Creative tension is good tension.

 

Emotional intelligence, facilitation, and team coaching are the key superpowers I have developed in my career. I really needed all of them, the time a promising new hire came in to my office, frustrated and furious after six weeks on the job. I had assigned her to work on a critical new product, with some of the company's strongest -- and most opinionated -- front end developers. I realized that the developers were thoroughly steamrolling my designer not because they were jerks, but because they cared so very deeply about their work, and lacked the right structure for them to contribute their passion in a constructive, iterative, creative way.

So I created one. With the Embodied Critique method, I taught them how to recognize their emotions, use the intensity of those emotions as a strength, and turn them into actionable, constructive design feedback. The result? It worked. The team adopted this method and worked much more effectively together, giving all team members a voice and creative input, with the designer responsible for iterating on critique feedback and delivering improved designs. Win!

For the past seven years, I've been developing and teaching this method in my classroom, at conferences, and in-house for companies all over the world. It’s been wonderful to work with creative and technical teams to build the the foundation for thoughtful, courageous, critical dialogue, and see them grow and excel as a result.

I’m currently working on a pandemic-optimized refresh of the Embodied Critique method materials and program, so I can reach more teams and help you engage with each other more effectively, critically, and creatively, even while we are all working remotely. Feel free to reach out with questions, inquiries, or specific topic requests, and please stay tuned for updates!