Filed under: 10 Questions for Strategists, Great Stuff, Innovation, The Rules
There’s no more common trope than marketers currently want to be ‘data driven story- tellers’.
Q: How does strategy help contribute to creative product?
While I think that there may as many definitions of strategy as there are strategists, it will aways help you if you can define where your skills and interests lie and how you can best help a team.
One of my favourite frames for understanding is to find where a strategist sits on the spectrum from Numbers to Narrative.
For many years the notion of ‘t-shaped talent’ which has broader skills and knowledge and learns by linking up different perspectives from different specialties, was a profile we all sought. You wanted to have a wide lens of expertise and a deep specialisation.
If you think in a linear fashion, you’d start at one end of the spectrum, where at one end you have data and at the other end the strategic narrative, to find where you might sit and then focus on developing your strength.
True Data Strategists that can identify both patterns in the noise and identify the human insight driving it are quite rare. I think we’re all discovering the growing and evolving value of data in crafting creative solutions. It won’t do you any harm to refine or build your ability to both build and read a spread sheet and design an information to be accessible and powerful.
Creative Strategists, or Comms Planners structure a messaging house to get stuff done. They carve up confusion and create clarity. They stand in the shoes of their audiences and babel- fish translate corporate propaganda so it has heart and meaning. They are word smiths, the architects of distributed sense and driven to find the compelling and the engaging and the cut through. Again- it’s super important to be able to have the skill to construct communication in a way that people want to listen, what to know what’s next and actually want to take action on what’s being said.
In between and aligned to these areas of expertise are the researchers, analysts, consultants, specialists, brand planners and the media planners and all the other job descriptions allocated to our roles.
In a t-shaped universe you only get one specialisation.
What may add depth to the metaphor is if you understand a spectrum as a wave and not a line:
Then you can explore the notion of how the disciplines might amplify each other, and how they generate more momentum when you put them together, how you can cover more ground if you have more than one….
My thoughts are that you don’t have to choose, that specialisation is for insects, that the better the base the stronger the building and so on.
But it is a good idea to know what skills you have, and where you have gaps and ensure you’re bringing rigour and research to whatever you do.
Just don’t forget that if you want people to do anything with what you find, you’ll need a good story.
PS:
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
Filed under: The Rules
Humour can be a mask.
I also believe it is a choice, and a valid way of processing pain.
I like the power in the perspective- how fast can this be funny?
How can I retell this well?
It makes me think of The Vinegar Tasters , a traditional Chinese painting. It shows the three founders of China’s major philosophical traditions: Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism.
The three men (Confucius, Buddha, and Laozi) are dipping their fingers in a vat of vinegar and tasting it; one man reacts with a sour expression, one reacts with a bitter expression, and one reacts with a sweet expression. Each man’s expression represents the attitude of his philosophy: Confucianism saw life as sour, in need of rules to correct the degeneration of people; Buddhism saw life as bitter, dominated by pain and suffering; and Taoism saw life as fundamentally good in its natural state.
My favourite interpretation is when Laozi laughs at the taste.
And the barrel is full of pickles.
I’m a big fan of fermentation too.
Filed under: The Rules
I got my evaluation
And on a scale of ten they gave me
For thoughts ten, hooks, three
Well, thoughts, ten, hooks, three
I make the team avoidant
Thinking for my own enjoyment
That ain’t it, kid, that ain’t it, kid
Thoughts, ten, hooks, three
It’s like to die!
Lost the defer and unlocked her
For my permission to ply
Wit and sass
Taught myself a fancy pair
Tightened up the random glare
Ditched the woes with it, all that goes with it
Wit and sass
Got the dingo-drongos won
Suddenly I’m getting national briefs
Wit and sass won’t get you jobs without beliefs
Didn’t cost a fortune neither
Didn’t hurt amex life either
Flat efficacy
I would get the strays and losers
Beggars really can’t be choosers
That ain’t it, kid, that ain’t it, kid
Fixed the assay
How do you do
Life turned into and endless medley
Of ‘Gee it had to be you’, why?
Wit and sass
Where the cupboard once was bare
Now you knock and someone’s there
You have got ’em, hey, stop the fought him, hey!
It’s a gas, just a dash of baritone
Shake your numerators and you’re fine
Wit and sass can change your life
They sure changed mine
You’re all looking at my wits now, aren’t you?
For wit and sass
Orchestra and audience
What they want is what you be
Keep the best of you, do the rest of you
Pits or class
I have never seen it fail
Confidant or a partner in- strife
Wit and sass, yes, wit and sass
Have changed my life
Filed under: Experience, Get Friendly, The Rules, Zeitgeist | Tags: generosity, psychology
Wonderful interview with the organizational psychologist Adam Grant, who many know from his New York Times columns, describes three human orientations, of which we are all capable: the givers, the takers, and the matchers. These also influence whether organizations are joyful or toxic for human beings. His studies are dispelling a conventional wisdom that selfish takers are the most likely to succeed professionally. And, he is wise about practicing generosity in organizational life — what he calls making “microloans of our knowledge, our skills, our connections to other people” — in a way that is transformative for others, ourselves, and our places of work.
50 minutes well spent
Filed under: The Rules
William of Ockham was an English monk, philosopher, theologian, who provided the scientific method with its key principle 700 years ago. ‘What can be done with fewer assumptions is done in vain with more,’ he said. That is, in explaining any phenomenon, we should use no more explanatory concepts than are absolutely necessary. Simplicity should never be despised.
Had an interesting question about the triangulation exercise– how long should it be?
In a true form I’d have to say: How long is the truth?
I’ve put the challenge forward with ‘manifest the outcome how you like…’
I do know that the blank page is the hardest to start with and the that structure is a fine tool to get the ball rolling….
So to help actually answer the question I can put forward some options on process and practice:
- I’m a big fan of visual thinking as a tool to explore intersection- to mine where commonality lies and to use it to find a singular point of truth
- the above was a bit of a joke for a mate (if you’re not a Top Gun fan- it means that the absolute truth between his three favourite things is that they FVROOM/ Doppler effect/or can disappear out of sight in a second)
- this was a while ago- today I’d say that the intersection could be brought to life by Archer
- this might mean that you could structure a deck like this:
- Demonstrate key learnings/ Identify themes: one chart each on the major themes of each of the articles
- Explore intersections: commonalities between each article
- The absolute truth- your key out take/ observation/ pov
- the above was a bit of a joke for a mate (if you’re not a Top Gun fan- it means that the absolute truth between his three favourite things is that they FVROOM/ Doppler effect/or can disappear out of sight in a second)
- When I started doing these exercises myself as blog posts I tried to keep them around 300 words
I’d love to see a podcast, an interpretive dance, a cartoon if that can take us on a journey of your thinking.
I’m as interested in what you see along the way as the destination of your journey.
Anyhoo- good luck, and thanks for asking.
Filed under: The Rules
It is a planner/ creative strategist/ maker-upperer-with-rigor’s job to introduce people to things they don’t know.
One of your goals might be to create those moments and to make it safe (and fun!) for people to say ‘Hey, I didn’t know that’.
Try not to be a douche about having more knowledge than others. Strength requires responsibility and using your smarts to punch people in the face makes you a bully.
Celebrate and contribute to growth instead.
Over on Seth’s blog today was this morsel
A good employee says, “I know that this is a serious problem, it’s hurting our customers and we can do better, but I can’t do a thing about it because it’s run by a different department.”
A version of this might conclude with, “And I don’t even know the name of the person who’s responsible.”
This is a sure sign of systemic failure as well as a CEO who is not doing the job she should be. When smart people who care get frustrated, something is wrong.
There’s an intesection here and a paper that Deloitte relased yesterday:
Based on a global study of investment bankers, private equity companies, and financial analysts, the paper, The Leadership Premium: How companies win the confidence of investors, puts a hard metric on the “intangible asset” of leadership, revealing that, in some sectors, good leaders can account for more than one-fifth of equity value.
The gap between the value of an effectively-led and ineffectively-led company could, says the paper, be as much as 35.5 percent.
It’s a pretty good read, and one that full of steal able insights about the core components of value building leadership and the importance of leaders taking their teams along for the ride:
“All employees should have the same goal and process in mind… the same direction”
Investment analyst, US
Here are my notes:
Many major corporations have found that orthodox management practices and organizational principles are not well suited to the modern era. Our view is that current conditions don’t demand a revolution so much as a renewed focus on the fundamentals of leadership
Three value delivering components
- Strategic Clarity
- Successful execution
- A culture of innovation
Strategic Clarity
Organizations need to decide on where and on what basis they will compete. e.g
- Virgin Media’s decision to focus on it’s network as its core strategic asset was the beginning of an impressive corporate turnaround
- Southwest Airlines’ early use of the internet and online booking and check-ins has helped consolidate its positions as a low cost, low fares carrier.
- Apple’s relentless focus on ‘insanely great’ products allowed it to transform consumer electronics
- FedEx Ground’s emphasis on service and its early use of tracking systems (as RPS in the 1980s) enabled it to challenge UPS
Strategic clarity involves delivering a vision of what the organization needs to achieve
- and a framework that leaves enough room for people to create the future
- with consistency and commitment
Successful Execution
Common to organisations is the belief that the only long term differentiator they have is their people. The priority for an organisation has to be getting the best out of its people by ensuring that they are willing and able to fulfil its aims
- Believe: compelling reasons, communication and bulid commitment
- Belong: leaders need to articulate a long term purpose beyond just making money
- Behave: adaptive, value driven, team building, respectful,
- Able: capabilities, resources infrastructure
A Culture of Innovation
Great ideas are generated and developed through interaction.
- Commitment to enterprise; an environment for ideas
- Collaboration culture
- The freedom to experiment (and fail)
- It’s not about hiring new radical thinkers
- It’s about realizing the potential of the thinkers you’ve got
I liked this check list:
Effective leadership characteristics
- Capabilities
- Driving competitiveness and innovation
- Providing direction and purpose
- Making effective decisions
- Inspiring others to act
- Developing people
- Building high performing teams
- Personal qualities
- Integrity, probity and humility
- Moral courage
1.Go exploring.
Explore ideas, places, and opinions. The inside of the echo chamber is where are all the boring people hang out.
2. Share what you discover.
And be generous when you do. Not everybody went exploring with you. Let them live vicariously through your adventures.
3. Do something. Anything.
Dance. Talk. Build. Network. Play. Help. Create. It doesn’t matter what you do, as long as you’re doing it. Sitting around and complaining is not an acceptable form of ‘something,’ in case you were wondering.
4. Embrace your innate weirdness.
No one is normal. Everyone has quirks and insights unique to themselves. Don’t hide these things—they are what make you interesting.
5. Have a cause.
If you don’t give a damn about anything, no one will give a damn about you.
6. Minimize the swagger.
Egos get in the way of ideas. If your arrogance is more obvious than your expertise, you are someone other people avoid.
7. Give it a shot.
Try it out. Play around with a new idea. Do something strange. If you never leave your comfort zone, you won’t grow.
8. Hop off the bandwagon.
If everyone else is doing it, you’re already late to the party. Do your own thing, and others will hop onto the spiffy wagon you built yourself. Besides, it’s more fun to drive than it is to get pulled around.
9. Grow a pair.
Bravery is needed to have contrary opinions and to take unexpected paths. If you’re not courageous, you’re going to be hanging around the water cooler, talking about the guy who actually is.
10. Ignore the scolds.
Boring is safe, and you will be told to behave yourself. The scolds could have, would have, should have. But they didn’t. And they resent you for your adventures.
So perfect. Love Jessica Hagy. From here
Filed under: The Rules
Elvis at home with Barbara Hearn, a high-school girlfriend
From this vanity fair article on photographer Al Wertheimer, who shadowed Elvis in 1956, the year Elvis-mania hit. Wertheimer on what made Elvis different:
“He dared to move….Singers just did not move onstage in those days. You stood there like Frank Sinatra or Perry Como, and you sang from the waist up. Elvis broke all the rules. He moved his hips. He charged the microphone. He was introducing something that was just not acceptable to grown-ups and the more conservative groups. I have the William Morris guys getting him into a corner, and they’re giving him advice: ‘Now, Elvis, look, you get up there, you sing your song, but don’t move too much.’ Elvis dutifully listened. He wouldn’t argue with them. But once he got onstage he did what he wanted. And it created such a sensation. Not because you could hear him sing—there was too much screaming going on. The kids loved it. And the kids were the ones who bought the 45s.
Via Matt Linderman at 37signals, who says,
Funny to imagine those experts sitting Elvis down and telling him that he’s got to stop moving onstage. Shows you the problem with experts: They’re experts on the past. No one is an expert on the future.
I’ve seen this all over the place- and I do love to track down the artist:
Letterpress print designed by Joe Newton.
Typeface: Olduvai by Randy Jones.
Paper: Somerset Velvet 300 gsm, soft white.
Size: 8.5″ x 11″ (approx A4).
Printer: Woodside Press, Brooklyn, NY.Signed and numbered limited edition of 100.
You can buy it for $15 at I Love Typography here.
Spotted this on the great Kitsune Noir blog. It’s a design piece by Jessica Hisch.
I think you might use it like sending letters to Santa- fill it out and set it in fire.
Filed under: The Rules
Episode 4
- “Collaboration” just means you’re in charge but you want people to feel included in the process.
- Feel free to edit anyone’s contribution without their knowledge- particularly if you’re not presenting that particular piece of work.
- Remember: no discipline integrating with yours needs more than 5 minutes to explain itself or its role in your idea.
Part 3
- hold on to your idea tightly
- anything that is not your idea is a bad idea
- resist asking for the premises of anyone’s conclusion- it will only cloud things
- the most important thing is to be right
Filed under: The Rules
Part 2
- it’s perfectly OK to interrupt another meeting in progress with a ‘quick question’
- turn up late to meetings and leave before they’ve finished
- keep your mobile on, read your emails on your blackberry and snort at your Twitter messages
- don’t distribute information before meetings, read your documents word for word
- remember that your time is ever so much more important than others
Filed under: The Rules
Part 1
- Never, never reference the source of images, stats or ideas.
- It will always make you seem smarter and more creative to imply that others work is your own.
- You’ll never get found out- you are the only one that reads books and blogs and uses Slideshare and no one else can use Google.
Get Shouty 
