On Plussing the Work

My Creative Director and I have been talking a lot lately about the notion that everyone who touches a project should make it better. Think about that for a second. You have an entire agency where everyone contributes one thing to making the project better, to plussing the work.

Account Service and Planning would contribute better insights on briefs. Media would contribute unique vehicles to deliver the message. Art Directors and Copywriters would contribute fresher, more strategic ideas. Creative Directors would add even more fresh thinking to those ideas. Directors and photographers would add their expertise and insights to the project, as would editors and so forth and so on. The work would get better with every person who touched it.

Here's the most important thing: sometimes your contribution might be nothing more than acknowledging that you don't have something to add to make it better. Sometimes that'll be the case, which is okay. But don't feel like you have to contribute just to contribute. If you can't make the idea better, acknowledge that and let the process move forward.

The saying goes if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. Well the same principle applies here. If you don't have anything good to add, don't add anything at all.