A common characteristic of high-performing creative organizations: rigorous but optional feedback.

For example, at Pixar, the brain trust would give high-intensity feedback on a regular interval... but it was up to the director/producer to decide what to implement.

When you get mandatory feedback, you might feel coerced into following it even if you don't agree with it.

And if you're doing it from extrinsic pressure and not intrinsic alignment, you'll drag your feet and implement it poorly.

When the feedback is truly optional, you can treat it not as a threat to defend against, but a gift you have the option of accepting.

This allows you to go from "the thing they're missing is..." to "the thing they're seeing is...".

When you get to apply your own agency, you can commit to it much more deeply.

Paradoxically, having the choice to adopt the feedback often leads to it being adopted in a more powerful and resonant way.