people in charge who get it
It's such a pleasure to be on a project where the person in charge understands. The deal is, if you hire a chef, you can get all Meg Ryan and start specifying exactly what you want down to the detail; when the chef tells you what's cooking you can ask for changes and modifications based on how you think it's going to turn out — but that's never going to get you the best result.
It's far far better to hire a good chef and say "Knock me out." That way, the chef, who knows how to get results, will knock you out with something you might not have allowed to happen if you'd been constantly there offering over-the-shoulder advice, calling for more salt or less tarragon or how-bout-some-good-ol-chicken-breast. Sometimes the hardest thing in the world is for the person in charge to let the expert be the expert and resist ruining the recipe.
So. Recently I've been on several projects, and in several long-term settings, in which the message is "knock me out." And I'm pleased to do so, or at least knock myself out trying. Just the other day I was in commercial-music mode, saying to a client, "Here's what I've got, this gentle moment. If you'd rather have something more energetic there, just let me know, but I'd rather do this." The person waited just a beat and then said, "Barry, I've worked with you for years. I hired you because I trust your instincts completely. If this is how you think it should be, then that's how it's going to be."
Ahhhhhh. (Turned out great, by the way.)
It's far far better to hire a good chef and say "Knock me out." That way, the chef, who knows how to get results, will knock you out with something you might not have allowed to happen if you'd been constantly there offering over-the-shoulder advice, calling for more salt or less tarragon or how-bout-some-good-ol-chicken-breast. Sometimes the hardest thing in the world is for the person in charge to let the expert be the expert and resist ruining the recipe.
So. Recently I've been on several projects, and in several long-term settings, in which the message is "knock me out." And I'm pleased to do so, or at least knock myself out trying. Just the other day I was in commercial-music mode, saying to a client, "Here's what I've got, this gentle moment. If you'd rather have something more energetic there, just let me know, but I'd rather do this." The person waited just a beat and then said, "Barry, I've worked with you for years. I hired you because I trust your instincts completely. If this is how you think it should be, then that's how it's going to be."
Ahhhhhh. (Turned out great, by the way.)
Comments
and the often unlearned lesson for clients is that they can usually get the craftsman to work much *harder* when there's a lot of leeway involved. Telling me exactly what to do often means I work at the level that you've told me to expect, because you've sent me the message that you don't want anything more than what you dictated. It's uninspiring and wasteful of a craftsman's carefully earned abilities. But giving me total freedom and then telling me to impress you because you trust my experience and expertise? Man, I will move the world for you.... because I'm trying to move myself. Some of my very best work has happened when the client said "I hired you because I like your stuff... now impress me".