There comes a time in marketing teams where the debate has to end. Where it’s time for everyone to start rowing in the same direction on a campaign. When that moment happens might change from campaign to campaign, but that it needs to happen is a necessity.
Yet too often, the debate continues long after the campaign has shipped, and people start to undermine the decision if it wasn’t their favorite to begin with. If someone’s idea didn’t “win”, they start to hope things go wrong, just so they can say “told ya so!”
Amazon has this concept of “disagree and commit” that is a great solution to this. It’s this notion of confirming that while we may have different views on the right way forward – we’ll all get behind the majority supported plan after the debate is over, even if it’s not our personal favorite.
The key I think is committing in writing. To get on the record with supporting the plan. It’s a little scary to do so, especially with a plan you aren’t thrilled with, but it has a way of helping dodge the unproductive “I never thought this was a good idea” comments later.