I’ve decided “better” might be the least helpful word in the English language.

In my career as a fulltime and freelance creative director, I have worked with a lot of very different agencies. But they all had one thing in common: at some point, the top brass looked around and decided that the creative work was a problem.

The work wasn’t as good as it should be. It was the weak point in the agency/client relationship. Or God forbid, it wasn’t winning awards. Inevitably, the team would be assembled and the edict would come down: make the work better.

And that was pretty much it. Meeting adjourned.

There was no direction given on how to get there. No criteria on what would constitute improvement. No idea what victory looked like for each client. Just make it “better”.

Raise your hand if that sounds pretty darn useless. (Mine is up. I’m typing righty here.)

If they truly wanted to upgrade the work, people would invest some mental energy to figure what specifically is going wrong and how it can be improved. Is the strategy off? Does the client not understand how a strategy is turned into work? Are they changing their mind after agreeing to the brief?

That gives the team a clear direction. That’s how desire becomes a plan. Now everybody has something to aim for, such as “let’s work harder on nailing the strategy” or “we’re going to educate the client on how we turn the brief into ad-like objects.” All of these are way more specific, insightful and helpful than “better”.

I’d also wager that if you looked at the work that had been presented, there’s great stuff in there. Which means the work is usually not the weak point—the breakdown is happening somewhere else. And instructing the underlings to make the work “better” doesn’t do much of anything.

I’m all for better work. Delivering great work is my goal every time I’m hired. I just believe “better” work requires “better” direction.

Thanks for listening. I feel better now.