#009: Eliminating Rejections — The Key to Smoother Studio Workflows

In lean manufacturing, the concept of waste—known as Muda—is all about identifying what doesn’t add value and eliminating it.

I’ve believe the same principle applies to creative operations, where I’ve identified three key types of waste that can consume nearly half of a team’s time.

The first and largest contributor is complexity, specifically work in progress, which we’ve already tackled in a previous issue (here).

Today, let’s focus on rejections—an often overlooked but incredibly costly form of waste in studio workflows. (I’ll save the third type of waste for an upcoming issue.)

Rejections: The Hidden Cost of Misalignment in Studio Workflows

In a Toyota production line, even the smallest defect can bring the entire operation to a halt until the problem is resolved.

But when it comes to in-house creative studios, rejections often signal the need for a shift in approach—one that prioritizes maintaining a short feedback loop and continuous improvement over merely fixing defects.

Unlike multi-client studios, where alignment with external buyers demands rigorous quality standards, in-house teams often lack that same level of coordination with their internal stakeholders due to the subjective nature of quality.

This misalignment leads to assets being rejected not once but multiple times, forcing teams to backtrack, rework, and lose precious hours. I’ve seen this happen time and time again: rejections cascade, deadlines tighten, and creativity gets caught in the crossfire.

What’s needed is a fundamental shift—a way to bring production and stakeholder alignment closer together, so everyone is working toward the same outcome from the very start. One powerful way to initiate this shift is through weekly reviews.

Weekly Reviews: Refining Quality; Not Rejecting Work

In my conversations with studio leaders, one thing stands out: the power of regular feedback. Weekly reviews aren’t just meetings—they’re moments of alignment. They allow teams to define what great looks like, week after week.

Creative production isn’t like a factory floor where objective metrics can measure quality. Instead, creative professionals work in a world of subjective standards, and weekly reviews are the key to building a shared understanding of those standards.

Why opt for a weekly cadence? It offers the ideal balance—frequent enough to keep everything fresh and top of mind, ensuring you remember what you’ve accomplished, yet spaced out enough to preserve the creative flow of your operations. This results in a culture that values solutions over blame. Conversations shift from “What went wrong?” to “How can we prevent this from happening again in the future?”

If you don’t track metrics like rejections, reshoots, and similar issues, it becomes challenging to measure progress. Continuous improvement efforts rely on clear benchmarks, so without data, it’s difficult to gauge the "before and after." For example, if you know how many reshoots you’re doing today, that number becomes the primary KPI to improve.

Making changes without measurable results reduces the effort to mere anecdotal evidence, rather than something concrete—like being able to say, "Our rejection rate decreased from X% to Y%, saving us Z hours or costs." This clarity not only ensures everyone understands the progress but also motivates the team involved by showing tangible improvements.

Conclusion

Rejections can feel like a quiet thief in your studio—stealing time, undermining confidence, and creating friction where there should be flow.

But the truth is, they don’t have to be a source of frustration. Instead, they can become moments of refinement, opportunities to strengthen alignment and improve your craft.

If rejections have been weighing on your team, take heart. Change doesn’t require a sweeping overhaul—just the commitment to start small.

Begin with one meeting, one conversation, one week of intentional alignment. The ripple effects will surprise you.

Warmest,

Thomas