Why weekly critiques help build a better business

It’s Thursday afternoon around four o’clock and the entire Bates Creative studio stops what they’re doing to gather around everyone’s current projects, printed out and pinned to the walls. We grab a beer or some snacks and take an hour to collectively critique everyone’s work.

More than just a weekly meeting, critiques have served as our time to visually strategize, question, share, brainstorm, and catch a glimpse of how all the current projects are coming along. Over the years we’ve realized that these weekly critiques have contributed largely to our company’s success.

Top Five Reasons Why Weekly Critiques are Good for Business:

1. It promotes a healthy student-like mentality.

During a critique employees are learning, teaching and getting better at their craft with every new assignment.

This may sound demanding to some, but keep in mind that our comments range from “that’s awesome, here’s why…,” to “this works, this doesn’t,” or “focus more here to take it up a notch,” and “I like where you’re going, but it needs work.”

Think of how many other professions would benefit from having their work publicly displayed to peers to be questioned, congratulated or critiqued. I can only assume the business world would be a better place.

2. Critiques instill and reinforce company culture, which incidentally is one of the most important factors to consider when growing a business or maintaining an efficient, successful company.

Tony Hsieh, Zappos CEO, shares this enthusiasm for company culture stating, “We really wanted to build the company around culture, company culture being the number one priority. And it’s much easier to build a culture when it’s actually in person versus remotely by email.”

From president to intern, these weekly interactions with everyone in the office provide staff with a solid sense of direction, authentic empowerment and beneficial face-to-face engagement.

3. Critiques present team members with the opportunity to take a break from their computer screens.

Before getting down to the nuts and bolts of the critique, employees have some down time to grab bite to eat or chat with a co-worker. Either way, it provides a few minutes out of the day where employees can recharge and still be productive. It’s somewhat ironic, but we’ve found that relaxation is key to our productivity.

4. More feedback = better employees.

The recurring critiques build a safe environment for learning and discovery. In essence, they are grooming current employees for future success. Critiques allow newer staff to learn the tricks of the trade from the more seasoned team members, while also learning how to take criticism positively, not personally – an essential skill to master in any career field.

A comfortable environment where everyone feels safe to voice their opinion is key to a successful critique. This kind of trust is essential for the discussion to be honest and therefore beneficial.

“It’s only when we are free to abandon our need to measure up and instead simply trust our abilities that we will begin to see real creative brilliance,” says Todd Henry, author of The Accidental Creative.

5. Frequent critiques always ensure a better product and more client satisfaction.

It’s simple math that 10 brains are better than one, and 20 eyeballs are better than two. We can only benefit from having other people, all experts in their respective fields, checking our work not only for visual appeal, but strategic results and creative problem solving techniques.

A lot of companies or CEOs talk about the importance of employee engagement, satisfaction and retention – at Bates Creative Group we feel that there is no better way to accomplish all this and more, than through weekly critiques.

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