Workers in repetitive industries may need less feedback than employees in creative industries do. Assembly line workers or bureaucrats who do the same thing over and over may not need to be told “yes, you’re doing it right…just like you did yesterday, and the day before, and the year before.”

But creative employees, by the nature of their work, are always doing something new and different (well, we hope so, anyway). And that means they need more feedback, because each new attempt might be a good one or a bad one, and if we want to capitalize on the good and push the bad stuff to the side, it helps to understand what worked and what didn’t. Feedback in the creative environment is very helpful.

But does it all have to come from YOU? No.

Your Creatives, whether they work independently or in teams, are linked to, and observed by, other Creatives in the company. Even if you are hiring free agents they can, in most cases, ultimately see the results of each others’ work. So, how about if they offer feedback to each other?

There are some advantages to having open communication and getting feedback from peers. First, if it all had to come from you, then you would not have the time to give all the feedback your Creatives might find useful. Also, it’s less threatening for them if it comes from someone who does not pull the strings of their career. Peers can also be specialists while you may be more of a generalist, so they can provide more detailed feedback than you might be able to.

If your people are comfortable sharing openly, then give them an open environment. Maybe encourage one-on-one discussion, or have a group lunch or something along those lines where people can openly discuss each other’s work. If you have a large group, or if they are competitive or not so tight-knit and you are afraid this would turn into a group “slam” of someone, maybe encourage some sort of online feedback mechanism. There is some software out there specifically designed for groups to provide anonymous feedback, and you may find this a worthy investment.

One of the great potential advantages of working in a creative environment is the sharing of ideas among creative people. This sharing can happen during the design stages, but it can come after the fact as well. Improvement comes about by learning from each experience and finding better ways to do things while holding onto what works. If you encourage your Creatives to share feedback with each other, you are more likely to see the kind of continuous improvement that is the hallmark of a profitable creative firm.