Design the feedback before the draft arrives

Purpose · Little Light original

A team spends weeks preparing the first creative draft. When it finally reaches the review, the comments arrive as adjectives: make it bolder, warmer, more premium, less expected. Everyone is participating, yet the next version becomes a guess about whose taste carries the most weight. Design the feedback before the draft arrives. Agree on the audience, the decision this work must support and the parts that are genuinely open to change. Name who will resolve conflicting comments. Give reviewers questions that connect their reaction to the purpose, so preference can become information the maker can use. A clear review structure does not remove creativity or disagreement. It gives both somewhere productive to go. People can explore more boldly when they know what the work is trying to accomplish, and respond more thoughtfully when they understand what kind of answer is needed. Leadership is not only approving the final version. It is creating the conditions where each conversation helps the work become clearer instead of merely more crowded.

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