Why Killer Briefs Are a Culture Tool

Hello, Friends!

I was talking to a potential business colleague who only knew me through my online presence. He was curious whether I was in the branding/brief-writing lane or the culture/leadership development lane. The question pinched my brain a bit because for me, they’ve always lived at an 80% overlap. So I thought I’d take a minute to explain, since this may not be how everyone else (all of you) sees the world (and I think it’s helpful).

Fundamentally, culture is a set of agreements. And a brief is written documentation of a critical agreement (especially if the brief is for the company itself, a key client or who an ideal hire might be.)

Let’s pause on that for a second: you can, and should, have a brief for talent that fits with your culture.Not based on what they have done or can do, but more on their essence, if you will. One of the exercises I did with an agency I was consulting with around up-leveling was to describe a person who was a good fit for the agency in ONE WORD.

They landed on ideally finding someone ‘earnest.’ One who came in on time, put their heads down, and got to work with intensity and pride. My friend who worked at Nike at the time heard the story and said, “God help me, don’t send me anyone earnest. I need people who areoutrageous.” It’s a fabulous exercise to get alignment and intentionally build culture. If you can’t agree, try to agree on who the best employees are in the company and find a word that describes the essence (way of being) of those people to find your one word.

As with brand personality, let’s assume honesty, integrity, and the like… these are prices of entry…how do they behave on a day-to-day basis that makes them work well with others (clients and other staffers)?

When I started teaching brief writing to agency folks who worked for me (as well as our clients and others in the agency who needed to support our efforts), they often grasped the need for, and the benefits of, a brief. But where they got stuck was how to get the party started.

As one of my clients said, ‘we agree to the brief, and then we still sit around looking at each other…how do we build a culture of ideation that fosters creative development?’ As you‘ve heard me say before, a killer brief is the closest thing to a silver bullet I’ve found. It resolves 80% of brand and culture problems. Because it reduces circular conversations (stupid fights) and moves teams forward on building something, not just debating something.

Leadership development is understanding and creating conditions for helping their people do their best work. Part of this is clarity (briefs), and part is process (culture). By helping leaders understand how to intentionally pull the levers (and take away the speed bumps) that drive ideation and collaboration, we help them build a culture that can build legendary brands (companies).

In my mind, these are inextricably intertwined.

I’ll give you another example: I was asked to help a Portland agency improve their brainstorming. Similar to the clients mentioned above, their teams would be briefed and then sit quietly, looking at each other. While it might be that the speed bumps are different at different companies or agencies, we unpacked this in a workshop and quickly found what was in their way:they needed to defrag thinking, talking, and writing time.

After a briefing, the brainstorm was an all-in-one exercise/event. They’d have to think about and talk about ideas on the spot–while someone was writing the deck. They were put in a position of having to defend ideas (to leadership/ clients) that were presented as ‘what if’s’. Ideas that weren’t baked or amplified. So they kept their ideas to themselves.

Push-back initially was that we were putting 3 ‘meetings’ in place of one, but they agreed to experiment with it to see if it overcame their larger issue (one meeting with everyone and no ideas to show for it.)

What happened made everyone happy.

They could ideate on their own after the briefing (which is huge for introverts who need time to process and develop a perspective before sharing). Their ideas were brought to sharing sessions where they could talk through ‘what ifs’ and ‘why nots’ in a safe space (there are rules to this kind of session), and finally, once they had to agree on their best ideas (collectively), they could formulate a rationale and THEN build the deck. Even though they had 3 sessions (a briefing, a discussion, and a document building session), it was more efficient and effective because the formulation of ideas was the focal point, not the clock. They showed up prepared and aligned with how the group planned to spend their time. It reduced/removed 11th-hour diving saves by a few who ended up putting the final deck together. Decks were more integrated, and the team was more aligned on (and confident about) what was being presented. It was a win-win-win.

It’s akin to how I work best: I always ‘think’ on paper before I sit down to type something up(especially a brief) because we think differently when we’re not on a computer. We need time to let ideas breathe before we document. Once we document, we are more committed to half-assed ideas than we should be because we took the time to write them up.

Final thought here: one of the most popular things I share to help teams be more effective is to not call everything a "meeting". Articulate exactly what type of session it is:a (1) brainstorm session where we’re playing with ideas, a (2) decision-making session where points-of-view are heard and merits and downsides are discussed, an (3) alignment session to share key information that led to a final decision (and what that is) and who needs to do what next by when, or a (4) huddle where we share what’s gotten done since we last left our heroes and who needs to do what next by when.

There’s more on this…amount of time, prep work, agendas, and rules of engagement to make them work perfectly…if you want more, hit me up and I’ll share my booklet and video on how to kill this vampire (and others).

At the end of the day, the job of making things, from ideas, with humans, to help people make better decisions (and ultimately build brands and companies) should not suck.

I have ideas that can make it all suck so much less. Please let me share them with you.

They cost nothing to hear and will cost nothing to implement other than an agreement to experiment with something new. I tell people to ‘please continue doing what you’re doing if it’s working for you’ to get them to a point where they just might agree that things could be better. This is progress. This is leadership.This is where the fun lives.

Godspeed.