Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Complicity, Confidence, Corporate Evil, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture, Process, Systems
I recently saw this quote from Rick Rubin:
While he is referring to band dynamics, what he is really talking about are the conditions needed to create something special.
The reason I say this is there’s not enough talk about this.
What I see being continually pushed is a focus on processes, systems, models and tools – and while they are very important, they are far more about delivering consistency or amplification of something special rather than the actual creation of it.
Because that tends to come much earlier in the piece.
Something born from humans rather than systems.
Because the most powerful path to creating something special comes from working with people you trust.
Not necessarily like, but trust.
People with taste, ability and a willingness to hold each other to account to standards while also taking shared responsibility for helping achieve and deliver it.
It’s as true in organisations as it is in bands.
And yet many companies to ignore this because they don’t want to ask themselves the tough questions … face the hard truths … so they create an environment of co-dependency, where no one questions each other because they don’t want to be questioned themselves.
It’s a slow walk towards mediocrity … and yet that is often preferable because consistency is more valued than possibility.
That’s not entirely the leaderships fault, because that’s also what shareholders want, so we end up in this crazy situation where
‘good enough’ is preferable to trying to create something truly good.
On one level I get it.
Truly good is hard.
It can cost a fortune.
And after all that work, you still may not make it happen.
However, while there are no guarantees what you make will be truly special … the one thing I know is the more you create an environment where talented people are with others they trust, the more likely you are to create something even a ‘proprietary process’ never will.
And if we don’t aspire to that, what’s the point of doing anything?
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Awards, Birthday, Bonnie, Cannes, Cliches, Comment, Creativity, Culture, Jill, Otis, Paul, Paula, WARC
So, I’m back.
And I survived.
Better yet, the family … pooch … and my colleagues seemed relatively happy to see me, which is a massive win.
Plus the people with the birthdays, had good ones. Albeit maybe because I didn’t get to share it with them.
Anyway, Cannes was interesting.
I have a very weird relationship with it because while I love hearing great people talk … looking at some incredible work and seeing old friends, I do hate a lot of ‘the scene’.
The indulgence.
The egotism.
The excess.
That said, so much of that is now coming from people and companies who work in consultancies, tech, research or big multinationals – rather than ad agencies or companies who practice creativity in the truest sense of the word. Part of that is because they’re the only ones who can afford it … but it also reveals a chink in their ‘armor of confidence’. Evidence that for all their smarts, they’re desperate to feel admired, liked, wanted … without ever realizing their American Psycho approach to life attracts derision more than attraction.
At least for me.
I often wonder if all industry conference get-togethers create this sort of energy.
Do dentists/analysts/publishers [delete as appropriate] start to convince themselves they’re the Masters-Of-The-Universe when all packed tightly into one room?
As I said, Cannes is brilliant for the talks, the creativity and the ability to reconnect with old friends.
It’s nice to see a celebration of what we do when so often it faces a barrage of abuse from people who wouldn’t know creativity if it smashed them in the face.
But the vulgar displays of excess are less attractive to me.
As are the giant ads from tech/consultancy companies which are trying to position themselves as creative but end up demonstrating they’re the total opposite.
At least that’s slightly amusing, especially because you know it took them 6 months of board approval/design to make it happen.
But I digress …
I’m back.
I had a good time.
I’m thankful to WARC and Paula for making it happen.
I’m very happy to have seen some old friends after years.
But – unfortunately for you – I’m ready to write more blog bollocks.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Community, Context, Creativity, Culture, Emotion, Empathy, Happiness, Harmony, Humanity, Inclusion, Japan, Love, Perspective, Resonance, Respect
Over the years, my wife has told me all she wants me to do is listen to her when she faces challenges, rather than try and fix them for her.
I suspect she is not the only woman who has had this conversation with a man.
And while she knows the reason we do it is out of love, she finds it annoying-as-fuck.
Fortunately we’ve been together so long that its finally got in my thick skull, hence I now listen rather than automatically run to ‘fix’ mode.
The point of this is that I think a lot of advertising needs to adopt this trait.
Too often we think we can solve everything.
Marketing.
Politics.
Poverty.
World hunger.
You name it, our ego believes it can solve it.
But there’s something quite magical in embracing problems rather than trying to solve – or go around them.
Sure, we’re paid to help clients move forward … but that doesn’t always have to be from tackling issues head-on … sometimes, it comes from realizing some problems don’t – or can’t – be solved.
Recently I read something that embodies this perfectly.
A ‘solution’ that doesn’t fix the issue, but deals with it with dignity and grace.
It’s not unique, I’ve seen things like this before and have written about some in the past … but where they tended to be addressing issues in a private environment – such as care homes and parks in the Netherlands – this is something where the public are actively encouraged to be part of the solution.
Except it’s more than that.
Because they benefit as well.
In connection. In understanding and – at a time where there seems to be less of it about – in humanity.
It’s not just magical and beautiful, it’s important. For everyone.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Chaos, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture, Emotion, Entertainment, Fear, Individuality, Music
We’ve all been there.
At school, work or home … where you realise what you have done is not what you thought you had been asked to do.
And when that happens, your mind switches off from everything around you to intensely focus on all the possible scenarios of what is going to happen next.
The shouting.
The insulting.
The feelings of stupidity.
The need to find time to fix something you haven’t allocated any additional time to fix.
Basically, it becomes a catastrophization-fest.
Now of course, more often than not, the disaster you imagine doesn’t eventuate.
That might be because you’re able to make your case for the work you did … or you’re able to adapt your work on the fly, to meet the expectations of the meeting you’re in or you just come clean and discover that – in most cases – people are reasonable and just ask you to sort it out as soon as you can.
But even though most of us will have gone through this situation countless times, the feeling of trepidation when you sense you may have messed up, never goes away.
I say this because I recently saw a video that captures this experience at a magnitude that – fortunately – few, if any, of us, will ever experience.
Pianist Maria João Pires stepped in as a last-minute substitute for the conductor, Stephen Hough.
Because of the timing of the concert, there was no rehearsal time, but having talked to the conductor over the phone, she felt confident as the piece – Mozart’s Concerto in A major [K.488] was something she had performed at a concert previously.
Except she hadn’t.
Because as the orchestra struck up the introduction to the piece – in front of a paying audience at a full concert hall – Maria discovered the piece she was expected to play was in D minor [K.466] … not only a fundamental difference to what she knew but also how to play.
The video just shows the utter panic she experiences, amplified by the fact there was a room full of people all staring at her, waiting for the moment where she begins.
And you know what, she pulls it off.
Because after the feelings of trauma, drama and death that no doubt went through her entire being, she realized she had nothing she could do except trust her talent.
Which she did.
Flawlessly.
Even though the appreciative audience will never realise just what she did for them.
Which is my way of saying as bad as things can sometimes feel – as long as you’re not in your situation because of laziness – there’s 4 things to remember:
1. Believe in your talent.
2. Remember you’re not in as bad a situation as Maria.
3. Whatever situation you’re in, it’s not the end of the World … it just temporarily feels that way.
4. The most powerful moments of creativity are often born out of adversity.
Check it out below …
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Australia, Community, Corporate Evil, Creativity, Culture, Delusion, Education, Egovertising, Food For Thought, Imposter Syndrome, Individuality, Influencers, Management, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Mediocrity, Planners, Planners Making A Complete Tit Of Themselves And Bless, Planning, Professionalism, Reputation, Strategy, Sydney, Yahoo
A few weeks ago, I went to Sydney where I had the very real honour of spending a few days mentoring a bunch of talented people who were all relatively new to the industry.
One of the things that I heard from quite a few of them was the pressure they felt to build their reputation as a ‘thought leader’ on platforms like LinkedIn.
After telling them that a good 90% of what you read on there is nothing more than ego landfill [of which I am perfectly placed to make that statement given I’ve been spouting rubbish on the internet for over 20 years] … the reality is the best reputations are built on what you do, not what you say.
But I get it.
When you’re starting out, you’re desperate for professional acceptance and/or validation so you can find yourself blindly following whatever or whoever is currently popular amongst your peers – even more so if you’re based outside of the big cities where so much of the industry focus is concentrated.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying there is anything wrong with expressing your thoughts and ideas.
Frankly, it can be a brilliant way to learn, evolve and grow.
Hell, one of the best things about doing this blog for so long is seeing how some of my opinions have changed or been honed through the feedback/commentary/abuse I’ve received from so many people on here.
Of course, it helps that most were/are very smart and talented, but I fully acknowledge their input to my output has had a huge impact on what I do and how I think. But – and it’s a very big but – you only get real value out of expressing your thoughts and ideas if you’re doing it because [1] you want to – rather than feel you have to – and [2] you never adopt a tone of self-righteous, condescending, smugness.
If you do that, you may as well have a blinking neon sign over your head that screams, ‘Delusional, egotistical, blinkered dickhead’.
[I say ‘dickhead’ because, sadly, 95% of these sorts of people are men. White men.]
And yet, despite this, there’s still a hell-of-a-lot of people out there who adopt a tone that suggests they believe everything they do – and I mean EVERYTHING – is ‘unquestionably and undeniably right’ and anyone who dares to have a counter point of view, regardless of their experience, success or knowledge of their industries history, is automatically wrong.
A certain academic is a poster child for this sort of behaviour.
With these people, I always remember something my old man used to say, which was: “if someone needs to let others know how smart they are, they’re not that smart” – or said another way – if you meet someone who wants to be seen as a thought leader, they’re probably not and they probably won’t be.
Which is why the best advice I can give is to say ‘be you and no one else’.
I get the desire to feel like you belong.
I appreciate popularity has seemingly become more important than experience these days.
But if you ever feel pressured into writing on Linkedin because that’s what ‘thought leaders do’, remember this quote from Dennis Thatcher and save your energy for when you do have something to say or explore.
“It’s better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt”.