Tell ten people to go get ice cream with one condition: they all have to agree on one flavor.
—Eli Altman
For small businesses and teams, branding efforts are often constrained by limited resources, tight budgets, and a need to move quickly. This pressure tempts even the best-intentioned among us to work behind closed doors, get the boss to sign off, and then force the change on everyone else. This would be an exercise in futility. Don’t fall for it.
We’ve already established that people hate change, especially when it is forced upon them. If you exclude your team from the creative process, they will inevitably feel disconnected from the final product and will naturally tend to resist the change, especially if it conflicts with their understanding of what your brand represents, where it should be heading, and how it should translate to their specific domain.
This might be particularly risky for small teams where communication is often informal or assumed rather than explicit, and people usually wear many hats. This means everyone holds an outsized wrench they can throw into your new brand rollout when you least expect it.
On the contrary, when everyone is involved in shaping the new brand in meaningful ways right from the start, they will care more about the project’s success and be motivated to champion the change. The magic word here is collective ownership, and it will do wonders for your branding project’s creativity and successful implementation, as well as your organization’s culture.
3-7 people is the sweet spot
Sadly, although good ideas can come from anyone, and having a wide range of perspectives is invaluable, there are practical limits to how many people can participate in any branding effort before things become inefficient and chaotic, compromising both the timeline and the quality of the outcome. In my experience, the team size sweet spot for the framework I propose is between three and seven people, including the facilitator. With only two people it’s more of an interview than a collaborative effort, while it takes time and superfine facilitation skills to keep a group of seven people productive and engaged throughout the branding exercises. Having over ten people in the room is almost uncharted territory. If you’re brave enough to try it and you make it back with a good story, please, I want to hear all of it!
As team size increases, communication becomes exponentially more complex. Keep your branding team small enough so everyone can be heard without overwhelming the process.
People much smarter than yours truly seem to agree that there’s an ideal team size conducive to greater efficiency and innovation. The Scrum and Agile project management methodologies advocate for teams that are both nimble and large enough to get the work done, typically ten or fewer people. Richard Hackman, a renowned professor of Social and Organizational Psychology, agrees that a team should be neither too small to handle the workload nor too large to require too much coordination. One of his studies suggests that the optimal team size is 4.6 people. Please don’t saw anyone in half, maybe ask a kid to join instead.
Working with more people
Keeping your core task force small doesn’t mean you can’t get more people involved in the branding process. I’ll share tips on when and how to use interviews and surveys to gather perspectives from your customers and the wider team. For now, rest assured that with the right tools, there’s virtually no limit to how many people can contribute, but this opportunity comes with its own set of risks.
On a practical level, the timeline can expand indefinitely, but most importantly, adding too many conflicting ideas will dilute the vision and lead to groupthink as people become hesitant to share bold ideas in front of a large enough audience.
Keep decision-making powers within a core group of three to seven people. Make sure the group understands their authority and responsibility to make final decisions. When gathering input from the outside, have one or two people lead the conversations, then summarize the key findings before bringing them to the group. The goal here is not to gather every opinion but rather to identify patterns that can help the core group make better-informed decisions during the branding workshop.
Key roles
The final decision maker—in a small business, it’s usually the founder/CEO: The team recognizes their authority to make final decisions and resolve conflicts. They ensure the brand aligns with the overall business strategy and vision.
The facilitator: This role is usually filled by a consultant. It requires skill or enough talent to make up for the lack of it. The success of your sessions hinges on this role. The facilitator keeps the trains running on time and on the rails by guiding the discussion and managing conflicts while staying neutral throughout, making sure all voices are heard, challenging and championing people and ideas.
A cross-functional team: You want to invite people from every business function with the best grip on their domain—marketing, sales, customer success, product, hr, finance. I fully expect a single person to wear at least a couple of different hats in your business. That’s great because a smaller group is more nimble, or it might mean you have a spot available for someone else to participate.
Here you are. You’ve just gathered the A-team, and the exercises in the framework I’m about to share with you have been picked and refined to be fun and engaging while fostering productive group dynamics. It sure looks like you’re set up for success. However, this branding effort will be a test bench and possibly a turning point for your company culture—an opportunity to reaffirm or set new standards. Don’t waste this opportunity. I’ve seen how conversations can sneakily turn into stump speeches. Don’t let that happen to you. Trust your team’s intentions and expertise. Respect and support the facilitator. If you want to build something larger than yourself, you must be ready to let go.