Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, China, Creativity, Culture, Planners, Planning, Wieden+Kennedy
I left Wieden+Kennedy Shanghai 2 years ago this month.
I have very special memories of my time there and these two people – Leon and Carina [both circled in the photo above, which was a gift from my planning team when I left W+K, even though they forgot to put Debi in there] – played a big part in that.
Sure they were pains in the ass and opinionated as all fuck [though Carina did it in a much nicer way than Leon ever could] but it was – and still is – an honour to be able to say they were on “our team”.
Now – by pure coincidence – they’re both moving onto their next adventure and that will mean there will be no more of my mob infecting the place [though I did find Chris, even if he got away with never having to work with me] so I just want to say thank you to them for all they did for me, the team and – most importantly – the work.
Their loss is a big one for everyone but no one could be anything but excited and happy for the bigger and better things they’re about to do.
So to Leon and Carina, go have a shitload of fun … but please make sure you hide stickers throughout the office before you leave.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Chaos, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture, Emotion, Empathy, Imagination, Insight, Martin Weigel, Resonance
I have talked about my love of Martin Parr before, which is why you can imagine my excitement when I thought I was going to pull off the ultimate collaboration between him and my side project with the masters of metal.
For absolutely fair reason, it sadly didn’t come off, but I did get a nice gift as a way of thanks … which ironically, makes me only wish it had worked out even more.
When I pitched the idea, I was asked why I thought it was a good idea.
I said I didn’t, I just thought it was interesting and sometimes, that’s all we have to go on.
The best thing with working with people who only think creatively is they totally get that … that sometimes, the intrigue of an idea is more important than the actual outcome – even if it ends up not being what you quite hoped.
I get why we all look for certainty in what we do. There’s a lot riding on it … money, employment, business … but the problem with certainty is that it is built on compromise and convenience, where the outcome is safe rather than alive.
It’s why Martin’s Weigel’s wonderful case for chaos is such an important read.
I have long been an advocate of this approach.
While it can scare people, the reality is chaos can create what order can’t and when we are all looking for ways to infect, infiltrate and shape culture, the best way to do it is to offer them something they find interesting and resonant, rather than boring and right.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Audio Visual, Comment, Creativity, Culture, Emotion, Empathy, Honesty, Imagination, Innocence, Insight, Marketing, Mum, Mum & Dad, Planners, Planning, Point Of View, Positioning, Relevance, Resonance
Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been invited to speak at a couple of conferences – in Hamburg, for the APG, and at ‘Closeness’ in London.
In both cases, I was asked to talk about the importance about empathy – something I’ve been banging on about for centuries.
And in both cases, I felt the best way to do it was to talk through the lens my Mum had taught me … which is the title of this post.
For an industry that is supposed to understand people, I’m surprised how few seem to really understand what that means.
Rather than understand hopes, dreams, fears, ambitions and contradictions … it seems we prefer to focus on the bits that are relevant to our business needs, without seemingly realizing the important role context plays in shaping how we live.
If you don’t get context, you don’t get people … and you don’t get context without investing time.
Not focus groups.
Not ethnographic studies.
But an on-going commitment to going down the rabbit hole of people’s lives to understand how they live and the nuances that separate each and every one of us.
You can’t do this if you want to ‘fast forward’ to the bits you have pre-determined will be useful to you.
You can’t do this if you want convenient answers to ‘sell your campaign’.
You can’t do this if you want answers rather than understanding.
This last point is especially important.
Frankly, understanding is becoming a lost art.
Understanding is built on emotional connection, not intellectual.
Where you leave your prejudices, barriers, filters, expectations and hopes at the door and focus. Asking questions to understand more about what someone is saying than to get the answers you want to your specific challenge.
It’s hard.
It takes real practice.
Because while you may appreciate every person has a story … it can only truly be revealed if you let them do it in their own way, in their own time, in their own words. Which means you might end up hearing things that makes no sense to you, even though it makes perfect sense to them … and while that might not initially seem valuable, you’ll soon realise it’s immense.
But all this takes time.
And takes a real commitment.
However it lets you go back with knowledge that enables you to make work that feels like it was born from inside the culture rather than from a bunch of observers.
Work that is filled with the nuances that makes the audience take notice.
Care.
React to.
Feel respect towards because it shows respect to them.
Or said another way …
Work that is resonant to culture rather than just relevant.
And it all starts by being interested in what others are interested in.
Not for commercial gain, but because you are interested in who people are.
It’s why my Mum is still teaching me how to live, 4 years after she has gone.
And now she is teaching others too.
Thank you Mum.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Confidence, Culture, Insight, Management
As I’ve written a few times previously, I am not Gary Veynerchuck’s biggest fan.
From rewriting history to celebrating inauthenticity
… Gary seems to be an individual who represents almost the opposite of everything I value.
Of course, given he is more successful than I’ll ever be, you could argue you should listen to him rather than me – but then values shouldn’t be evaluated against what you have, but how you live.
Anyway I digress because I recently read something that I agree with him on.
No … this is not a joke.
It’s the art of delegation.
This is what Mr V said …
I agree with him.
Too many people completely miss the point of what delegation means.
They think it’s about handing over the shit you don’t want to do, but it’s not – it’s enabling colleagues to bring their talent and way of seeing the World into a project you’re working on in a way where they can win on their terms.
That doesn’t mean you have to blindly support whatever they do.
But it is about backing, supporting and encouraging them every step of the way.
Letting them do what they think is the way to win rather than expecting them to redo what you’d do.
To do that, you do have to let go of your ego.
To do that, you do have to have faith in the talent you work with.
To do that, you do have to want to see your team grow and progress.
In essence, you have to open the door to opportunity and let your team walk in and do their thing … it’s not about opening the door for only you to walk in and leave everyone else behind.
Making sure your team feel backed is vitally important.
Giving them the time and space to think, challenge and be challenged is everything.
But most of all, handing over the spotlight to them with your full support is – at least to me – what delegation is all about.
Not keeping things from them.
Not limiting what they want to do.
Not stopping them from forging their own direction and destination.
I know it can be hard, but it’s also worth it because while you are responsible for the standards being produced – doing it in a way that lets your team grow and develop is the foundation of management success … because the reality is when you get to run a department, success should be based as much on what your team achieves as what you personally do.
If they win, you win.
Simple as that.
Maybe there is hope for Mr V after all.
Maybe.
Though ‘a lack of ego’ and ‘Gary V’ have never appeared in the same sentence before and likely never will again.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Comment, Corporate Evil, Culture, Management, Revenge
… and I have always struggled to walk that line properly, but fuck it … the person it’s about has screwed over so many people – including myself – to ensure they are able to maintain [and protect] their career and internal reputation.
Now I appreciate they never went out their way to bring anyone down.
And I know that deep down, they are not a bad person, just a very, very ambitious person.
But when you don’t back your people so you can look good to your bosses, then eventually you get what you deserve.
It might not be as much as the people they screwed over think they deserve … but when you know that their entire ‘reputation’ is built on very fragile foundations, you also know the slightest crumble in their carefully constructed ‘career veneer’ affects them deeply inside.
God, I’m such a bastard, but for good reasons.
After all, the brilliant Rupert Howell once said about me, “Robert is driven by hate, but in a relatively good way.”
Oh, and for the record, while this individual is not part of the post I wrote relating to When Work Tries To Destroy You, he is part of the reason – admittedly, a very small part – of why I started Corporate Gaslighting.