Punk Rock & the Values I learned as a Juvenile Delinquent

Over the past nine years we’ve learned that design thinking works really well….but mostly inside organizations where there is a willingness to try new things, an open-mindedness that allows for new ideas, and a physical space where people are encouraged to experiment and have permission to fail (i.e., learn). Innovation and the kinds of behaviors that support change seem to only thrive in a culture where these types of attitudes are not only prevalent but are also modeled by leadership. We all want to know that we have permission, but we also look to our leaders to see how it’s done.

At Stoked we spend the majority of our time teaching methodology, and the method is essential. But where we spend all of our subsequent time with organizations is thinking about and experimenting with how to shift the culture in such a way as to allow for creative workflow and experimentation. This can be tricky in operationally heavy cultures where the bottom line is the only metric for success.

Here’s where it tends to get murky: lots of people are scared.

Scared of getting in trouble for trying something new/different. Scared of attracting attention. Scared of showing unfinished work. Scared of standing out.
At a young age, I fell in love with skateboarding and punk rock music. It was the group and the movement that I felt accepted and understood me. It didn’t feel judgmental like other cliques in middle school did, and it caught my attention in a way nothing else did. For the first several years of being introduced to new music, I was in awe of that sound and that message. I can’t think of anything else that spoke to me so clearly and made me feel so alive.

Many of my ethics I picked up from bands like Minor Threat, Bad Brains, 7-seconds, etc. This music, this movement, talked about standing up for what they believed in. About not backing down to authority just because they said they had power. Granted, this got me into quite a bit of trouble as a teenager and even into my 20’s. However, as I matured, I started to find that these ethics could be properly applied to my work and my life in a way that doesn’t step on the toes of others and allows me to do what I think is right in spite of perceived obstacles. And there were lots of perceived barriers!

In my early thirties, I knew that I was in the wrong job. The wrong role. But I made decent money, and I wasn’t aware that I had any other skill set, so I stayed in that job for many years past my expiration date. At some point, I had to grow tired of defending a paycheck and just quit my job. I had to grow tired of the “American dream” enough to realize I had been looking for something that didn’t exist.

So I quit that old job and started working in the world of design, which to me felt just like the early days of discovering new punk music. It was exciting and came from the heart and reeked of freedom and passion. For me, design is punk rock for the business world. It reminds you of what’s important. Design pulls you back into your core purpose and gives you passionate solutions to solve problems in your world. That’s so punk.
I no longer needed permission to try something new and brave. If my motivation was good and true, I felt that I could experiment with space or behavior or show some raw and unfinished work.

What I’m trying to say with all these fucking words is that I learned how to take chances and not always be scared of doing something new and radical as long as my values were in line. So, go listen to some Fugazi or Buzzcocks records or any record that embodies the mindsets and values you find define you in some way, and really embrace that you don’t have to ask for permission. Just be willing to ask for forgiveness.