What is your business’ mermaids tail?

Posted on March 3, 2009 by Charlotte

I read a great article in the Herald this weekend, about a double amputee who can swim like a mermaid.

$Double amputee swims with mermaid\'s tail$ Though Nadya Vessey lost both legs as a result of a childhood illness, she remained a keen swimmer. Until now, she has done this by removing her prosthetic limbs and kicking without the benefit of calf strength. And she’s been good too.

Once at the beach, a young boy watching her ready for a swim, bombarded her with questions. Rather than confuse him with gritty medical details, she instead told him she was a mermaid. And so a dream was born.

Fast forward to 2007, and Nadya decides to make use of a charitable grant to commission a mermaid’s tail. She engages Weta Workshop New Zealand; the team responsible for the stunning costume effects in Peter Jackson’s epic, The Lord of the Rings; to design and build it for her.

While the tail was being made, stories circulated the globe’s news and media outlets. The tail was finally finished on Monday and its launch created another flurry of reporting.

In each story, Weta Workshop, who have donated all their time, creative vision and production skills to making this dream come true, have got a guernsey. Materials to the value of $2500 were paid by Nadya’s grant but given that the costume comes with such perfectionist details as hand-painted fish scales, one could imagine there were quite a few folk out of pocket on this project.

Regardless of the cost, Weta Workshop director, Richard Taylor, was delighted to make it happen. Weta costumer Lee Williams, who worked on the suit between film projects with seven other staff, said the aim was to make Nadya, ” beautiful and sexy”.

When they watched her test the tail in Auckland harbour, all were thrilled with the effect. And after two years of constant press exposure, I’m sure the effect on their business has been equally rewarding.

Generating free publicity is the dream of most, yet incredibly difficult to cultivate. Outrageous stunts and high budget antics are often entirely ignored by journalists tired of being told what to report by heavy-handed industry giants.

As no corporation wants to be associated with typical news fodder – blood, guts, gore and pain – the job becomes harder again. Unless there’s outrageous success or honest and heartfelt emotion, no story is newsworthy.

Without even trying, this one had them all.

What could your business align itself with, donate time to, or create, which would deliver on dreams and build notoriety, by simply doing what you love and are good at?

Put those Thinking Hats on. It is the subject of our next Thinking Club and I look forward to your suggestions.

Let’s get this conversation started,
Charlotte

Photo by Steve Unwin, The Dominion Post
Quotes as reported by Matt Calman, The Dominion Post

How breaking your pattern delivers big break-throughs in business

Posted on September 25, 2008 by Charlotte

If I said, ‘Jump’ would you ask ‘How high?’

Now I don’t expect you to jump on my say-so. But I wager that as soon as you read ‘Jump’ your automatic verbal quip was the above. Why? Because it’s a pattern we’re familar with. And we like familiar. It breeds comfort and the feeling of safety.

When we’re feeling assured we feel pretty good. Top of our game. Loved, liked, popular… Successful.
Why wouldn’t we like it?

The problem with familiarity is…

The same problem we have with a lot of things we like. They can become a bit of a crutch. When comfort and familiarity get us to that point we’re in danger of losing our success and finding ourselves stuck in a rut.

The scary thing is that sometimes – no make that most times – we don’t even know it.

Until you reach that tipping point, familiarity and comfort (generally created by routines) is effective and helpful. None of us could drive well unless on automatic pilot. When those first embarrassing months of kangaroo hopping at every traffic light turn into smooth take-offs we breathe a sigh of relief. As does everyone in the car with us. Crossing that line comes through automation of a skillset.

Automatic pilots have their place.

Automation is bred by building familiarity to the point of mindless routine. Getting dressed, managing our appetite, knowing social customs, typing with speed. These all improve in automation. In fact those who can’t master automation of basic tasks get labelled ADD, ADHD, dyslexic. Troubled.

So yes, a strong degree of routine and automation is healthy. Routines also ensure we achieve efficiencies. We reply to emails within an appropriate time-frame. We keep healthy through regular exercise. We sustain friendships by carving time for catch-ups. Without routine, things would hardly get done.

But we’ve all laughed at the TV caricatures whose nind-numbingly boring, routine-laden approach to life becomes sit-com fodder. Maxwell Smart unknowingly relied on Agent 99 to pull him through every time.

Why did he fail where she succeeded?

In the recent remake, it was due to her excellent fashion. But mostly its because she thought outside the square. Maxwell would plod through the motions while Agent 99 applied creative thinking. A deliberate attempt to stop thinking in patterns. But it’s not just TV…

History proves that breaking convention delivers big break-throughs.

Einstein formed his Theory of Relativity by observing eternal substances (speed, mass, energy) in new ways.

Since being used for marketing, the Internet has transformed. Once a basic network model its now a break-through social media communication channel hardly dreamed possible pre-1980.

Today’s economic melt-down has business running scared. But it will also drive entrepreneurs to seize the opportunity. Those who think in new ways will get rich on dreams that harness thrift, sustainablity and personal drive.

As uncomfortable as it may be, I say, embrace forcible ejection from your comfort zone. Only once we step outside our everyday parameters we can imagine what else might be possible. Every new invention is the lightbulb realisation of an alternate reality.

Next time someone challenges you to re-imagine your business, your approach, your life… give it a go. Our Thinking Club sessions practice techniques to force thinking outside your norm. They’re nowhere near as painful or scary as a debt-laden spreadsheet. But flexing your ‘think differently’ muscle when times are good will help prepare for those moments when you don’t have a choice.

At the best, you might crack the next big thing. At worst, you’ll have an hour’s holiday from your daily bubble. Go on. I dare you.

My recent, favourite creative thinking tool is Michael Michalko’s SCAMPER.

Manipulation is the brother of creativity. When your imagination is as blank as a waiter’s stare, take an existing item and manipulate it into a new idea. Remember that everything new is just an addition or modification to something that already existed.

What techniques do you use?

Let’s get this conversation started,
Charlotte

Beware blogging, the insidious teme

Posted on September 11, 2008 by Charlotte

Today’s Thinking Club took a more philosophical stance, inspired by a TED Talk on ‘Genes, Memes and Temes’ by Susan Blackmore. We used her hypothesis as our jump-point: Technology is replicating itself and angling for world dominance.

Our attention focused on the blogosphere. In the course of today’s casual conversation we traversed the subject of technology-driven communication platforms.

Why do we blog?
I regularly trawl fellow bloggers for ideas. I also read books, magazines, chat to strangers, listen to the radio, watch TV. In fact I am an absolute information junkie. Except for the odd exceptional novel and outstanding post, its all grazing. But generally with a purpose. I choose a topic and read briefly but widely about it.

1. To explore themes

It’s the same when I blog. Before I ever put finger to keyboard, I thought for many years about what I would blog about. What I would write about, what focus I could bring, what conversations I could start. For myself and for my readers I needed a theme and a direction. So I blog to provoke thoughts about idea generation the written word: how they affect and drive both marketing communications and social development.

2. To share

Dan on the other hand casts a much wider net. His Shoebox Creative blog, is subtitled: Daily observations from dan day, a designer*. Whatever is running around Dan’s head is what he writes about. His subject matter varies from a scientific view of stress, to inspired design works, to a running commentary on our weekly hacky-sack sessions.

3. To connect

While it seems that we come from contradictory start points, the underlying reason we all blog is ultimately the same: we need to connect; feel heard and understood.

So whether its using Facebook, SMS, email, Twitter, IM, even good old phones, letters, or – God forbid – an old fashioned face-to-face catchup, ultimately we communicate to connect. To feel good. To feel wanted. To feel needed. To be heard.

This is what traditional theories of communication and sociology espouse anyway. Susan Blackmore disagrees.

Her explanations of memetics proposes a third tier of replication: technology multiplication. The first tier of this paradigm is based on gene theory, as introduced by Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.

Evolution notes that genes replicate. However subsequent generations develop differences. Their evolution is driven by survival of the fittest.

Memes are the second tier of evolutionary development. While genes have a mandate to replicate and evolve, so too does society. Memes are the self-generating, evolutionary momentum of ideas. Evolving thoughts which drive the changing face of humanity.

Susan Blackmore now proposes that technology itself has become a third and independently motivated evolutionary force. It is driving exponential change in the way we interact and communicate.

Through this lens could we suppose that technology-based communication platforms are not being driven by human desires at all? That in fact they are propelled by technology itself?

In our arrogance we assume to be forcing the change in telecommunications. Our desire for faster, more instant, more on-call, ever-present communication is attributed to the constant improvements seen in devices.

Once we used to write letters. Then we emailed. Now we instant message. Back then we had ‘Schoolfriends Reunited’, then it was ‘My Space’ now it is Facebook (Mach 1). What will that evolve to? Surely the next step of one’s profile picture – now a photo self-portrait – will be a moving (video) image?

Will we really ’choose’ to put ourselves up for constant video surveillance? Probably. Though looked at this way, it seems like much more of a Big Brother exercise. At least, that is what the old conspiracy theories would have proposed.

Under Susan Blackmore’s tutelage though, our ‘choice’ to be ever-connected seems far more insidious. It is not us, nor even our governments (in the name of safety and security) but an inhuman, piece of machinery that is plotting our future.

Where will end up next? Dan’s final thought was that humans and technology will merge. In generations to come, the earth will be populated by futuristic Taureans: half man, half robot creatures.

You might think that sounds far-fetched. But think about this… Even before flesh and metal merge in the physical realm, our habits and practice are already being technologified. Where once we would pick up the phone to talk, today we send an SMS. Instead of meeting in the boardroom, we video conference. We watch separate TV shows in separate rooms at the time of our choosing. And rarely talk them over. What happened to the community aspect of ‘watching a show’?

Less human connection. More simple transmission. Will our grandchildren even know how to reach out and touch?

Perhaps we should instead ask our computers… Why do we blog?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this rather sci-fi Thinking Club exploration. Please post your comment.
Let’s get this conversation started,

Charlotte

Welcome to the Thinking Club

Posted on August 27, 2008 by Charlotte

A few weeks ago Creative Suite spawned, The Thinking Club. Along with my tendency to drift towards anything word related, I also seek and create opportunities for creative brain stretching, so its no surprise really, to find me here. I must say, its lovely.

Although we strive towards a lateral pathway, most client briefs tend to be bound by idea-restricting boundaries like budgets and brand guidelines and all sorts of other sensible criteria. While Thinking Club happily uses client conundrums to flex our grey matter, we also use these sessions to stretch the limits. Interestingly, its often those limits that push us beyond the ordinary. Working collaberatively naturally generates more pathways and already after three sessions we have unearthed some inspiring ideas.

This week, we welcomed a lovely guest, Sally from the Sydney Community Fund (SCF). For those who – like most Australians – don’t know what a Community Fund is, they are a centralised charity group that can help inidividuals and companies choose and give to charities in their own backyard.

Our SCF Thinking Club aimed high. In one short hour we strived to create the beginnings of a Brand Position. A big job indeed which of course we didn’t complete, but it did give us fodder for some interesting and fun brand-exploration.

Through asking a series of questions outside the norm, we realised that a Community Fund’s two key advantages were a) convenience and ease b) locally focused aid. Very often we are asked to donate to international causes but many Sydney-siders (individuals and companies alike) who generate their profit from the domestic arena feel that their donations should give back to their immediate locale.

More interesting was looking creatively at what defined a ‘competitor.’ Beyond the obvious other charities, we realised that everyday life: the current financial credit crunch and the pursuit of self-satisfaction, were also fighting for our charity dollar.

Typically charities don’t bother to try and convert the selfish. It takes too much effort. But because SFC provides such a focused philanthropy we spoke briefly about ways we could ‘spin’ the message to convert even the most hardened giver.

As their donations would impact positively in solving homelessness, drugs, displacement and theft it was easy to show how small donations may help protect one’s own backyard, friends and family. Even the most selfish would still have a strong incentive to give through SCF.

Towards the end of our session we employed the technique of metaphor assignment to create a rounded picture of a brand. Because we had yet to fully understand SCF, for the first time we tried a really fun application. We used ourselves as subjects. It was a great ‘getting to know you’ exercise and showed Sally, who we’d just met, a method to take home and use to define SCF with her colleagues.

As usual the only trouble with Thinking Club is that we ran out of time. It’s been great to meet new people and think about old stories in new ways. If you have an issue that needs some creative thinking, drop us a line. We’d be happy to help.

Let’s get this conversation started,
Charlotte

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Category Archives: Thinking Club

What is your business’ mermaids tail?

How breaking your pattern delivers big break-throughs in business

Welcome to the Thinking Club