Victoria Beckham has a Plant Problem

In her new Netflix documentary, Victoria Beckham let us into a secret.

At one point, despite her business financially struggling, she was spending £85,000 a year on plants for the office (watering man included).

By her own admission this was a staggering amount to spend on office plants. But what made it worse – she didn’t have a clue about it. 

So why all the plants, Victoria? (And the other huge amount of wasted spending across the business)

Because no one felt like they could say no to her. Through the power of celebrity, she had inadvertently built a ‘no push back’ culture. 

It got me thinking about the questionable decisions that have come out of a similar ‘no pushback culture’ within businesses. 

I’ve seen rational, creative and clever decision making go out the window while everyone is looking to please someone else and avoid saying no. 

(If you want to see the results of this, just check out the brilliant ‘Forked by Feedback’ series from Andrew London on LinkedIn.)

So what can marketing teams do to avoid people pleasing based slop going out into the world?

> Make it clear from day 1 with your agency that you want to be challenged (and you actually mean it) and continually reiterate that their job is to provide the best answer, not just make you happy.

> Actively seek critiques of what you are doing and how you are doing it – and give your team members and agencies a structured safe space to push back.

> Remind your stakeholders that it’s all about the customer. Just because the CEOs husband doesn’t like the ad, doesn’t mean it should be put in the bin.

> Continually look back and review where things went wrong (on a regular basis) and analyse why. 

Interested to hear other ways marketing teams avoid having their own £85,000 plant moment and fight the ‘no pushback culture’.