Power Up Your Planning Skills With Arts
We’ve been living a lie or at least a half truth.
Since the Enlightenment period the idea of reason as the uppermost answer to mankind troubles has been deeply embed in our consciousness. The concept of a world that can be broken into fundamental parts, analyzed and understood is very powerful. A clockwork universe where the harmony of its components works with perfection in reassuring predictably is a comforting one. This is the sole base for the work of a planner.
It’s true that guided by this belief science has given us a lot of things under the guise of progress. Newton presented us a set of brilliant laws that for a time explained perfectly how the universe worked. As masterfully put by Leonard Mlodinow in his book “The Upright Thinker” we think in Newtonian ways, as we say: the strength of someone character, the acceleration of disease dissemination, the impulse of a sport team, of physical and mental inertia, despite the fact that those principles have been somewhat debunked by Einstein physics.
The core of a planners work dayly job is based on the assumption of predictability and accountability. As thus, whenever the Planner set his mind on planning, he could foresee everything that is going to be, because he can comprehend most of the elements of the phenomenon, being able to predict how they will behave, in a way, he just have to pave the way for the most secure and profitable way.
Although a very beautiful concept, it is utterly a lie. If true, no soccer coach would ever have to watch his team playing. The reality of planning (and soccer) is more like trying the foresee possibilities and being able to adjust the plan in a very fast way as reality tear down our best laid strategies.
Despite the fact that we have at least a century of scientific studies that questions the idea of predictability and reason, most of the disciplines in any Marketing or Account Planning majors belong to an old branch of theories that are set on the premise that we can make predictions because we “understand” the universe.
No wonder why many entrepreneurship and startups authors utterly challenge planning capabilities like forecasting, precision and foreseeing. Sometimes they are even more radical and mock about it, like Jason Fried on his book “Rework” were there is a whole chapter reinforcing that planning is guessing and how bad we are in the art of making predictions. Eric Ries in his book “The Lean Startup” also question our skills to plan when it come to an extreme uncertain scenario and propose a new model to develop and manage our plans based on the premisse that we are bad and predictions.
So are we doomed to a lifetime of half good plans? Maybe, but let’s talk about alternatives.
Education for Aesthesia
To put things in very simple and dualistic terms, we have too ways of relating with reality. One is reasoning it, the other is feeling it. In a way, science try to explain things by thinking about then, on the opposite side, art capture things by the way they are perceived. So the question is: what’s the most accurate way of dealing with reality? There is no right answer.
At the educational field there is a lot of studies that emphasizes the importance of an artistic formation for students alongside with a more traditional and scientific one. We call it Education for Aesthesia (from the Greek Aisthés — to feel).
Howard Gardner Theory of Multiple Intelligences postulate that intelligence rather than being dominated by a single one ability is composed of at least eight different ones, being the logical — mathematical, just one of them. So where do we get the idea that the planner core skills must be logical?
As a matter of fact on our day to day work at Planners Group we’ve noticed that whenever we’re presented with an account plan we relate with it in too different ways. We always try to analyze it in the most logical way, searching for flaws on its construct and finding none We agree with the soundness of it. But sometimes, on a deeper level, something bothers us. We can’t quite put our fingers on what’s wrong. The Plan just doesn’t feel right. So to put ourselves at easy we keep revising it until we can find what is bothering us. Most of the times doing this results in the opportunity of making corrections of certain aspects of the plan that would result in very bad decisions.
None of my years as a student has taught me the skill of being able to “feel” the wrongness of a plan. But this skill has proven to be very useful in my career. With leads me to an important question as an account planner professor: is there a way to teach this skill for my students?
I think so. And I believe that art has an important role in it.
This kind of approach has been studied on many different fields of knowledge and produced quite an interesting literature like the journalist Malcon Gladewell’s “Blink”, or on another aproach whem Simon Sinek explain why his Golden Circle of Innovation works on his aclaimed TED Talk “How Great Leaders Inspire Action”.
Exercising Aesthesia
So, in highly competitive markets, the ability to “feel” a plan can be an asset? And if so, how can I learn it? Well the easiest way is to take our course of Planning and Aesthesia at the Planners Group — Join the waiting list. The hardest (albeit cheaper) is to gradually saturate yourself with art.
Here is a simple exercise. You probably have access to a large array of interactions with art in your city, such as museums, galleries, expositions. I propose that you begin this exercise with paintings. Book the next weekend and attend one exhibition.
Whenever we are not familiarized with the contact with arts, whenever you are exposed to it you might try to “rationalize” it in terms of: “I like/don’t like it” or “this is what the artist wanted to do”. Don’t do it, this is not what we are looking for. Forget reason; don’t think about the artist work. Instead focus on the felling. Let the artwork project itself over you. Observe how it makes you feel. Does it bring you any memories, sensations? Does it connect with you? Bring up any experience? Do you resonate with it? Can you comprehend how the artist perceives the world? With time and practice you will built up a sense of empathy.
Let me know what you think about my proposition. As a warm up exercise, try with the following works of the artist Roger Dean, since he has been very influencial in pop culture (Yes, Black Moth and other bands album covers, Eletronic Arts Games) it should be easier for you to make a rapport. Remember don’t think it, feel.
Believing that’s possible to Power Up Your Planning Skills With Arts, fernandodineli and I, created our businness, Planners Group, offering Relationship Marketing specialized services to Companies and Management and Training for Planner’s teams in Marketing Services Agencies.
If would like to know more, please contact: negocios@plannersgroup.com.br
