I'm going to let you into a secret about this blog, the articles you read are published after going through what some may consider a gruelling process. With a relaxed approach to writing style, humour and tone of voice, some may think that an article on this blog is simply written by the author and posted. That couldn't be further from the truth, let me invite you into the process of an article; it's much longer than some may think.

Every contributor and team member is encouraged to offer ideas both on an ad-hoc basis and for the core team at a meeting each week. The first part of the process is for the author to decide if the idea is any good; they then either float that idea in wireframe or bring a much more complete article to the editorial team.

At the editorial team meeting on a Tuesday a process takes place called 'red team, blue team.' This term was adopted from the TV show 'The Newsroom.'

During this meeting, an idea will be discussed at length. We'll ask how they arrived at the idea, we ask for the data, expert opinion, or illustrations to support the article. In some cases, we will offer ideas to strengthen the piece and ask them to consider making it differently. Sometimes they will present it as a video idea, and we'll decide it would be better as a written article or vice-versa. We'll ask if the subject has been covered before, by us or by someone else and then ask does our article offer anything different, new or better? We ask them to consider the counter-arguments, and wherever possible to pre-empt them in the piece.

Is there something in this article that a brand needs to be aware of and given the right to respond to before we go public? We also have to consider the legal issues around some articles - will we get sued if we say this? All these different questions need to be asked; sometimes we can talk about an item for an hour or even days as we knock it back and forth until we feel it's right. Many articles don't make it through this process.

If an idea makes it past this process (it also happens for contributor articles, by the way, they just don't have to sit through a meeting with it happening) then the author submits the final piece for approval. Approval, I can hear some of you asking, what was that first process? The first process is to test the idea, but approvals before publishing also take place and even at this stage, articles get pushed back or die.

Approvals before publishing include fact-checking, source checking, expert advice, grammar, spelling, title, image use and more. In most cases, at least four people have checked any article before you read it. Even with all these hurdles to get over; articles still go out which may have issues. These issues can be a simple as typos right through to being an article that shouldn't have been published in the first place.

The blog has come a long way from when I started it over a decade ago, and the stuff that went out had no checks, looking back some of the content was embarrassing and other stuff was wrong. If you had suggested to me what I've outlined above, I would have had a fit - how dare anyone tell me what to write and how to write it. Now I understand how valuable the process is.

Creatives, on the whole, tend to think in black and white. Things are good or bad, fantastic or terrible, love or hate, and many sentences end with an exclamation mark. Driven by our hearts we tend to allow ourselves to skew the reality of situations, in other words, if someone tells us something is bad when we think it's good we then try everything in our power to hold onto our original belief. It's not just those new to creative processes, the more respected we become in a field, the more likely it is for us to push back against critics, we think 'what could they possibly know?' After all, you're a grammy-winning producer, a veteran songwriter, or top movie mixer.

I wonder how often you allow someone to critique a song you are writing, at first it's unnerving. I recall the first time different words, entire lyrics and chords were suggested to a song I had been gigging for several years before my record label asked me to change them. At first, I dug my heels in, but over time I accepted their changes, and in hindsight, I think they were right. Our creative efforts are like our children and the thought of anyone thinking they are anything but perfect can bring the worst out in us, making us defensive and stubborn. So rather than face the possibility that our song, performance, or mix needs changing or at worst needs ditching we avoid criticism in the first place.

I'm currently writing this article at 30,000ft as I make another flight. It's the first flight I've made since I was in one of the worst landings of my life just before last Christmas, it was for me the moment when I thought life was over. Many would never fly again but the reason I got back onto a plane is because air travel is one of the safest things you can do, it's undoubtedly statistically safer than many other forms of transport. There is a reason for this, and that's the way they respond to failure. If an airplane has any incident, it is investigated, if the worst should happen and the plane crashes then the black box is used to determine what went wrong. It's the failures in air travel over the last century that have been used to ensure that it is now so safe. The reason I got back on the plane was I allowed data and not my emotions to determine my decision making, had I let my emotions take over then I wouldn't be going to Abbey Road studios today.

When it comes to decisions, be they practical or creative, our emotions can be our worst enemy and yet the creative process is very emotional, it's about trusting our instincts and going with the flow. So how do we ensure we create the very best we can?

I recently wrote about my growing belief that Facebook groups are, on the whole, a wrong place to get advice, in fact, that extends to most public forums be that social media or user forums. They are certainly not the best place for a critique of your most precious creations. So please do not use them to have your songs or mixes evaluated - the people you are asking have mixed ability, experience and motivation. Instead, surround yourself with a group of critics you can trust, people you know who have your best interests at heart.

Over the years for me, that has been managers, record company AR or publishing managers and other trusted songwriters for my songs. Producers, engineers and record label AR for my recording work. In wider life, I have trusted friends whom I show things to be that a business idea, a letter I need to send or a conversation I need to have. The more you find these trusted people, the more you trust them, and the better your output becomes. You might say you write great songs now without any of this, well how do you know you couldn't write better ones if you had a group around you to help you improve? The same can be said for your productions, without any accountability to test you, then you are working in a closed-loop.

We try and avoid critics, we hate to consider failure, but it is often from this place that we find better ways of doing things. Failure is often considered to be the last word, but in my experience, if we learn from it, then there's a last word after that.

Discuss.