There are some well-worn ideas here expressed in I think fairly elegant terms:
> To successfully define a path to success, you don't even have to
know the exact hill to take. The grinding race that is television
often means that you may not always know the next goal; but even
if you articulate your order as "Help me figure out the next hill
to take," or "Let me know what our resources are so that I can
make an educated decision about where to attack next," that alone
constitutes a directive with a defined outcome.
Okay, yeah, I know all these things but this is just a font of wisdom ...
> The wonderful thing about credit is that it's not a finite
resource.
> The worst
position for a leader is as the bearer of bad news everyone
already knows.
> Being transparent also helps to break down a commonplace fallacy
in television: the idea that network and studio are your
adversaries. In fact, these are your production partners and your
financial backers - as invested in the success of the series as
you are - and they deserve to have a clear picture of the
process.
> ... explosions of genius-level creativity: but where does the
black powder for that explosion come from? Pattern recognition.
> More often than
not, all of the consideration and reconsideration done by
showrunners of the material in post-production is a distraction
from the the far less immediately rewarding work of the writers
room
> Without a complete script, no one can decide where they are going
to take the trucks with all the lights and cameras and costumes,
and for how long. Without a script, no one can figure out how
much it's going to cost to make this episode of your series.
Without a script, the actors can't prepare for their work in
front of the camera.
> Scripts are how you talk to cast, crew, studio, and network.
Write them quickly, rewrite them impassively and efficiently.
Work your scripts until they are ready, but recognize that in a
fast-moving business like television, most of the time they will
only be ready enough.
> To successfully define a path to success, you don't even have to know the exact hill to take. The grinding race that is television often means that you may not always know the next goal; but even if you articulate your order as "Help me figure out the next hill to take," or "Let me know what our resources are so that I can make an educated decision about where to attack next," that alone constitutes a directive with a defined outcome.