January 10

One of the distinct challenges of creative work is that it is highly subjective. What appeals to you may not be what appeals to your stakeholder, client, or manager. A small decision that you make today can set you on a course that leads to a result that you love and they strongly dislike. This means hours or maybe days or weeks of “wasted” work.

Because of this, when making decisions that could significantly affect the outcome of the project, it’s smart to routinely ask yourself “Who else needs to know about this?” While you don’t want to annoy your stakeholders with too many check-ins, you want to ensure that you aren’t getting too far off course and are able to course-correct if necessary.

Who else needs to know about this design decision? Who else needs to know about this shift in strategy? Who else needs to know about this difficult conversation I had with a team member?

Simply asking yourself this question at crucial moments can not only help you do better work now but save you a lot of pain down the road.

Each day, consider who else needs to be aware of decisions you are making.

Question:

Is there a decision that you’ve recently made that someone else should know about now instead of later?