Blanket Party

Far be it from me to advocate violence in the workplace. And yet...

There was a time when it was not uncommon in the US military (in fact, it probably wasn't uncommon in the Roman legions) to have a blanket party. Generally speaking, it was employed when a member of a unit was performing poorly and bringing the unit's overall performance down (and possibly subjecting the entire unit to some kind of official punishment). His peers would approach the offender while he slept, throw a blanket over him so he couldn't see who was there, and then beat the stuffing out of him. The goal was to get this person to realize he needed to shape up. Very often, it worked.

Whether or not blanket parties still happen, I don't know. In 21 years in the military I never heard of it happening, but of course I was in the Air Force and we tended to take a different approach to things than the other services anyway. Any kind of physical abuse like that is a criminal act, and when someone gets caught doing it the news is very public and very critical, so maybe it really is less common these days. In any case, while I abhor the use of violence to correct a performance problem, I do appreciate the spirit behind it.

You're probably going to have underachievers in your workforce. While we like to think of Creatives as being very talented and very motivated, sometimes one or both of those aspects are lacking. If the problem is talent, you have some options open to you in terms of professional development, and with any luck, that will help.

If the problem is attitude, though, then no training program is going to help. You have a few options, such as

- ignoring it

- having other Creatives step in and say something

- discussing it with them yourself

- firing them

Think of that list as being in increasing order of severity, and realize that, as you take a step, you can't really go backwards anymore. So there's a benefit to resolving problems at the lowest possible level, and if you decide that simply ignoring it is not an option, then it might be better to have the individual's peers step in.

It's tough to just suggest that out of the blue, though. It's difficult to go to your Creatives and say "I need you to go talk to Bob about his attitude" if there's no history of peers saying something. What you need for this to work is a culture that encourages that sort of internal correction.

What does that culture look like? Rather than being an environment where everyone is constantly looking for others' mistakes, it's one where support and encouragement are just as common as criticism. People need to be invested in the success of the firm, not just in their own success. Your Creatives need a good day-to-day working relationship so an "intervention" today doesn't hurt the ability to work together later. Just as football players can come together in a huddle and tell a receiver "drop another easy pass and I'll break your leg," and then smack each other with towels in the locker room later, so too do your Creatives need to be able to give and accept critiques without taking it personally (towel-smacking is optional)

Creating such a culture can be challenging, particularly for Creatives who often tend to be individualistic rather than team-oriented. That idea of a team is something you really need to create, though, for this sort of early correction to work. Making sure Creatives understand each other's roles helps impress upon everyone the importance of each individual's contributions. An anonymous peer review process can get people used to the idea of giving and receiving feedback among Creatives. Setting expectations for feedback when new hires come through the interview process and start work will help them integrate themselves into the ongoing conversation about performance. Don't wait until there's a problem and then try to get someone's peers to step in.

And if all else fails, I guess you could always buy a blanket.