Kindly Review

15When Style Meets Process

Now that you understand how to identify the baggage your team is bringing to review and manage those emotions, let's talk about getting your work to completion.

The review has a best practice, and not many people practice it. There is a method to create a respectful and efficient review process that helps eliminate errors and keeps feedback kind. It's strict, but I promise it works.

The energy people bring to the review process can be a personality trait. Still, it could be because the process is not meeting their expectations. They could feel excluded from input earlier in the process or annoyed that the product isn't turning out as they envisioned. It's the process that sometimes fuels feedback styles.

Whack‐A‐Mole

We once had a team that insisted on going against all our best practices for review. I had a committee of reviewers to manage, and it was like playing whack‐a‐mole. Different people popped in and out of the review process, giving us various conflicting feedback. It was inconsistent with our work's vision, voice, and expectations. Eventually, they fired us. They fired us because I said no too often – probably around four or five times in three months. I had to say no because I received conflicting feedback from multiple reviewers. We couldn't see what was correct or the best path to completion. As always, a failure to communicate killed all our good work.

When the process is chaotic, the creator feels unheard, and their expertise and ...