Go on - be brave
To imagine, explore and make decisions based on your intuition takes guts. Yep you can end up looking like a right wally. To be creative, in essence is to trust your intuition and be brave.
Branding is where creativity - creative thinking and creative bravery meets business, or at least a purpose.
When a business is creating a new brand, or evolving an existing one, on some level it has to be a bit brave. It's taking a risk with it's reputation and sometimes a lot of money in the process, so there's plenty of motivation to play it safe. Add to that, a culture where decision makers are rewarded for dodging bullets and sailing a steady ship, then it can feel completely alien for people to be brave.
Collaborate for the greater good
Relationships and trusting the process are key to navigating this. I think it's healthy to have a good mix of folk in the room - the passionate, the loyal, the truth teller, the measured, the grounded...
Some companies by pass this, handing the whole process over to an agency, like it's a hot potato. In the process, they risk pretty much handing over the ownership of their brand. It ends up being shaped and rolled out by a few senior marketing people and the agency, disconnected from the wider organisation and the people that work for it.
Worse still - in this competitive world we find ourselves in, where everyone is looking for the next opportunity - it can be perceived that both parties have ring fenced the brand project and run off with it to win themselves prizes and promotions. They use it to move on and up, leaving everyone else back at the ranch feeling detached and a little puzzled as to what it's actually for. They ignore it and go back to work.
For me the whole process is one of collaboration. Not of job titles but of humans. Each person's perspective is of value, because what's needed are human thoughts, insights and emotions.
Yes it's harder to manage, and it's definitely easier said than done for larger organisations, but you go along way if you begin by thinking of customers and employees as humans and being open to everyone's experience.