Tank Design

Groupthink kills

Decisions can’t be made alone.

And they shouldn’t be. But the ideology behind groupthink is that as a team you will reach a rationalized consensus where everyone is happy. Groupthink only really plays that simple in theory.

Often group feedback arrives without internal organization, consensus, or a consolidated breakdown of the teams’ suggestions. This results in more questions on how to proceed than before.

We suggest a more straightforward approach to the feedback process, one that leads to group cohesiveness but relies less on groupthink. Everyone’s ideas matter as a part of the solution, but too many cooks in the kitchen only further disrupt the process and leads to more back and forth.

Don’t make meetings out of molehills

Meetings are essential. Too many disrupt.

The kneejerk reaction when questions or concerns arise can be to assemble the teams for a meeting. We do this ourselves sometimes. But a meeting made out of a molehill can be detrimental to productivity, efficiency and timely deliverables.

Often someone’s uncertainty or need for further clarification could easily be resolved with a brief phone call or email. Instead, small questions can turn into lengthy in-person meetings, taking valuable time from the creative process. We also run the risk of the derailing from the initial question toward any number of other points that come to mind.

Avoid “meatless meetings” even if you’re a vegetarian, and really assess the most effective way to discuss solutions. What is the objective here? Does this meeting solve your main problem and make the best use of everyone’s time?

We can take the hit

We’re adults (mostly). We’re here to say we can take it.

All too often we avoid transparency and tread lightly when giving feedback to our creative team for fear of hurting feelings. Although we’re not suggesting unfiltered, disrespectful criticism, we do want your honest feedback. So, if you don’t like something, tell us, we’ll like you all the same.

Yes, we do inherently cherish the work we do, but we’re also professionals, and we ask our own teams to be candid with us throughout the process. Constructive criticism and full transparency are essential to a project’s timely execution. We’ll be the first to accept that notes are not a personal attack on our capabilities.

Time = $$$$$$$$$$$$

We can’t avoid the most obvious truth about time wasted, because it costs money to waste time.

We want to be thorough, but we need to identify the fine line between clear communication and wasted breath.

Don’t get us wrong, we understand that often in the discovery and execution phases, projects will (and should) go through multiple passes to get to the best result. But we also know that as time is money, projects can easily surpass their budget far quicker than expected if we aren’t upfront with each other.

Often, we’re able to avoid misusing valuable time by asking ourselves the questions and exploring potential solutions before we bring them to a colleague or client.

Prioritize the problem or question internally and break it down step by step.

Balance clarity with compassion

We have a responsibility to do the best work we know how to do for you in the most effective, constructive and candid way possible.

That said, communication is an art. We don’t always nail it right away. Art is created through mistakes mastered along the way. We’re all human, so let’s try to be understanding, transparent, and open to exploration.

We’ll get there together.