Last week I asked why we are uncomfortable “learning”. That is, why are we uncomfortable appearing before our clients with propositions that are new and untried and inviting them to join us on the journey of discovery? This week I’d like to continue that thought and see what you think…
Here is the rap – learning is a journey that by definition leads to ideas. Think about it. The great philosophers, authors, inventors, scientists, explorers, and artists all were learners, grail seekers, uncomfortable with the status quo and ready to journey into the unknown in search of new ideas, new thinking, and new ways to look at the world.
Now think about this – while they weren’t afraid to go out on that proverbial limb, others were afraid of what they found or even might find out there.
The pursuit of learning often seems to invoke fear. Is it dread of the unknown? Is it panic at finding out that your hard and fast learned beliefs no longer hold water? Is it alarm at what happens if you have to change your mind?
How about this – maybe its just dread of a new idea? And for good reason:
“An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.”
- Oscar Wilde
What a great thought and what a great filter! Oscar also said that “All great ideas are dangerous” – and what a revelation that is.
So when next you feel that cold feeling of fear creeping over you as you brainstorm or think about a new idea, embrace it! Think dangerously!
I have thought about this issue for some time now. It’s my feeling that the nature of the agency, and in particular the direct marketing agency, contributes in large part to people’s fear of creativity, individuality, risk-taking. In my view, the agency (any agency, or most agencies) is extremely conservative as a place of business, because success is attained through systemization and process. You need to execute, get the work out the door, quickly. The only way to do that is to have very set processes, rules to follow, clear delineation of roles and responsibilities. And that means very specific, fairly rigid career paths (you are Creative, Account, Strategy – and so you will remain). That is how agencies survive – by getting it all down to a science, this art of marketing. But the more formulaic your output, the more narrow your professional growth choices, the harder it is to think outside of the agency box. I sense this is more pronounced in direct marketing, where formulas play an even more critical role in decision-making, planning, projecting ROI. It is a Catch 22. Chaos is unacceptable, but so is an excess of order. Order left unchecked can take over as the mental default, the cognitive override that stops ideas from getting from their nascent state to a PowerPoint chart and ultimately to a line item in your client’s marketing budget. Order becomes protection from danger – to your client’s sales, to your agency’s fees, to your career. So what is the answer? It seems to me that if agencies want their employees to seek out danger, then they must do what any company (even a services company with shrinking margins) needs to do to change employee behavior: encourage, enable and reward that change in behavior. In other words, take clear, concrete, specific steps to loosen the perceived reigns on risk-taking. Agencies just might begin to loosen the grip of ingrained ORGANIZATIONAL behavior as well – the largely unchallenged behavior that places structure, form and order above all else.
Deb makes a very valid point. It is possible that it is less about the fear of change more about the fear of disappointment in performance. It is about the nature of business. We are often asked to perform quickly and to base ideas, strategies, campaigns and tactics on previous success so that our supervisors and clients are comfortable with the risk and so that we can manage expectations. Most agencies are full of smart, forward thinking people that would cherish the opportunity to try something new but do not have the time to prove to their clients that it is worth the risk. While it is admirable that we work to be stewards for our clients’ success it does at times follow a pattern in which new ideas are not allowed to be tested.
However, this will have to change as the tried and true of yesterday may no longer work tomorrow. Many agencies are seeing that we no longer have a choice but to try new ideas as consumers begin to shift their communication behaviors. We will not be able to ignore the reality of media fragmentation. To reach consumers we will need to be innovative and leverage new technology to break through and engage consumers. Our clients will hold us accountable for being able to change as their consumers change or they will find agencies that can.
For those individuals and agencies who already understand this it promises to be a very exciting adventure.
“To improve is to change, to be perfect is to change often.” – Winston Churchill
I disagree that a great idea has to be a dangerous one. An idea is an idea, whether it is safe, dangerous, weird, interesting…etc. I do agree that ‘fear’ does hold a lot of people back and I think the reason varies with the individual – from fear of the unknown to fear of being judged to fear of fear… HOPE is the feeling that conquers all fears and that pushes people along their journey of discovery. This is why it is important that an organisation always dangles the ‘carrot’ to motivate their staff along their various career paths. It is also true that there is no point in sitting back and waiting for life/management/people to come to you – “don’t wait for the ship to come in – swim out to it”…