afordrunning

Want to be around in the next few years? Get small. Not “Steve Martin small” but smaller than you are right now. I’m working on large thinking and smaller scale – can I do what I want to do with the current set of circumstances and limited to no funds? Do we need 6 people in this meeting when only two of them will actually do the work?

Not only does it make sense from an economic standpoint, but it also stands to reason that you’ll have less grumbling and complaining if your back is against the grindstone.

if the marketplace had street signs, 2009 would be marked with yield, one way, and caution signage. i look forward to the day when our signs change to “men at work”, “exit”, and “no u-turn”.

The best advise I could offer to any employee of any company is remain outside the bounds of power and therefor similar thinking. The minute you become an employee of recognition, and remain loyal to the cause, and not your own self-direction – is the minute you stop being valuable to the company. 

Stay outside and committed to making wherever you toil better – you’ll be more satisfied and the company will benefit from your outside perspective – or they will find a way to run you off!

Needless to say it will most likely make your life hellish inside the confines of your current employ – but there is a price to pay for difference. The price is not as great as a life spent without measure or completion…so march hard to the beat of your own passion, not to someone else’s desires and whims. 

To tell the truth, I struggle with this often.

My career has been in some transition as of late, with promises of new ventures, hope for tomorrow and still the problems of today. But, at the end I am mostly in good form due to the fact that I refuse to supercharge negative issues. 

Of course, I give them credence, pay attention to the facts surrounding them, and then tell them to shut it.

Not slamming solving problems, but this is not a time in my life that I can fall prey to the negative elements as they present themselves and allow them to hold my attention any longer than absolutely necessary. I know it’s easier to dismiss negative people than recognize the core of their problems (or your own), and actually attempt to fix them – but supercharging by permitting more credence than they should be warranted is also unadvisable.

Watch too much 24-hour news, read too many Op-Ed pieces, and spend too much time bumping gums with nay-sayers and you run the risk of entering the Negative Supercharge zone we can all fall victim too. 

Heed and move, heed and move.

Felt odd cycling to work this morning. All at once I had the desire to have great conflict and turmoil with people AND YET, I wanted to just comfort and love them. I told Supreme Creative Director Dan Stewart how I felt very early this AM, and he had a great suggestion. 

“Do ‘em both. Start the morning with a good fight and end your day with a group hug.” 

Great advice Dan – haven’t had a fight yet – but look forward to hugging it out this afternoon.

Do you go to a lot of conferences? Industry standards where people who have seen each other for the last several years mingle, drink, talk about their respective organizations and the people they have in common – you know a live version of Linkedin.com. 

Well, I have been to like 6 conferences this year and can tell you that they have all been different than they were last year. Other than the typical comments like; “Seems smaller than last year”, “Less participants”, “Projections are off”, and “What time is the midget rodeo?” the other comments I have heard have been, “I am connecting with people in a much more meaningful way.” Deeper conversations, more opportunities for solutions and a clear understanding that nobody is at these things is there for a massive boondoggle.

Advice to conference participants and coordinators – make the most of your time and the opportunity people are paying you for.

“The longer you do something the more literal you should be when talking about it.”

I do try to state simply whatever I am talking about but, I’ve been in this position for around 5 years, and there has to have been some message creep. Now in order to determine if I am actually stating my thoughts/opinions simply I am asking myself the same question over and over. 

“What’s in it for you?” If I can tell you what you get out of what I’m presenting right off the bat, then you MAY have more interest and we can get a little deeper.

“We’re trying to get it done, rather than get it right.”

The problem with our economic/business structures today is that organizations seem to be dropping employees left and right, yet keeping the same amount of expectations regarding output for work. Everyone in any management position understands that DEMAND for resources, not just money is tight! The fact that employees are most likely maxed-out is not surprising.

We have to take into consideration that if we continue to push our people without understanding what the outcome could/should be – then we are potentially just checking things off our to-do-list and not actually doing things RIGHT. If whatever you are doing is worth the activity- then why not take the time, and the effort to fight for it to be done right? Otherwise we are performing the same tasks as an Excel spreadsheet. FIGHT for the RIGHT thing to do.

Don't Avoid the Elephant in the Room

If you have ever had a problem inside any organization you were affiliated with I bet at some point you knew exactly what they were and couldn’t or didn’t deal with them. Let me guess, the situation was difficult? The storyline complex, the people in charge mentally unstable? It was a Mexican Soap Opera?

No matter…it’s the same for me, you, and everyone. We often avoid our problems and quickly move past them, instead we should run straight at them. Not in a self-flagellation beat down way, but with solution-oriented cause and effect discipline. 

Require ourselves to: Repair/Replace/Refund/or Rebuild. More on this later…

“What happens to an organization when no one wants to be in charge? Maybe they don’t want the job the way it’s done today.”

Recently talking with a buddy and he said that nobody wanted to be in charge of his organization. It got me thinking, what motivates the up-and-coming employees to run the place one day? How can you keep employees when they don’t want the eventual task of being in charge? When money is the only compelling scenario doesn’t the job just become a paycheck and nothing more. Where is the Passion? The Struggle? The Desire? 

Just when I was about to go on a rant about the “younger employee of today” and all the problems they have not engaging with management and so forth and so on – it dawned on me…maybe they don’t want the job the way it’s done today! Then it’s OUR fault – the establishment, making it look like it sucks to be in charge. It doesn’t suck to be in charge…right?

As the Chief Insights Officer of an advertising company I often get asked the question…”What’s next?”

I don’t get asked from a mountaintop perspective, “Oh wise one with massive title and funny facial hair, what is the future?”, rather from a what could we use as fodder for our next campaign/product ideation/strategy session/etc. Often I/we (there is a WHOLE TEAM working the Insight Sphere over here) need more time to narrow the parameters, but one thing is for sure. Whatever it is…it won’t be finished. The notion will need a layer of professional perspective that most naturally comes from a insider who understands how to make traction for their or a client’s business. 

The jump off, the launch pad, the aha moment is the INSIGHT. The real work begins after we find a moment of inspiration in a sea of sameness. chaos, or parity. The core truth is often one of only a couple of basic human emotions or behaviors. The nuance and application takes on multiple messages/forms/opportunities that should truly drive differentiation in business, or the marketplace. In my opinion an Insight has no ego.

It is a piece of information, a truth that is extendable to others through simile, understanding, or a shared narrative. And yes, it took a powerful observation to uncover the good ones…someone always looking for what’s missing…but without the “killer app” it could always remain…what’s missing. So, take the insights you glean from whatever or wherever and apply the magic that allows the metamorphosis to begin. 

Also…I really appreciate that the best ideas come from a connected group of people. We hit one yesterday that flipped my wig and I can’t even remember who said it, which part came from who, and that is the best part. A good insight has no memory to maintain, no ego to boost, no nerves to calm.

“Their pledge is to the status quo, and today there is no status quo.”

“Status Quo” is sometimes rattled off like a it’s bad thing, like it is completely uncool. You know it’s true because “Punk” fought against the status quo, cheesy sitcoms always return to the status quo, and everything stale/crusty/tired is status quo. New is hip/slick/wired/dangerous therefor must be so much better than the expected and familiar status quo.

What we are experiencing today is the movement rapidly away from the Status Quo, into an area I am referring to as the Status Cede. The constant source of change has moved our collective psyche from “Quo to Cede”

Aaaargh...

Just got off the phone with some great clients who were having a problem explaining what we do as a company to some of their co-workers. Great thinkers who work for a big company that drives a tremendous amount of revenue. After about an hour of conversation it came down to the fact that some of their clients, and co-workers are greatly pushed out of their comfort zones utilizing our service and products.

It dawned on me that I must have a pirate in my comfort zone. Not saying that’s good or bad, but being comfortable being uncomfortable is something I can get behind. Business today is about navigating the thin line between acceptable and revolutionary. And yes, that is a patch-wearing balding man in the box.

This website is totally going to get me a job as a cartoonist!