Is it just being trendy that matters?
Photo by Ruffa Jane Reyes on Unsplash
From time to time, a new buzzword is created in the marketing world. Usually, it´s a word that clients adopt and, sometimes, it defines what they want to see in the creative work. Some years ago, the buzzword was “storytelling,” and, now, it’s “breakthrough.”
Regarding the latter, when a creative receives a client´s briefing asking for “breakthrough ideas,” they might think that this is the opportunity to present the most disruptive ideas. What I learned, though, after seeing many clients using the “breakthrough” filter to approve ideas or not, is that there are many different interpretations of the same word. Not only do various agencies understand “breakthrough” in distinct ways but different clients also give the same word different meanings.
These buzzwords are quickly adopted by the industry, but, even quicker, their real meaning is lost. The main question is: Why do we adopt what’s trendy without first asking if it makes sense to us?
There is one such concept that intrigues me the most: Collaboration.
Nowadays, it’s very common to hear things like: “How do we improve team collaboration?” “How do we build a collaborative work environment?”
Companies create open spaces in order to foster collaboration, and it’s become well accepted that this is the right way of working.
I, personally, do prefer collaborative work environments. But I’ve always understood that it´s just one way of working, and not the only way. To be honest, I’ve spent more time working in places where competition was the norm.
Are we just following what’s trendy or are we taking the time to see what really makes sense in each situation?
While conducting job interviews, I realized that candidates often say that they love to collaborate, even when they feel the opposite. For instance, there are creatives that prefer to work with a fixed partner―in other words, an art director and a copywriter that always work together across different projects. But, when they’re being interviewed, they think it’s not appropriate to say that. So, instead, they say that they love to collaborate with different creatives on bigger teams.
What happens when someone that prefers not to collaborate works in a big group? Everybody suffers—the person and the team. I’ve seen this happen many times.
I believe in a collaborative process, but even I don’t like to collaborate during all the parts of a project. There are periods when all I need is privacy, focus and less discussion, usually at the beginning of the process. That allows me to digest, research and come up with some initial ideas. After that, I feel ready to collaborate with a team.
Once, a CCO that I admire a lot told a story that made me rethink the concept of collaboration. A creative director was complaining to her about some people on his team that didn’t want to collaborate on a project. The CCO’s reply was very unexpected to me: “Maybe they don’t want to collaborate because the team doesn’t have anything to offer them. Collaboration is not about being nice—it’s about casting.”
Choosing the right people that will work well together is the key to team success. Individuals need to complement each other, not overlap.
Collaboration requires strategy, and not just a group of people with the best intentions. The goal can’t be the process itself, but, rather, creating the best result through the process.
We need to be open to adopting what’s trendy. Yet, although adaptation is important, but asking questions is even more important. As professionals in the advertising and marketing industries, we need to be better about identifying things as trends, rather than just following them.
(this article was published in Portuguese here)