Best Practice #4 – Improve creative feedback to improve business outcomes

I know there are some people reading this thinking, “This sounds like a lot of touchy-feely-pamper-the-sensitive-types-bs. I’m old school and people need to hear the harsh truth.” To which I would say, ‘Very well, let’s look at the impact of creative feedback through a strictly business outcome lens’.

We now know how harsh feedback triggers a shutdown mechanism in the brain. This means it’s unlikely the gist of the feedback is getting through. With this approach, it may take you five to six revisions to finally get the project to where it needs to be.

Now, what would it mean from a dollars and cents perspective if you were able to get it right in two drafts instead of six? If you’re working with freelancers, the impact is direct and immediate.

There are other indirect factors at play here as well. According to a Gallup survey[1] “67% of employees whose leaders focused on their positive traits and successes were fully engaged in their work in contrast to the 31% of employees whose managers focused on the negatives.” The same study found that employees who received primarily positive feedback were significantly more likely to stay with their employer.

So, get out your calculators and come up with the total financial impact of a more engaged and confident creative workforce with a significantly lower turnover rate. Go ahead, I’ll wait. (scrolls through phone while waiting patiently) Yeah, it is a big number.

In today’s business landscape, producing exceptional creative content efficiently is too important to get wrong. With these best practices as your guide, you’ll be amazed at the improvement in the quality of your content.

Of course, you don’t have to follow any of this advice and go on doing it the way you always have. But if you’re wondering what that will feel like for your creative talent…well, have you ever had an unanesthetized tooth extraction?

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Look for the next installment on March 19th when I explore The Special Relationship between Writer and Subject Matter Expert.

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[1] https://www.clearreview.com/power-of-positivity/

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