As a project manager, you need to give your creative minds the freedom to dream big, connect the dots and create something new. But without enough direction your creatives may come adrift in a sea of their own creativity. So, what’s a PM to do?
Quite a pickle, isn’t it? Creative minds are essential to all creative projects…but working with creatives can be a double edged sword. While their passion, curiosity and innovation are both inspiring and integral to producing great project outcomes, their personalities and processes can be difficult to manage.
If you’ve worked with designers, copywriters, or art directors before you’ll know that their minds work very differently than those in management or development. If you need help identifying what personality types you have in your creative team, check out our article about identifying the 16 different personality types.
For the most part, however, creatives require more independence than non-creatives, but still require a degree of guidance. So, how do you supervise projects without stifling your creatives?
Set up an environment conducive to creativity, and then step back
Innovation is born from innovative climates. If you want your creatives to reach their full potential, you need to remove as many constraints as possible. This includes time, costs, and excessive protocols. In an ideal world, none of these constraints would exist, but that’s not reality. But, if you can remove just one of these constraints, your creatives will have more room to experiment and reach more innovative outcomes.
While it’s your job as PM to have your finger on the project’s pulse, you need to resist the urge to micromanage or survey. If you want creatives to deliver the goods, there needs to be an element of trust and understanding. In other words, you’ve got to leave them to it! Avoid drive-by check-ins or requesting constant progress updates as this will only aggravate your creatives and disrupt their workflow.
More freedom doesn’t mean complete freedom
Just because you’re giving your creatives more freedom, it doesn’t mean they get free reign. While creative minds require a certain amount of autonomy, they often lack discipline and focus (not ideal when you’re working with time sensitive deadlines). You need to make sure the goals for the project are super clear from the get-go so it’s only the way they achieve those goals that’s open to interpretation and experimentation.
Instead of bombarding your creatives with constant, stifling check-ins, try negotiating a daily or weekly meeting where your team can give you progress updates and talk through any challenges. As a PM, it may seem scary to loosen the reins, but it’s what your creatives need to flourish.
The successful management of creative teams is all about balance. Giving your team the freedom to explore, experiment and push boundaries, while still maintaining clear, streamlined workflow processes and priorities management. Here’s how you do it!
Issue creative briefs
To help keep your creatives on track and on task, try issuing creative briefs which outline the strategy, tone, and key messages of the project up front. It may sound obvious but as little as 16% of in-house teams use creative briefs and of these, 60% only use creative briefs for the highly creative, top tier projects. Creative briefs should be issued for all projects, no matter what the size or scope.
Creative briefs not only force clients to prioritise and streamline project goals, but they also eliminate confusion and conflicts over expectations which often erupt midstream. With clear briefing you can ensure every creative project run smoothly and prevent delays in the proofing process.
Use work management software
If you want your creative teams to manage their time efficiently, you need to structure your work requests. When requests fly in from multiple directions are sources, your creative team won’t know what to focus on and will default to whatever has the closest deadline. If you want more focus to be placed on strategic impact and high-value projects, you need to establish a structured process for submitting work requests.
That’s where streamlined, work management software comes in. This software will bring order to request chaos, provide visibility to the work queue, and avoid overloading your team with low-priority projects. It allows everyone to see all the work in the pipeline including the work that’s been completed and the work that’s on its way.
Implement a digital proofing and approval system
Proofing and approval are the bane of most creative projects. Everyone wants to provide input and have their feedback heard and it can wreak havoc on the proofing process. If someone doesn’t respond to changes quickly or there’s conflicting feedback, the whole project is held up. This puts creatives in a super awkward position where they’re unsure of what changes to implement, which to ignore and how to compromise, all while under pressure to meet deadlines.
A digital proofing and approval system can help bring order to the chaos. By uploading proofs to a single, shared location, which is accessible to all, you and your clients can view and discuss suggested edits before your creative team makes any changes. This eliminates any confusion, revision conflicts and re-work caused by conflicting feedback. This system will ensure everyone is accountable, while preventing unauthorised advancements and ensuring your creatives meet deadlines and expectations.
Structure without stifling
While excessive protocol will smother your creatives and kill off their creativity, just the right amount of structure will boost their creativity. By eliminating common creative obstacles and implementing clear, streamlined systems you can relieve your creatives from the burden of busywork, re-work and wasted time, and give them more time to do what they do best —create!
So, tell us! What do you do to keep your creatives motivated, engaged and productive? What systems or processes have you implemented to support their creativity? Share your tips on how get the best out of your creative minds over on LinkedIn!