Evaluating creative work? 6 tips to build your opinion muscles
Want to better handle those moments when you’re asked to evaluate creative work, a.k.a. feed back to the people who did it? Yep, there’s a Zoomly bite-sized workshop for that*.
This is something that happens a lot in creative enterprises of all persuasions: content creators, ad / design / media / branding / experience / you name it agencies, marketing departments – and a whole host of other work situations too. Someone’s got an idea and we need to weigh it up. How to do that?
One thing that often becomes apparent in the workshop is that people can be unsure of expressing their opinion. Partly because they don’t want to upset the creator(s) of the work, and partly because they haven’t flexed their opinion muscles all that much. They can struggle to articulate their views effectively. So if that’s you, here are six tips to help you build your opinion muscles:
- Get in the habit of evaluating the creative work you see around you. What makes a piece of work well for you? What is there too much of, or maybe not enough of?
- Discuss current work with colleagues and listen carefully to their views – not simply what they are, but how they’re expressed.
- Host a ‘book club’ where you and a few colleagues debate a piece of work on a regular basis. Get people involved by asking them to bring something that’s caught their eye.
- Join a real book club! Get practice at summing up something more complex and adding your point of view.
- Write a short review of some new music. Not just the ‘***** – best they’ve ever done!’ kind of review you see on music platforms, but something considered. What’s new about this music? What is it similar to? What is the artist doing differently here?
- Widen your sources of creative work to evaluate: art in a gallery, displays in a museum, films, plays and ballet.
How not to upset the creator(s) of the work? Basically by showing respect for them – their hopes and fears, thoughts and feelings. Which is a whole blog post in itself …
For marketers and those who present creative work to them, a handy post from Uncorking Creativity
*There are several topics on Zoomly’s menu of bite-sized workshops that can help this all-important process, from evaluating the work through to selling it. Please get in touch if you want to know more.
You may find this post useful: ‘How often do you say ‘Thank You’ to your team?’
Dawn is the author of ‘The Feedback Book’ and ‘How to be Zoomly at work’.
