DDB Influences
#NewWork — June Edition.
In our latest edition we listen to Adam Grant to find out what it takes to be a successful Non-Conformist in the #NewWork era. Enjoy the read and discover the 7 attributes of Originals.
“ORIGINALS — HOW NON-CONFORMISTS MOVE THE WORLD”
Writer: Nina Rieke
„Success is not about competition, it’s about contribution.”
A recent trip to interactive SXSW conference had me attend a speech by author and organisational psychologist Adam Grant. As all ad people strive for originality and non-conformity this was an obvious choice. He gave great insight into his book by the same title — which to me does not even seem like non-conformist behaviour, but recent management think. And so valuable that it is worth sharing on our blog.
Let’s have a look:
What’s the influence?
Grant gives some precise advice on how to make non-conformism increase performance and drive creativity. Within the wide spread discussion on the topic of #newwork his input is a good reminder how we still often think and work. How much we fall into traps that keep us from being more creative and productive by setting new rules for ourselves, not confusing non-conformism with ridiculous risk taking, but a thought through approach.
1. ORIGINALS ARE NOT RISK SEEKERS
“You don’t have to be a college drop out to have brilliant ideas”, it is more about the risk takers vs. other people.
Interesting fact: founders that do not quit their day jobs are 33% less likely to fail. Actually, nobody likes risk very much.
2. ORIGINALS AVOID FALSE NEGATIVES
How to champion an original idea?
Its important to pick your advisors and supporters wisely when judging and evolving ideas. They fall into three groups — and only one of them is truly helpful:
A) CREATORS — e.g. yourself — falling in love with your own idea, and actually too close to have fairly objective judgement.
B) GATEKEEPERS, MANAGERS — too negative, because often driven by the notion to know what is successful based on patterns. But if you look at the “History of Seinfeld” — they for example broke all the rules of comedy.
C) PEERS — they are best to judge ideas…because they are close enough, but not too close. They will potentially ask differently — and rather indicate reasons to say “YES, MAYBE!”
3. ORIGINALS MAKE THE UNFAMILIAR FAMILIAR.
Grant takes us through an interesting group exercise, letting us all clap a song and have the person next to us guess it. The outcome: only “We will rock you” actually works somewhat — most stuff can never be guessed.
The reason: we are overconfident — because we hear the song we clap in our head. And clap it to a person that is nnot hearing it in their head. The same happens with your idea. You wrote the song — and see it in your head.
So there is a strong need to help anyone understand the idea, have a frame to see it. Therefore we need to be creating a feeling of familiarity. A good example was the pitch for the original movie “Lion King”. The story was not clear at first and the advice was to turn it into Hamlet as a basic archetypical story to create familiarity. The later pitch line was: “Bambi in Africa with lions”. Something anyone can immediately relate to. And to find ways to adjust a plot and characters. Another example is Warby Parker: ”Do for glasses what Zappos did for shoes” is a bit bland. Somewhat better: “the Netflix for eyewear.” which takes it a bit out of the retail zone — but adds familiarity.
4. ORIGINALS ADMIT THEIR WEAKNESSES.
Why does it make sense to pitch an idea you believe in and already add: “The 3 reasons why you should not invest in Babble” — or “The 5 reasons you should not buy…”?
Because it adds an element of surprise — and builds on what we know from the happiness theory. When you let people cite either “3 good things about your life?” or “37 good things in your life” — we find, that the longer list does not reflect the happier people. Why? Because 3 things is easy to do, so my life must be great. But 37 things get much harder and you tend to re-question your life. Something that also works the other way around as an experiment showed: People that where asked to name 2 bad things vs. 5 bad things on Tony Blair had the result that the “5” list liked him more — finding: he seems not that bad after all, because it was harder to find more negatives.
What also makes it relevant to be open about the downsides of an idea. Pointing out the flaws will hit on the concerns that are quite probably on the list of your investors or other audiences …thus making it harder for further questioning. And: people tend to feel great by saying “I can fix so many of the counter arguments.”
To be original, present a great idea and its strengths plus the possible limitations. And remember: this is also true for being hired – its 30% more likely if you admit your own weaknesses.
5. ORIGINALS HIRE DIFFERENTLY
What works for idea generation works for hires as well. That is why originals hire on the following traits:
- skills for today, and tomorrow
- culture values
- diversity of thought
Grant points out most important is not the question if “you want to have beer together”, but rather how companies such as design firm IDEO goes about diversity in perspectives to solve problems. Their company is not “all designers”. They rather ask who else is good at specific tasks. E.g. Anthropologists. Or who else has Storytelling skills — e.g. Journalists.
Next to diverse alternative perspectives is great cultural fit and the cultural contribution you can expect from people. So ask yourself: Are they more of a giver or a taker? And use helpful projection questions: “How many people steel from an office in $10 value/ month?”. The higher the number anyone answers, the more probable it is they do that as well!
6. ORIGINALS FIGHT GROUP THINK.
Do not give too much direction on what you expect (“DON’T BRING ME…., BRING ME……….”). Rather start out: “I got a problem here, a few initial ideas … “ and ask for contributions. Collect problems, review and rank. Look at it from a different perspective: How can we enhance the success of the organization?
7. ORIGINALS KILL THE COMPANY.
A potential group exercise is to change perspective and look for your own weaknesses and strengths: “We are the fierce competition and want to KILL us — HOW?”. Everyone can speak up. Everyone is creative, and on offense then defense. This is much about resilience — and how to deal with fear and failure.
Conclusio:
In the end it is much about knowing yourself. What is your original personality: either an optimist or a defensive pessimist? It is important to know your style. Some people need panic that motivates them to prepare and rehearse to be successful, others need only the feeling they will do great.
By:
Nina Rieke // Chief Strategy Officer // DDB Germany
