Losing the forest for the trees
Another reason why it is necessary to incorporate criticism as a basic addition to your creative process is so you “don’t lose the forest for the trees”. As any creative will acknowledge, it is common to get so immersed into the creative process that you lose your overview and stray from the initial core of your concept.
The remedy for losing the forest for the trees is a healthy dose of criticism. Be sure to have someone on your team that knows the rationale (the very core of your concept) but is not involved in the creative process of that project. In this way when the creatives have done their job and present the first version of their end product this person can reflect upon the idea and make sure it still conveys the core message.
The dark side of criticism
While the merits of constructive criticism are evident, the destructiveness of negative criticism is undeniable. Today it is extremely easy to provide negative criticism to those who dare to do something different, often protected by the anonymity of the internet.
Negative or even destructive criticism means giving an opinion about something with the sole purpose of showing that it is wrong, fake, bad, nonsensical, etc. It is about emphasizing the downsides of something without providing possible adjustments or feedback. It is focussing on “can not” or ‘should not” instead of “can” and “should”. Furthermore it is often, naturally, taken very personally. There’s only one way to deal with this kind of criticism.
“Does this criticism provide any suggestions on possible improvement?”
First you need to be able to recognize when criticism is negative. Ask yourself; “Does it provide any suggestions on possible improvement whatsoever?” If it does not… Take a step back. Let it rest to avoid taking it too personally. The next thing you should do is ask yourself: “Is this fair?”. You will discover that most of the time, truly negative criticism is not fair at all. If it is, you need to ask yourself one final question. “Is it actionable?”, can you do something about it? If any of the above stated questions is answered with a “no”, simply ignore it, because it can be of no use to you.