Focus on strategy
Even when the right employees are in the right setting, it still takes the right process to encourage collaboration.
“There’s an open forum for everyone to lob in ideas and participate in a process,” Jarvis says.
But it’s not enough to just have an open forum where ideas can flow. The key is to have a process for that sharing. At 72andSunny, that process revolves around strategy.
“When people are presenting ideas … part of the expectation is there’s a strategic setup to it,” Jarvis says. “So it’s part of their product. If you don’t have a strategic setup to what you’re presenting, then it’s not complete and it’s not ready for consumption.”
To keep that focus, conversations center on strategy from the start of each project. The first line on each brief, for example, lays out the problem that needs to be solved for that particular client. The company starts with that goal in mind and devotes the most time to discussing how to do that.
That focus guides the brainstorming process by predetermining the parameters that define the best idea.
“There are not conversations of, ‘This is a good idea,’ or, ‘This is a bad idea,’” Jarvis says. “The conversations are, ‘We’re trying to get from point A to point B. I don’t think this idea is going to get us from point A to point B and here’s why.’ So you keep the conversation on a strategic level.”
As you get deeper into a project, keep bringing it back to the client’s ultimate goal and how your method will achieve that.
“When you do that, it definitely drains a lot of the subjectivity out of the creative process,” he says. “You can go back to the strategy and the expected results and say, ‘OK, which of these ideas is going to deliver this result?’ That’s one way of taking the ego out of the creative process. It’s not about you; it’s about the result.”
While those constant strategic reminders maintain concentration on the goal, they also encourage teamwork by eliminating ego from the equation. That keeps conversations open, giving each employee a voice and each idea a chance.
“Ego can be toxic to great creativity,” Jarvis says. “So we spend a lot of energy trying to separate people from ideas.”
One of the best tools for that, which Jarvis refers to as “the most important little slice of real estate in our office,” is a work wall. The company borrowed the concept from Dutch design culture via Nakata, who’s spent most of his career in Amsterdam. Boiler and Cole both worked there several years, as well.
“Everything that is being worked on, whether it’s a website, a wireframe or a TV commercial or a strategy deck, goes up on a work wall for the other team members to comment, consume, revise, etc.,” Jarvis says. “So you encourage teamwork by getting the work off of people’s computers and onto the wall. … When we have an idea on the wall, we’re not talking about me or John or Jim or Susan. We’re talking about the idea.”
