HEAD BLOG

Nobody likes a committee. Creatives and critics alike unite to condemn work created by committee. You know the sort of work: it starts off “great” and then gets passed around by the client, first to team members who make their changes, then to the colleague in accounting who is supposed to represent the impartial purchaser or end user. Finally the work gets passed upstairs, to the first boss who repeats the process before handing it further up the chain. The work gets watered down, altered beyond recognition and marked with ideas that were never intended. Nobody likes a committee.

Joseph Conrad (Heart of Darkness, The Secret Agent, Lord Jim) wrote about the word “oak” in relation to the English language. For him it showed the flexibility and power of language. When a person is described as being an oak, the reader is given a whole range of images on which to draw. A single word tells us the person is strong, reliable, perhaps silent, resolute, supportive – you can continue to imbue so many aspects of a person from that one word. It’s part of the power of language. And the danger.

A writer must be aware of how words will be interpreted. If a sentence can be misconstrued, that had better be taken into account. Art is often hijacked by being taken out of context or re-interpreted. Sometimes that is the intention; for it to bend to people, to be willow rather than oak. But when it is, it is usually a deliberate decision on the part of the artist.

When I write, I will show my work around. I need the perspective of other people to understand how my work is going to be received and understood. I love the fact that I can be surprised by this. OK, and sometimes I’m embarrassed that I missed an obvious interpretation.

But nobody likes a committee.

If they see it as a committee.

Maybe we like to feel in control. Maybe it’s not a matter of ideas being changed but rather that they are being taken out of the hands of the Creative.

Maybe we need to view the committee differently.

Engage with your committe. Make them a part of the creative process rather than the approval process. Look upon their comments as feedback. All projects need managing and the creative process is no exception. It’s not about paying lip-service to the client either. It’s about creating an open and honest forum for the process to take place in. Opinion may be irritating, wrong even, but it should always be listened to and considered. After all, if the client is genuinely seeing something different to the message you thought you had addressed, then that needs to change.