BY DANIEL BLACK

To this day, if you ask him, he’ll deny everything. The year was 2010. The car, a black Lexus sedan, was traveling too fast and missed the highway exit just outside Camden, New Jersey. Rather than driving to the next exit and re-routing, he decided (quickly and undemocratically) to slam on the brakes, throw the car in reverse, and back up until we could take the offramp to our destination—an important meeting that I’m sure we were late for. I remember we were dressed up. I remember the exact purpose and agenda of the meeting. And I even remember thinking: We’re going to crash, possibly die.

Despite the rocky start, it went well, the drive and the meeting. But this isn’t about that drive or that meeting. And yet, it is about so many drives, and so many meetings.

For five years early in my career, I worked at a small marketing agency in Philadelphia and had great access to the principals and was pulled into projects and relationships of all kinds. I learned a lot, especially driving to and from client meetings. I refer to these drives as my greatest LLPM (lessons-learned-per-minute) experiences.

It’s difficult to capture the power of those drives and the value of what was discussed, digested, debated, and discovered. On the way there, we came up with a game plan, talked through our messaging, role-played the ‘what-if’s’, debated how they’d react, and threw curve balls at each other. On the way back, we did it again, but with a postmortem lens—how’d we do with that, could we have said this better, should we have, did we, next time we want to—and so on.

Quick detour, if you’ll indulge me. During my time at the agency, I had three distinct phases: Passenger, Navigator, and Pilot. At first, as a Passenger, predictably, in the back seat, I absorbed. I was just trying to keep up. I chimed in when I could but felt unprepared and unsure of myself and where we were going, literally and figuratively.

Eventually, I found my footing. And when confidence built, I was upgraded from the back seat to the front passenger—not yet driving the conversation but serving as Navigator and determining where we were headed, what roadblocks to watch out for, what to do if we hit traffic, how to avoid those pesky potholes on the Schuylkill, and other road dangers. Lastly, I took the role of Pilot, sometimes venturing out alone, and other times bringing a colleague, spewing my own torrent of questions, ideas, and thoughts until we raced into the parking lot.

At first, I loathed those drives. Then I came to love them. And eventually, now, I miss them.

And now, we’re back on track. Fast forward: It was 2021, we’re deep in the pandemic and deep, deep in Zoom world, and I had an epiphany. The debrief was dead. There was no drive to and from the meeting. We didn’t even get the chance to walk down the hallway to the conference room together. We hurriedly clicked, joined, and started our on-screen conversations.

And while I can’t bring back in-person meetings to the pre-pandemic level, I can encourage our team and others to see the value of the debrief. What went well? Where did we whiff? How did we fail? Yes, the f-word: Failure.

At Hencove, we’re doing more of it (debriefing, not failing). We’re finding meaningful opportunities to check in with colleagues and ask the tough but important questions of each other. We’ve learned a few things along the way.

For starters, you can’t just say, “How do you think that went?” That doesn’t work for a bunch of reasons. The conversation must be structured and both individuals must commit to sharing.

Typical questions we’re asking each other:

• Wins: What are three things I did well; what are three things my colleagues did well?

• Whiffs: What are three things that I could have done better; what are three things that my colleagues could have done better?

• What-Ifs: What would it have looked like if we approached it differently?

Both sides must share.

A colleague elaborated on our core set:

• How do we think the client felt the meeting went? Were there certain points where they seemed more engaged? Any areas they seemed less engaged?

• Are there resources coming out of the meeting that can/should be shared with the broader team?

• What are the short-term and long-term action items coming out of the meeting?

• Did we find the meeting valuable? Would the client agree? Should we meet like this again?

• Did we feel prepared going into the meeting?

• What curveballs (if any) came up? How did we handle them?

Creative professionals are trained to think this way early on. At design schools, you’re graded both on your own work, and your ability to critique others in a productive and meaningful manner. Agencies don’t have a monopoly on debriefs. In nearly every profession, reviewing a finished product and project, stepping back, and saying “How could we improve this?” is inherent to the job itself.

The power of the debrief: May it be an art form that lives on through the ages.